49th Annual Accolade to be Presented During the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® Simulcast Live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, January 27, 2013
LOS ANGELES –Dick Van Dyke, beloved actor, singer, dancer, writer and comedian, will receive SAG-AFTRA’s highest honor – the SAG Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. Van Dyke will be presented the performers union’s most prestigious accolade, given annually to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession,” at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, which premieres live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, at 8 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. CT, 6 p.m. MT and 5 p.m. PT.
In making today’s announcement, SAG-AFTRA Co-President Ken Howard said, “Dick is the consummate entertainer — an enormously talented performer whose work has crossed nearly every major category of entertainment. From his career-changing Broadway turn in ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ and his deadpan humor in the Emmy® winning ‘Dick Van Dyke Show,’ to his unforgettable performance as Bert in ‘Mary Poppins,” he sets a high bar for actors. Stage, big screen, small screen, literally everywhere he has worked he has inspired millions of fans and has had a tremendously positive impact on the industry and the world. He is so deserving of this honor and I congratulate him.”
SAG-AFTRA Co-President Roberta Reardon said: “With Dick, it’s so much more than the proverbial ‘triple threat.’ He started his career as a radio announcer, game show host and comedian and was a spokesman for Kodak, among numerous other roles over his nearly 60-year career. His contributions to the success of the business and to his fellow performers is legendary as is his work with a number of the leading ladies of our times, including Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore — both previous Life Achievement Award recipients. His infectious laugh has warmed audiences for decades and is an unforgettable facet of his fabulous personality.”
Holder of five Emmys®, a Tony® Award and a Grammy®, Van Dyke at 86 still possesses the zest for life that first propelled him into the limelight more than a half-century ago with the Broadway and film versions of Bye Bye Birdie, the seminal ‘60s situation comedy The Dick Van Dyke Show and the film classic Mary Poppins.
Latin Heat’s Editor Chimes In:
Latinos Who Grew Up With Dick Van Dyke, Love Him, Love Him!
Shows and films from 1960’s captured an audience of young Latino Americans like few other American stars!
As a child growing up in the 1960’s and with television being new in our home, I was addicted to TV and every Sunday going to the Vogue Theater in Chula Vista, CA. Aside from my life altering movie experience of seeing West Side Story for the first time, no other movie star or movie character mesmerized me like Dick Van Dyke. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and in the seventh grade proudly chanting “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from Mary Poppins driving my teachers and parents nuts.
Veteran actor Richard Yniguez says it best: “The king of prat falls and has a way with gestures that keeps you laughing for days! His dancing and singing should be mentioned too an all around talented and gifted man that has been often overlooked. Met him once while I was working with Bob Hope and he was visiting the set.”
We’re thrilled that SAG-AFTRA will be presenting its highest honor, the SAG Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment to a beloved actor, singer, dancer, writer and comedian. Van Dyke will be honored at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, which premieres live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 8PM ET, 7PM MT and 5PM PT.
The 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards presented by SAG-AFTRA will be produced by Jeff Margolis Productions in association with Screen Actors Guild Awards®, LLC. Kathy Connell is the producer. JoBeth Williams, Daryl Anderson, Scott Bakula, Shelley Fabares, Paul Napier, and Woody Schultz are producers for SAG-AFTRA. Gloria Fujita O’Brien and Mick McCullough are supervising producers. Benn Fleishman is executive in charge of production. Rosalind Jarrett Sepulveda is executive in charge of publicity. Jon Brockett is awards coordinating producer. Maggie Barrett Caulfield is the talent producer. For more information visit sagawards.org/about, “like” the SAG Awards at facebook.com/sagawardsofficialpage and follow the SAG Awards at twitter.com/sagawards.
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