Annette O'Toole

Annette O'Toole (born Annette Toole; April 1, 1952) is an American actress. She is known for portraying Lisa Bridges in the television series Nash Bridges, adult Beverly Marsh in the 1990 television mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's epic horror novel It, Lana Lang in Superman III, Kathy in the romantic-comedy film Cross My Heart, Annie Hodges in The Man Next Door and Martha Kent (the adoptive mother of Clark Kent) on the television series Smallville.

Early life O'Toole was born in Houston, the daughter of Dorothy Geraldine (née Niland) and William West Toole Jr. Her mother taught dance, which O'Toole herself began learning at the age of three.

Her first major film role was as a jaded beauty pageant contestant in the 1975 satire Smile; she got the role after doing an impression of a "dead cockroach" at the audition. She co-starred opposite Gary Busey in the 1980 film Foolin' Around. In 1981, she starred in the HBO onstage production of Vanities, as well as in the TV movie Stand By Your Man, which detailed the life of country music legend Tammy Wynette.

In 1985, she co-starred with Barry Manilow in the CBS television movie Copacabana playing Lola La Mar to Manilow's Tony Starr. Also in 1985, she had a starring role as Ms. Edmunds in the original Bridge to Terabithia, and appeared in the TV adaptation of Strong Medicine the following year. In 1987's Cross My Heart, a romantic comedy, O'Toole had a leading role opposite Martin Short.

In 1990, O'Toole had roles in two ABC television mini-series. She played the adult Beverly Marsh in the television mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's epic horror novel It. She also portrayed Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy in The Kennedys of Massachusetts, a role that earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress. She next starred in the 1992 NBC mini-series Jewels, based on the Danielle Steel novel of the same name.

In 1993, O'Toole starred in Desperate Justice as Ellen Wells. In 1995, she starred as Cheryl Keeton in the 1995 Lifetime television film based on Ann Rule's true crime novel Dead by Sunset. She had a recurring role on the television show Nash Bridges (1996) and starred in her own series The Huntress (2000) as a female bounty hunter. In 1997 O'Toole starred in the TV movie Keeping the Promise.

In 2001, 18 years after portraying Lana Lang in Superman III, O'Toole returned to the Superman mythos in the role of Martha Kent, Superman's adoptive mother, in the television series Smallville. She remained part of the show's main cast, though at times in the background, until the end of its sixth season. She made guest appearances in the final two seasons, reprising her role, while also portraying The Red Queen.

In 2010, O'Toole played the role of Veronica, a middle-aged woman with a severe case of Alzheimer's, in the television series Lie to Me. In 2013, she appeared in Grey's Anatomy as a school teacher who finds out, after surgery, that she will die from cancer.

O'Toole portrayed Susan Emerson in six episodes of the first two seasons of Halt and Catch Fire. In 2016, O'Toole returned to the Stephen King realm as boarding house owner Edna Price in "The Kill Floor" episode of the King miniseries 11.22.63. She and former Smallville co-star John Glover reunited for the 2016 horror film We Go On.

In 2019, O'Toole filled the role of Hope McCrea in the Netflix series Virgin River. She still currently plays the role, with season six being released in December 2024.

Music O'Toole can date the beginning of her songwriting career to events during a car ride after the September 11 attacks; as her husband Michael McKean describes it, "On September 11, 2001, Annette found herself without an airline to carry her back down to Los Angeles from Vancouver, where she films Smallville. So she drove a rental car down. The two of us drove it back up together, and on the long drive up there, somewhere between Portland and Seattle, she told me she had a tune in her head." The "tune in her head" became "Potato's in the Paddy Wagon", one of three songs the couple wrote for A Mighty Wind,

O'Toole sang "What Could Be Better?"—a song she and her husband co-wrote – for the 2004 Disney children's album A World of Happiness.

In 2005, the couple did a cabaret act for "Feinstein's at the Regency" in New York City.

In 2007, O'Toole appeared as a backing singer for her husband's fictional band Spinal Tap at the London leg of the Live Earth concerts. She has also performed on the band's 2009 Unwigged and Unplugged tour, and contributed lyrics to "Short and Sweet" on the 2009 Spinal Tap album Back from the Dead.

In 2011, she starred in CAP21's production of the new musical Southern Comfort, based on the Sundance award-winning documentary, by Dan Collins and Julianne Wick Davis.

Personal life

Actor Bruno Kirby and O'Toole were in a relationship in the 1970s.

O'Toole married actor Bill Geisslinger on April 8, 1983; they divorced in 1993. The couple had two daughters.

O'Toole met fellow actor Michael McKean while working together on the 1998 television movie Final Justice. The two began bonding over McKean reading the book Dead by Sunset, for which O'Toole had starred in the miniseries adaption. They married on March 20, 1999, with O'Toole becoming the stepmother to McKean's two sons from a previous marriage. She and McKean share a musical career. 2015 Hamlet in Bed Anna Lisa Peterson Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Off-Broadway 2016 Southern Comfort Robert Thomas Caruso Public Theater, New York

Man From Nebraska Nancy Carpenter Tony Kiser Theatre, New York The Traveling Lady Sitter Mavis Austin Pendleton Cherry Lane Theatre, Off- Broadway 2018 A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur Helena Austin Pendleton Theatre at St. Clement's, Off-Broadway 2019 The Good Book Miriam Lisa Peterson Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California 2022 The Show-Off Mrs. Fisher Dan Wackerman Theatre at St. Clement's, Off-Broadway Performances

Awards and nominations