Steve Martin

**Stephen Glenn Martin** (born August 14, 1945) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and musician.

## Early years

Martin was born in Waco, Texas to Glenn Vernon Martin, a real estate salesman and aspiring actor, and Mary Lee Stewart, a housewife. Martin was raised in Inglewood, California and Garden Grove, California. He is of English, French, German, Irish and Scottish descent.

As a teenager, Martin started out working at the Magic Shop at Disneyland. There he developed his talents for magic, juggling, playing the banjo and creating balloon animals. He teamed up with friend and Garden Grove High School classmate Kathy Westmoreland to do a musical comedy routine. They performed at local coffee houses and at the Bird Cage Theater in Knott's Berry Farm. Martin attended Santa Ana College at the same time as actress Diane Keaton.

Martin majored in philosophy at California State University, Long Beach, but dropped out. His time there changed his life:

"It changed what I believe and what I think about everything. I majored in philosophy. Something about non-sequiturs appealed to me. In philosophy, I started studying logic, and they were talking about cause and effect, and you start to realize, 'Hey, there is no cause and effect! There is no logic! There is no anything!' Then it gets real easy to write this stuff, because all you have to do is twist everything hard—you twist the punch line, you twist the non-sequitur so hard away from the things that set it up, that it's easy... and it's thrilling."

Martin's girlfriend in 1967 was a dancer on _The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour_. She helped Martin get a writing job with the show by submitting his work to head writer Mason Williams. Williams initially paid Martin out of his own pocket. Along with the other writers for the show, Martin won an Emmy Award in 1969. Martin also wrote for John Denver (a neighbor of his in Aspen, Colorado at one point), The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. He also appeared on these shows and several others, in various comedy skits.

Martin also performed his own material, sometimes as an opening act for groups such as The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and The Carpenters. He appeared at San Francisco's The Boarding House among other places. He continued to write, earning an Emmy nomination for his work on Van Dyke and Company in 1976.

## Fame

In the mid-1970s, he made appearances as a stand-up comedian on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. That exposure, together with appearances on HBO's On Location and NBC's Saturday Night Live led to his first of four comedy albums, _Let's Get Small_. The album was a huge success. His next album, _A Wild and Crazy Guy_, was a bigger success. It reached the #2 spot on the sales chart in the United States. It created a catch phrase (the album's title). It was based on a skit in which Martin and Dan Aykroyd played a couple of bumbling Czechoslovakian playboys. The album was a million seller. Both albums won Grammys for Best Comedy Recording in 1977 and 1978 respectively.

## Movie career

Martin's first movie was a short, _The Absent-Minded Waiter_ (1977). The seven-minute long movie, also featuring Buck Henry and Teri Garr, was written by and starred Martin. The movie was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Short Film, Live Action. His first feature movie appearance was in the musical _Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band_. He sang the Beatles' _Maxwell's Silver Hammer_.

In 1979, Martin wrote and starred in his first full-length movie, _The Jerk_, directed by Carl Reiner. The movie was a huge success, grossing over $73 million. Martin was in three more Reiner-directed comedies after _The Jerk_: _Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid_ in 1982, _The Man with Two Brains_ in 1983 and _All of Me_ in 1984. In 1986, Martin joined fellow Saturday Night Live veterans Martin Short and Chevy Chase in _¡Three Amigos_!, directed by John Landis.

In 1986, Martin was in the musical movie version of the hit off-Broadway play _Little Shop of Horrors_ as a sadistic dentist, Orin Scrivello.

In 1987, Martin joined comedian John Candy in the John Hughes movie, _Planes, Trains and Automobiles_. That same year, the Cyrano de Bergerac adaptation _Roxanne_ won him a Writers Guild of America award. In 1988, he did _Dirty Rotten Scoundrels_ with Michael Caine and directed by Frank Oz.

In 2005, Martin wrote and starred in _Shopgirl_. Martin played a wealthy businessman who strikes up a romance with a Saks 5th Avenue counter girl (Claire Danes). He also starred in _Cheaper by the Dozen 2_ that year. He was in the 2006 remake of _The Pink Panther_.

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Steve Martin
- **image**: Steve Martin at the 75th Annual Peabody Awards (cropped).jpg
- **caption**: **Steve Martin** in 2016
- **birth name**: Stephen Glenn Martin
- **birth place**: Waco, Texas, U.S.
- **years active**: 1967–present
- **occupation**: Comedian, actor, writer, producer, musician
- **spouse**:

- **children**: 1