THIS IS THE BEST Time of Our Life!
The L.A. Law couple reveal how working together makes their marriage thrive
Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker have been married for nearly 44 years — an eternity in Hollywood. What’s their secret? “In our early days we had separate careers, but since we worked on L.A. Law together for eight years, we don’t want to be separated anymore,” Michael, 72, shares with Closer. “So if Jill gets a job, I’ll go cook for her, and if I do, she’ll come and do something for me.” The turning point was her 1986 breast cancer battle, which Jill, 70, says inspired them to “put our relationship at the very top of our priority list, when it had been behind our careers. We started focusing on how to be better partners and parents.” Today their kids, Alison and Max, are a caterer and a drummer, respectively, and the couple take on even more joint projects, like their new NYC play, Evening at the Talk House, with Matthew Broderick. “This is the best time of our life!” Michael raves. — Gregg Goldstein
You two met at the Arena Stage theater in Washington, D.C., in 1970. Was it love at first sight?
Jill: It kind of was. Mike was married and had a baby, and I was engaged. It wasn’t very convenient for us to fall in love, but we did and we were right. I ended up raising his daughter, Alison, from 1-and-a-half years old, and she got married in our backyard two summers ago.
Michael: It was very romantic. Still is.
You’re best known for L.A. Law. Do you keep in touch with your co-stars?
Michael: We’re very close friends with Susan Dey and Corbin Bernsen, and we just lost very dear friends of ours, Larry Drake and Richard Dysart.
Jill: We had a very good group. Everybody cared a lot about each other.
Do you each have a favorite episode?
Michael: There was one about antiSemitism that was very important for me, and of course, the “Venus Butterfly” episode [about a mysterious sexual technique].
Jill: People still mention it!
We hear the series may be coming back.
Michael: A script was [co-]written by Steven Bochco, and they’re trying to see if anybody wants to do it. It’ll be a new show, mostly with new people, but with some of us returning.
Jill: When we read it, we thought, “Wow, this is awfully good! This would be fun.” So we’ll see what happens.
How did L.A. Law change you?
Jill: The moment it started, I came back to New York to get ready to move to LA and discovered I had breast cancer. So I ended up doing radiation every day after work. In those days, breast cancer was not something that people talked about, and I thought it was a death sentence because I didn’t know people who had survived it. So it was interesting to be faced with mortality and a sort of immortality at the same time, as the show became big.
Michael: It grew us up.
Why did you decide to talk about it?
Jill: Some people said, “You’ll ruin your career. You’re not allowed to talk about this.” But a filmmaker who had it, Linda Otto, told me, “I want to make a documentary about surviving breast cancer, because I don’t think people know that you can.” So we did it on NBC, interviewing hundreds of people. Women told me they’d felt so alone until they saw it and realized, “I can do this.”
Michael: One of the reasons it’s talked about more today is because Jill went very public with it at a time when most people wouldn’t.
Is it fair to say you’ve been in remission?
Jill: I had been, but I had a recurrence in 2009 — 23 years later — in the same spot.
The pathologist said, “I think it’s something they didn’t get the first time.” It was very tiny and much easier [to treat]. I had a wonderful surgeon, and I think I’m in total remission now.
That’s great news! And now you have a cabaret show, Songs I’ve Sung, at Feinstein’s/54 Below in NYC on March 6…
Jill: It’s very autobiographical. I have some wonderful guests — [actor James] Naughton does a number with me, Mike joins me for a couple songs and my son, Max, is a drummer in my band. It’s a real family affair.
Do you sing to Michael at home?
Michael: When she was getting ready to do this cabaret, she serenaded me too much! [Laughs]
“We’ve gained some wisdom, more perspective and a little freedom.”
— Michael
And Michael, you’ve written three nonfiction books and a novel.
Michael: After 50 years of interpreting other people’s writing, I got to express what I was thinking about. I felt very free.
Jill: The last thing he wrote was a play we did two years ago called The M Spot. So that’s his latest incarnation: Michael the playwright!
Have you each played your dream roles?
Michael: My dream role is to be Jill Eikenberry’s husband. I keep playing it over and over again! — Reporting by Ilyssa Panitz