Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and musician. Known for his work in comedy films, television, and recording, he has received many accolades, including five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and an Honorary Academy Award,[1] in addition to nominations for two Tony Awards. He also received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2005, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007, and an AFI Life Achievement Award in 2015. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Martin at sixth place in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics.[2] The Guardian named him one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.[3]
This article is about the entertainer. For other people named Steve Martin, see Steve Martin (disambiguation).Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn Martin
August 14, 1945
Waco, Texas, U.S.
1966–present
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Anne Stringfield(m. 2007)
1
- Banjo
- vocals
Martin first came to public notice as a writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1969, and later as a frequent host on Saturday Night Live. He became one of the most popular US stand up comedians during the 1970s, performing his brand of offbeat, absurdist comedy routines before sold-out theaters on national tours. Martin went on to star in film roles, including such films as The Jerk (1979), Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), The Man with Two Brains (1983), All of Me (1984), ¡Three Amigos! (1986), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), L.A. Story (1991), Bowfinger (1999) and Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003). He played family patriarchs in Parenthood (1989), the Father of the Bride films (1991–1995), and the Cheaper by the Dozen films (2003–2005).
Since 2015, Martin has embarked on several national comedy tours with fellow comedian Martin Short.[4] In 2018, they released their Netflix special An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life for which they received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. In 2021, he co-created and starred in his first television show, the Hulu comedy series Only Murders in the Building, alongside Short and Selena Gomez, for which he earned three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, a Golden Globe Award nomination, and a 2021 Peabody Award nomination. In 2022, Martin and Short co-hosted Saturday Night Live together with Gomez making an appearance.
Martin is also known for writing the books to the musical Bright Star (2016) and to the comedy Meteor Shower (2017), both of which premiered on Broadway; he co-wrote the music to the former. He has played banjo since an early age and has included music in his comedy routines from the beginning of his professional career. He has released several music albums and has performed with various bluegrass acts, including Earl Scruggs, with whom he won a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance in 2002. His first solo music album, The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo (2009) received the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.[5]
Personal life[edit]
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Martin was in a relationship with Bernadette Peters, with whom he co-starred in The Jerk and Pennies from Heaven. He also dated Mary Tyler Moore and Karen Carpenter.[104] On November 20, 1986, Martin married actress Victoria Tennant, with whom he co-starred in All of Me and L.A. Story. They divorced in 1994.[105]
Martin went on a USO Tour to Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm from October 14 to 21, 1990. He met with military service men and women all over the region signing thousands of autographs and posing for pictures.[106] "Everybody coming out here, giving up part of their lives for this effort. I had some time off, and I felt kind of bad just sitting there," Martin said, "so I came."[107] He also dated actress Anne Heche, who wrote about their relationship in her memoir.
On July 28, 2007, Martin married writer and former New Yorker staff member Anne Stringfield.[108] Bob Kerrey presided over the ceremony at Martin's Los Angeles home. Lorne Michaels served as best man.[108] The nuptials came as a surprise to several guests, who had been told they were coming for a party.[108] In December 2012, Martin became a father when Stringfield gave birth to their daughter.[109][110]
Martin has been an avid art collector since 1968, when he bought a print by Ed Ruscha.[111] In 2001, the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art presented a five-month exhibit of twenty-eight items from Martin's collection, including works by Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, David Hockney, and Edward Hopper.[112] In 2006, he sold Hopper's Hotel Window (1955)[113] at Sotheby's for $26.8 million.[114] In 2015, working with two other curators, he organized an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and several other locations called, "The Idea of North: The Paintings of Lawren Harris," featuring the works of Canadian painter and Group of Seven co-founder Lawren Harris.[115]
In July 2004, Martin purchased what he believed to be Landschaft mit Pferden (Landscape with Horses), a 1915 work by Heinrich Campendonk, from a Paris gallery for approximately €700,000. Fifteen months later, the painting was sold at Christie's auction to a Swiss businesswoman for €500,000. Police believe the fake Campendonk originated from a collection devised by a German forgery ring led by Wolfgang Beltracchi, pieces from which had been sold to French galleries.[116] Martin only discovered the fact that the painting had been fake many years after it had been sold at the auction. Concerning the experience, Martin said that the Beltracchis "were quite clever in that they gave it a long provenance and they faked labels, and it came out of a collection that mingled legitimate pictures with faked pictures."[117][118]
Martin was on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art board of trustees from 1984 to 2004.[119] Martin assisted in launching the National Endowment for Indigenous Visual Arts (NEIVA), a fund to support Australian Indigenous artists in 2021. Martin has supported Indigenous Australian painting previously. He organized an exhibition in 2019 with Gagosian Gallery titled "Desert Painters of Australia", which featured art by George Tjungurrayi and Emily Kame Kngwarreye.[120]
Martin has tinnitus; the condition was first attributed to filming a pistol shooting scene for Three Amigos in 1986,[121][122] but Martin later clarified that the tinnitus was actually from years of listening to loud music and performing in front of noisy crowds.[123]
