Actor/comedian/author/playwright/producer STEVE MARTIN (Tom), one of the most diversified performers in the motion picture industry today, has been successful as a writer of and performer in some of the most popular movies of recent film history.
Currently, Martin is in production for the film “Shopgirl,” starring Claire Danes and Jason Schwartzman, from a screenplay written by Martin and adapted from his best-selling novella of the same name. “Shopgirl” follows the funny complexities of a romance between a young girl, who works at a Los Angeles Saks Fifth Avenue glove counter while nurturing dreams of being an artist, and a wealthy older man, who is still learning about the consequences that come with any romantic relationship.
Earlier this year, he starred with Queen Latifah in the blockbuster comedy “Bringing Down the House.” He also appeared in the comic caper “Looney Tunes: Back In Action” opposite Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, and all of the Looney Tunes gang.
Martin hosted the 75th and 73rd Annual Academy Awards®. For his first time as host, the program was nominated for seven Emmy® Awards, including “Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.”
Born in Waco, Texas and raised in Southern California, Martin became a television writer in the late 1960s, winning an Emmy Award for his work on the hit series “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” By the end of the decade he was performing his own material in clubs and on television.
Launched by frequent appearances on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” Martin went on to host several shows of the innovative “Saturday Night Live” series, and starred in and co-wrote four highly rated television specials. When performing on national concert tours, he drew standing-room-only audiences in some of the largest venues in the country. He won Grammy® Awards for his comedy albums, “Let’s Get Small” and “A Wild and Crazy Guy,” and he had a gold record with his single “King Tut.”
Martin’s first film project, “The Absent-Minded Waiter,” a short he wrote and starred in, was nominated for a 1977 Academy Award. In 1979, he moved into feature films, co-writing and starring in “The Jerk,” directed by Carl Reiner. In 1981, he starred opposite Bernadette Peters in Herbert Ross’ bittersweet musical comedy, “Pennies From Heaven.”
The actor then co-wrote and starred in a send-up of detective thrillers, “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” and the science fiction comedy “The Man With Two Brains,” both directed by Reiner. In 1984, Martin received a Best Actor Award from both the New York Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review for his performance opposite Lily Tomlin in “All of Me,” his fourth collaboration with director Carl Reiner.
In 1987, his motion picture hit “Roxanne,” a modern adaptation of the Cyrano de Bergerac legend, garnered Martin not only warm audience response, but also a Best Actor Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and Best Screenplay Award from the Writer Guild of America. Martin was also the executive producer on the film.
In 1988, he costarred with Michael Caine in the hit comedy film “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” his second feature collaboration with director Frank Oz (following “Little Shop of Horrors”). In 1989, he starred with Mary Steenburgen and Dianne Wiest in Ron Howard’s affectionate family comedy “Parenthood.”
In 1991, Martin wrote, starred in and co-executive produced the critically acclaimed comedy “L.A. Story,” a comedy film about a love story set in Los Angeles that also satirizes the city itself.
That same year he made a cameo appearance in Lawrence Kasdan’s critically lauded “Grand Canyon” and starred with Diane Keaton in the hit film “Father of the Bride,” receiving the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Actor in a Comedy Motion Picture for the latter. In 1992, he starred in the comedy “Housesitter” opposite Goldie Hawn, winning the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Actor in a Comedy, for the second year in a row.
In 1996, he reteamed with Diane Keaton in the hit sequel to “Father of the Bride,” and was nominated for a Golden Globe® Award. In 1997, he received critical acclaim for his riveting performance in director David Mamet’s thriller “The Spanish Prisoner.”
Martin wrote and starred in the 1999 feature comedy “Bowfinger,” opposite Eddie Murphy, for director Frank Oz. The film was showcased at the Deauville International Film Festival.
Martin’s other films include the comedies “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” directed by John Hughes and co-starring John Candy; the comic Western send-up “The Three Amigos,” co-starring Marin Short and Chevy Chase; “The Lonely Guy,” co-starring Charles Grodin; Jonathan Lynn’s big-screen adaptation of “Sgt. Bilko,” co-starring Dan Aykroyd and Phil Hartman; Richard Pearce’s “Leap of Faith,” co-starring Debra Winger and Liam Neeson; “My Blue Heaven,” co-starring Rick Moranis and Joan Cusack; and the black comedy “Novocaine,” co-starring Helena Bonham Carter and Laura Dern.
In the fall of 1993, Martin’s first original play, the comedy-drama “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” was presented by Chicago’s prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Following rave reviews and an extended run in Chicago, the play was presented successfully in Boston and Los Angeles, and then Off-Broadway in New York at the Promenade Theatre, to nationwide critical and audience acclaim. It has since been, and continues to be, mounted in productions worldwide. “The Underpants,” a dark comedy Martin adapted from the 1911 play by Carl Sterneim, premiered Off-Broadway at the Classic Stage Company on April 4, 2002.
Martin was selected as Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals 1988 Man of the Year and accepted the award at the Cambridge, Massachusetts campus. In 1996, the American Film Institute’s Third Decade Council honored Martin with a retrospective of his work at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival and presented him with the Lifetime Achievement Award. A selection of paintings from his extensive private modern art collection was given a special exhibition at the Bellagio Hotel gallery in Las Vegas in 2000, with catalog notes written for the show by Martin.
After the success of his first novella Shopgirl, Martin’s second novella, The Pleasure of My Company, has just been published by Hyperion and is climbing its way up the bestsellers list. He has also written a bestselling collection of comic pieces, Pure Drivel, and his work frequently appears in the New Yorker and the New York Times. He lives in New York City and Los Angeles.
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