Everyone loves Steve Martin. Everyone used to like him when he was pumping out comedies in the '80s, but now everyone loves him. He has the awards to prove it.
American Film Institute announced today that Steve Martin will receive the organization's 43rd AFI Life Achievement Award, the “highest honor for a career in film,” according to a press release. The award will be presented to Martin at a gala tribute in Los Angeles, CA on June 4, 2015.
“Steve Martin is an American original,” said Sir Howard Stringer, Chair of the American Film Institute's Board of Trustees. “From a wild and crazy stand-up comic to one who stands tall among the great figures in this American art form, he is a multi-layered creative force bound by neither convention nor caution. His work is defined by him alone, for he is the author – and a national treasure whose work has stuck with us like an arrow in the head.” That's a reference to Martin's stand-up, not just a weird idiom.
Martin was an invaluable part of movie comedy in the '80s and '90s, with pictures like The Jerk, Pennies from Heaven, Three Amigos!, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Roxanne, L.A. Story, Parenthood, and Father of the Bride and its sequel. And yet, the Academy Awards never found the right moment to praise his work. Is only nomination went to “The Absent-Minded Waiter,” up for Best Live Action Short Film in 1977. The Academy mended this error last year, when it bestowed the comedian with its Honorary Oscar (adding to his Emmy, four Grammys, and Kennedy Center Honor). Here's that speech:
We'll all be able to enjoy Martin's funny, sweet (we feel OK assuming) AFI speech when the tribute airs on TNT next June.