Steve Martin Biography

Steve Martin is Hollywood’s most talented comedian-actor-writer-director-banjo player.

Steve Martin got started as a zany and absurdist stand-up comedian in the 1970s. He told jokes, played the banjo, and made funny faces; his comedy albums like Let’s Get Small (1977) and Comedy Is Not Pretty! (1979) were big hits, and his punch line “Excuuuuse me” became a pop culture catch-phrase. He was also a favorite recurring guest host on Saturday Night Live for many years.

In the 1980s he began starring in mainstream movie comedies like Parenthood (1989) and Father of the Bride (1991, co-starring Diane Keaton, with a sequel in 1995). He proved himself an able writer/director, with successes like Roxanne (1987, with Daryl Hannah), LA Story, (1991, with Sarah Jessica Parker) and Bowfinger (1999, with Eddie Murphy). Martin is known for his brainy versatility and has continued to work in films, write plays (Picasso at the Lapin Agile), publish humorous essays in the New Yorker magazine, and write books like Shopgirl (2000, made into a 2005 movie starring Martin and Claire Danes). His other films have included the family comedy Cheaper by the Dozen (2003, and a sequel in 2005) and the slapstick remake The Pink Panther (2006, with Martin in the Inspector Clouseau role made famous by Peter Sellers).

Steve Martin’s other books include a memoir, Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life (2007), and the novel An Object of Beauty (2010). Later in life he shifted focus again, turning serious attention to the banjo and bluegrass. He has performed often with his band, the Steep Canyon Rangers, and his 2009 solo album The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo won a 2010 Grammy Award as Best Bluegrass Album. Steve Martin is also well-known as an art collector; a 2001 show of his collection at the Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas included works by Pablo Picasso, Edward Hopper, Eric Fischl and Lucian Freud.