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Biography for Steve Martin

(While hosting The 73rd Annual Academy Awards (2001) (TV)) "And now, I'm pleased to introduce the star of the film 'Gladiator,' and a man I like to call a close, personal friend, but he told me not to ."

"I wrote a novel this year called 'Shop Girl,' and several producers came to me and wanted to turn it into a movie. And I said, "If you think you're going to take this book and change it around, and Hollywoodize it and change the ending . that's going to cost you."

"All I've ever wanted was an honest week's pay for an honest day's work."

"Chaos in the midst of chaos isn't funny, but chaos in the midst of order is."

"I believe entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you are an idiot."

"It's very hard being one of the most beautiful people. Having this kind of beauty is actually a burden. Sometimes I go to a party and not one of the other 49 most beautiful people is there. That makes me feel very solitary and alone, because it means I am the most beautiful person in the room. If I'm going to a party where I know there will be 'less-beautiful people,' I try to 'dress down' in order to hide my beauty. But this seems to have a counter-effect of actually making me more beautiful. I guess me and dungarees are a pretty potent combination. I try not to lord my beauty over others. This is very hard. I try not to mention that I am one of the most beautiful people, but somehow it always comes out. I will usually only bring it up when I'm asked to do a task, like open a garage door. People seem to enjoy my beauty and are genuinely happy for me, because after I mention it they always say, 'How nice for you.'" -- From People Magazine, 20 May 2003, in which Martin was listed as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People.

(Upon recieving a particularly unremarkable award) "When I first found out that I was going to win this award, I tried really hard - to care. And then I realised; we are all here tonight, because of a common love; me."

"Comedians don't get Oscars, so I gave up on that a long time ago. And I can't really speak about the Oscar worthiness of my own performance."

"I lost 20 pounds - actually, I lost 25 pounds, but then I gained 5 back because I was too skinny. I didn't change what I ate, I just started eating smaller portions. And I cut out bread - that's the real killer, because I was reaching in and eating half a loaf before dinner arrived. All you have to do is that, and then you can drink all you want."

"I've written a lot about L.A., and I always describe it as beautiful. To me, human relationships can be sad, can be exhilarating - but it's not a product of the city. And it takes different forms. Like, in New York, you're always with people. You can't go outdoors, you can't go into the subway, you can't go anywhere without running into people you don't know. But in L.A., you really have to work a bit to be exposed. You have to be standing in a shop, you have to join a club, or join a community service thing, or go to a nightclub in order to meet people. Because there's not the same transitory proximity to other people."

Salary

Where are they now

(October 2003) Second novella, "The Pleasure of My Company," was published.

Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:

It's difficult to reconcile the Steve Martin of today-a top-rated film star who alternates between situational comedy and light drama-with the "wild and crazy guy" whose absurdist stand-up comedy and TV work paralyzed 1970s audiences. The Martin who attempted to fill Spencer Tracy's old shoes in a 1991 remake of Father of the Bride is the same performer who convulsed us by shouting, "Well, excuuuuuse me!" more than a decade ago. In the 1960s, before his stand-up career, Martin was an Emmy-winning writer for "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" TV show. This artistic philosophy student became one of the 1970s' most popular comedians, alternating stints on "The Tonight Show" and "Saturday Night Live" with sellout concert appearances and hit records. The unfortunate musical pastiche Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) provided Martin with his first film role, enacting the Beatles song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." He subsequently cowrote his first "proper" film, The Jerk (1979), a starring vehicle that visualized situations he described in some stand-up routines, and the first of his several collaborations with Carl Reiner. Around this time he directed himself in a funny short subject called The Absent-Minded Waiter which wound up earning an Oscar nomination. Back then he was compared to Jerry Lewis, but Martin made his loftier screen ambitions plain by taking the lead in the daring but ill-fated film adaptation of Dennis Potter's mordant BBC series Pennies From Heaven (1981). He fared better in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), a private-eye spoof and technical tour de force that had him interacting with longdeceased screen legends like Bogart and Alan Ladd via interc