Annette O’Toole on Virgin River, Marriage, and Embracing Life at 72

SHE loves her latest role on the Netflix series “Virgin River.” “It’s just so nice to be in something that The versatile actress is people really, really now in the Netflix series love,” says Annette, “Virgin River” 72, who plays the mayor who is married to the town doctor, played by Tim Matheson.

HER parents approved of her showbiz dreams. “They were the reason it all happened. I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. My mother was a dancing teacher and my dad was a mechanical engineer. I was an only child and they felt I was very talented.”

SHE’S been married to Michael McKean since 1999. “It’s that old cliché that we’re best friends,” says Annette, who has two daughters from her first marriage to actor Bill Geisslinger. “It really is true. Michael and I had known each other for a long time just to say hi. We were both married to other people. And then we were both suddenly divorced. We did a TV movie together in Portland … we kept in touch — and then one night he called. Our very first date was going to UCLA to see Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell in concert.”

SHE has a motto. “Less is more.”

SHE enjoys being older. Annette says she likes “the freedom. Freedom from thinking, ‘What do people think of me?’ Just from having the practice of living every day.”