Each year, the Screen Actors Guild recognizes one longtime (and legendary) talent “for outstanding achievement in fostering the finest ideals of the acting profession” with its Life Achievement Award. “Grace and Frankie” Emmy nominee Lily Tomlin was announced this morning, Aug. 4, as the guild’s 53rd recipient of the esteemed prize, following in the footsteps of other iconic funny ladies like Rita Moreno, Betty White, and last year’s honoree, Carol Burnett.
“Lily Tomlin is an extraordinary actress, as equally adept at narrative drama as in comedy roles,” SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris said in a statement. “But it is through her many original characters that Lily’s creative genius fully shines. She has an ability to create diverse and distinct characters that are at once familiar, eccentric, and oh so honest—in a way that illuminates life’s hidden corners.”
Carteris went on to cite some of Tomlin’s career highlights—favorite characters of critics and audiences alike. “From Edith Ann to Frankie, her characters are wholly unique, and by exposing every nuance of human behavior they widen our scope of understanding,” she said. “On behalf of nearly 160,000 SAG-AFTRA members, we are honored to bestow our SAG Life Achievement Award on the truly amazing Lily Tomlin.”
This is just the latest achievement in Tomlin’s decorated career. In addition to a smattering of Emmy wins, two Tony awards, and Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, the 76-year-old actor was the 2014 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honor and the 2003 recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, and has received two Peabody Awards for “Edith Ann’s Christmas: Just Say Noël” and “The Celluloid Closet,” among others.
She can most recently be seeing starring alongside Oscar winner Jane Fonda in the first two seasons of Netflix’s “Grace and Frankie.”
For more information on this year’s SAG Awards, visit sagawards.com.
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