The Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award is given by the Screen Actors Guild

Screen Actors Guild

The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...

's National Honors and Tributes Committee "for outstanding achievement in fostering the finest ideals of the acting profession." The award predates the 1st Screen Actors Guild Awards by over thirty years, having been presented annually since 1962, except for 1964 and 1981.

Award recipients

The following actors and actresses have received the Award.
1960s

• 1962: Eddie Cantor
  Eddie Cantor
  Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
  
  
• 1963: Stan Laurel
  Stan Laurel
  Arthur Stanley "Stan" Jefferson , better known as Stan Laurel, was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as the first half of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. His film acting career stretched between 1917 and 1951 and included a starring role in the Academy Award winning film...
  
  
• 1965: Bob Hope
  Bob Hope
  Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
  
  
• 1966: Barbara Stanwyck
  Barbara Stanwyck
  Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
  
  
• 1967: William Gargan
  William Gargan
  William Gargan, born William Dennis Gargan July 17, 1905 in Brooklyn, New York, USA and died February 17, 1979 aged 73 on a flight between New York and San Diego.He was an American motion picture, television and radio actor...
  
  
• 1968: James Stewart
  James Stewart (actor)
  James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
  
  
• 1969: Edward G. Robinson
  Edward G. Robinson
  Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
  
  

1970s

• 1970: Gregory Peck
  Gregory Peck
  Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
  
  
• 1971: Charlton Heston
  Charlton Heston
  Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
  
  
• 1972: Frank Sinatra
  Frank Sinatra
  Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
  
  
• 1973: Martha Raye
  Martha Raye
  Martha Raye was an American comic actress and standards singer who performed in movies, and later on television....
  
  
• 1974: Walter Pidgeon
  Walter Pidgeon
  Walter Davis Pidgeon was a Canadian actor, who starred in many motion pictures, including Mrs...
  
  
• 1975: Rosalind Russell
  Rosalind Russell
  Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
  
  
• 1976: Pearl Bailey
  Pearl Bailey
  Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
  
  
• 1977: James Cagney
  James Cagney
  James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
  
  
• 1978: Edgar Bergen
  Edgar Bergen
  Edgar John Bergen was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist.-Early life:...
  
  
• 1979: Katharine Hepburn
  Katharine Hepburn
  Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
  
  

1980s

• 1980: Leon Ames
  Leon Ames (actor)
  Leon Ames was an American film and television actor. He is best remembered for playing fatherly figures in such films as Meet Me in St. Louis , as Judy Garland's father, and in Little Women ....
  
  
• 1982: Danny Kaye
  Danny Kaye
  Danny Kaye was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian...
  
  
• 1983: Ralph Bellamy
  Ralph Bellamy
  Ralph Bellamy was an American actor whose career spanned sixty-two years.-Early life:He was born Ralph Rexford Bellamy in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Lilla Louise , a native of Canada, and Charles Rexford Bellamy. He ran away from home when he was fifteen and managed to get into a road show...
  
  
• 1984: Iggie Wolfington
• 1985: Paul Newman
  Paul Newman
  Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
  
   and Joanne Woodward
  Joanne Woodward
  Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward is an American actress, television and theatrical producer, and widow of Paul Newman...
  
  
• 1986: Nanette Fabray
  Nanette Fabray
  Nanette Fabray is an American actress, comedienne, singer, dancer, and activist. She began her career performing in vaudeville as a child and then became a musical theatre actress during the 1940s and 1950s, winning a Tony Award in 1949 for her performance in Love Life...
  
  
• 1987: Red Skelton
  Red Skelton
  Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...
  
  
• 1988: Gene Kelly
  Gene Kelly
  Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
  
  
• 1989: Jack Lemmon
  Jack Lemmon
  John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
  
  

1990s

• 1990: Brock Peters
  Brock Peters
  Brock Peters was an American actor, best known for playing the role of Tom Robinson in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird...
  
  
• 1991: Burt Lancaster
  Burt Lancaster
  Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...
  
  
• 1992: Audrey Hepburn
  Audrey Hepburn
  Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
  
  
• 1993: Ricardo Montalban
  Ricardo Montalbán
  Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG was a Mexican radio, television, theatre and film actor. He had a career spanning six decades and many notable roles...
  
  
• 1994: George Burns
  George Burns
  George Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became...
  
  
• 1995: Robert Redford
  Robert Redford
  Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
  
  
• 1996: Angela Lansbury
  Angela Lansbury
  Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...
  
  
• 1997: Elizabeth Taylor
  Elizabeth Taylor
  Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
  
  
• 1998: Kirk Douglas
  Kirk Douglas
  Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
  
  
• 1999: Sidney Poitier
  Sidney Poitier
  Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE is a Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat.In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field...
  
  

2000s

• 2000: Ossie Davis
  Ossie Davis
  Ossie Davis was an American film actor, director, poet, playwright, writer, and social activist.-Early years:...
  
   and Ruby Dee
  Ruby Dee
  Ruby Dee is an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and activist, perhaps best known for co-starring in the film A Raisin in the Sun and the film American Gangster for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Early years:Dee was born Ruby...
  
  
• 2001: Edward Asner
• 2002: Clint Eastwood
  Clint Eastwood
  Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
  
  
• 2003: Karl Malden
  Karl Malden
  Karl Malden was an American actor. In a career that spanned more than seven decades, he performed in such classic films as A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, On the Waterfront and One-Eyed Jacks...
  
  
• 2004: James Garner
  James Garner
  James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...
  
  
• 2005: Shirley Temple Black
• 2006: Julie Andrews
  Julie Andrews
  Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
  
  
• 2007: Charles Durning
  Charles Durning
  Charles Durning is an American actor. With appearances in over 100 films, Durning's memorable roles include police officers in the Oscar-winning The Sting and crime drama Dog Day Afternoon , along with the comedies Tootsie, To Be Or Not To Be and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the last two...
  
  
• 2008: James Earl Jones
  James Earl Jones
  James Earl Jones is an American actor. He is well-known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership...
  
  
• 2009: Betty White
  Betty White
  Betty White Ludden , better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and former game show personality. With a career spanning seven decades since 1939, she is best known to modern audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and...
  
  

2010s

• 2010: Ernest Borgnine
  Ernest Borgnine
  Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
  
  
• 2011: Mary Tyler Moore
  Mary Tyler Moore
  Mary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms. Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as...