From playing Clark Kent’s red-haired teenage sweetheart, Lana Lang, in Superman III (1983) to Beverly Marsh in Stephen King’s epic horror mini-series It (1990) to Lisa Bridges in the TV series, Nash Bridges (1996) to Clark’s adoptive mother, Martha Kent in the hit show Smallville (2001), Annette O’Toole has been one of the most versatile and recognizable faces in Hollywood for the last 60 years.
But the 71-year-old Emmy-nominated actress has garnered millions of new fans as the character of Hope McCrea, the no-nonsense, unpredictable mayor in the hit Netflix hit series, Virgin River, which is about a picturesque small town that belies the drama of its residents.
Here, get to know Annette O’Toole a bit better as she talks about romance (on and off screen), aging in Hollywood and the truth about what she really thinks of Hope.
The early career of Annette O’Toole
Born in Houston, Texas on April 1, 1952, Annette O’Toole began entertaining others when she was just a toddler. Her mother, Dorothy, ran the Houston Dance Studio and taught a young O’Toole tap dance and ballet. She made her TV debut at age two on The Don Mahoney Kiddie Trooper Show. “I was tap dancing at three,” O’Toole told Los Angeles station KTLA. “You can’t escape it in our family. We all tap.”
After ten years of singing and dancing lessons, O’Toole and her mother went to Los Angeles for a year to test the thespian waters.
O’Toole got her first professional job dancing with Danny Kaye on The Danny Kaye Show within two months of their move to Hollywood. “I’ve used my singing and dancing training in so many ways,” she said. “The discipline you get from that is wonderful for an actor.”
Her first acting gig was in My Three Sons followed in rapid succession with appearances in Gunsmoke, The Partridge Family, The Mod Squad and Hawaii Five-O. The movie studios took notice of the pretty actress with flaming red hair and crimson lips to match and she soon made the switch to film, ultimately starring in 48 Hrs., Cat People, Superman III and many others.
But for all her success on the big and small screen, O’Toole’s deepest love is the theater. When she went to New York after ending her six-year run on Smallville in 2007, her first audition led to her being cast in “The Sea Gull.” One of her most rewarding theatrical roles was in 2016’s “Southern Comfort” where she played transgender male Robert Eads, for which she received the Lucille Lortel Award.
Who is Annette O’Toole’s husband?
In April of 1983, Annette married actor Bill Geisslinger, they had two daughters, but they divorced in 1993.
Then in 1998, Lifetime Network cast Annette opposite actor Michael McKean in Final Justice as each other’s rivals. The pair had known each other casually over the years through mutual friends, but they found themselves bonding over their children and love for reading on location in Portland.
One night, Michael called up O’Toole and he asked if she wanted to go on a date with him. She jumped at the opportunity. O’Toole said her reaction to the date request was something straight out of a movie scene because she ran straight to the bathroom and started jumping up and down.
The day started off with Michael booting shopping with Annette by his side. Fate stepped in when Michael left his old pair of shoes in a box and the shop assistant unknowingly told him that he handed the box to his wife. Annette’s response: In case you’re wondering my answer is yes. The pair moved in together not long after with their blended family – two children for each of them – and tied the knot in 1999.
