American comedian and actor whose non-political and vaudevillian self-parody entitled “Wild and Crazy Guy” put him on Carson’s show over 40 times and on Saturday Night Live over a dozen times. Prematurely gray and an ex-philosophy major, he dares to play lunatic, with films that include “Pennies From Heaven” and “Parenthood.” His first big break came through an LP called “Let’s Get Small,” for which he won a Grammy. By the end of his first year of stardom, he was grossing over one million dollars.
As a writer, Martin is no lightweight. He crafts real plays, film scripts and essays, all illumined with his light-bulb wit. Developing a strong second career, his “Pure Drivel” is a collection of 23 humor pieces, shooting to No.9 on the New York Times best-seller list by mid-October 1988.
Martin feels that show business began for him when he was eight or nine and his dad brought home a television set. He turned it on and the first people he met were Laurel and Hardy. His dad sold real estate and acted in community theater and his mom was a housewife, and it was a strict Baptist household. When he was a kid, the folks moved to California, near to Disneyland where he worked after school hawking guidebooks and performing magic tricks at Fantasyland by the time he was ten. He taught himself to play banjo and twist balloons into animal shapes. By 16, he was a featured act in a Disneyland show. An indifferent student, he was popular with his classmates.
After graduation, Martin continued his act at Knotts Berry Farm and at coffee houses. In 1964, he entered Long Beach State College where he majored in philosophy, aiming for a teaching career. He stayed three years, getting straight A’s in his grades until the day he submitted a packet of material to the “Smothers Brothers” show – and was hired as a comedy writer. The show was cancelled in 1969 but Martin had an Emmy to his credit by then. Writing for other shows, he also did stand-up comedy on TV and local clubs. His characters did not totally click until he cut his hair and put on a white suit, an arrogant dimwit. A hit on “Saturday Night Live” and “The Tonight Show,” by 1977 he was a major comedy star.
The first plays and films that he wrote were broad humor, but his work became more delicate and insightful into human foibles as he matured as a writer and actor. His “Roxanne,” based on Cyrano de Bergerac, was a poignant love story.
In early 1978, he began a steady relationship with Bernadette Peters which lasted into 1984. On 20 November 1986, he married British actress Victoria Tennant in Rome; the couple separated in mid-1993. An intense love affair with actress Anne Heche that he described as “torturous” also ended badly.
Actually handsome, broad shouldered and graceful, his hair started to turn gray when he was 15. He is tidy and precise, always courteous, a thoughtful collector of contemporary art, a fashionable dresser and an earnest vegetarian.
On 26 March 2001, he hosted the Academy Award show, the first time he has presented this prestigious event. In April 2001, he exhibited some of his art collection in Vegas; the funds received from the exhibit and the sale of a few pieces went to his favorite charity.
The comedian received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on 23 October 2005.
He married Anne Springfield, age 35, in his Los Angeles home on 28 July 2007. They have on child, presumably born in December 2012.
Link to Wikipedia biography