Annette O'Toole grew up in her mother's Houston dance studio, making her television debut at the age of two on The Don Mahoney Kiddie Trooper Show. At 13, she and her mother moved to L.A. for a year to pursue a career in show business. Two months later, she landed her first professional job dancing with Danny Kaye on The Danny Kaye Show.
Her first acting role was in My Three Sons, followed by appearances in Gunsmoke, The Partridge Family, The Mod Squad, and Hawaii Five-O. Over the decades, she has appeared in more than 40 series, mini-series, and TV movies, including Law & Order, Nash Bridges, and The Outer Limits.
One of her fondest memories was playing Beverly Marsh in Stephen King's It. She has also played a bounty hunter on The Huntress, Clark Kent's adoptive mom on Smallville, and Jim Carrey's mom on Kidding. Currently, she is a regular on the Netflix series Virgin River, renewed for a fifth season.
Her film career began in 1975 with a Young American Miss contestant role in Michael Ritchie's Smile. She has since appeared in iconic films such as 48 Hrs., Cat People, and Superman III as Lana Lang. Her favorite film is the 1987 movie Cross My Heart, in which she co-starred with Martin Short as a couple on their third date.
For all her success in film and television, O'Toole's deepest love is the theater. After her six-year run on Smallville ended, she decided to focus on theater, which she has been doing for the past decade. She has appeared in several off-Broadway productions, including The Sea Gull, Kindness, Man from Nebraska, and A Lovely Sunday For Creve Couer.
Her most rewarding theatrical role was in Southern Comfort at the Public Theater in 2016, for which she received the Lucille Lortel Award. She is currently working on a new musical called Harold and Lillian with her husband Michael McKean.
O'Toole's most fortuitous casting was co-starring with Michael McKean in the Lifetime movie Final Justice. They became good friends as they filmed in Portland and eventually got married, each bringing along two children from previous marriages.
