Screen Actors Guild

The **Screen Actors Guild** (**SAG**) is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide. According to SAG's Mission Statement, the Guild was created to negotiate and enforce reasonable salaries, benefits, and working conditions for its performers; collect compensation for exploitation of recorded performances by its members, and provide protection against unauthorized use of those performances; and preserve and expand work opportunities for its members.

The Guild was founded in 1933 in an effort to end exploitation of actors in Hollywood who were being forced into oppressive multi-year contracts with the major movie studios that did not include restrictions on work hours or minimum rest periods. They often had clauses that automatically renewed at the studios' discretion.  These contracts were notorious for allowing the studios to dictate the public and private lives of the performers who signed them, and most did not have provisions to allow the performer to end the deal.

In addition to its main offices in Hollywood, SAG also maintains local branches in several major US cities, including:  Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington DC.

Since 1995, the guild has annually awarded the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which are considered an indicator of success at the Academy Awards.

The membership of the Screen Actors Guild voted to merge with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists on March 30, 2012. It was later renamed as SAG-AFTRA.

## SAG Presidents

- 1933-1933 Ralph Morgan
- 1933-1935 Eddie Cantor
- 1935-1938 Robert Montgomery
- 1938-1940 Ralph Morgan
- 1940-1942 Edward Arnold
- 1942-1944 James Cagney
- 1944-1946 George Murphy
- 1946-1947 Robert Montgomery
- 1947-1952 Ronald Reagan

- 1952-1957 Walter Pidgeon
- 1957-1958 Leon Ames
- 1958-1959 Howard Keel
- 1959-1960 Ronald Reagan
- 1960-1963 George Chandler
- 1963-1965 Dana Andrews
- 1965-1971 Charlton Heston
- 1971-1973 John Gavin
- 1973-1975 Dennis Weaver

- 1975-1979 Kathleen Nolan
- 1979-1981 William Schallert
- 1981-1985 Edward Asner
- 1985-1988 Patty Duke
- 1988-1995 Barry Gordon
- 1995-1999 Richard Masur
- 1999-2001 William Daniels
- 2001-2005 Melissa Gilbert
- 2005-2009 Alan Rosenberg
- 2009–2012 Ken Howard
_Later merged as SAG-AFTRA_

## Other websites

- Screen Actors Guild official site
- Screen Actors Guild Foundation official site
- Actor Rates 2005-2007
- SAGIndie, the Independent Producers Outreach Program of the Screen Actors Guild
- Screen Actors Guild Awards website
- Hollywood Is a Union Town, published in The Nation, April 2, 1938
- SCREEN ACTORS GUILD ANNOUNCES REFERENDUM BALLOT DATES
- SAG background actors pay calculator

## Infobox (union)

- **name**: Screen Actors Guild
- **country**: United States
- **affiliation**: Associated Actors and Artistes of America, AAAA (AFL-CIO), FIA
- **members**: 139,200
- **founded**: 1933
- **dissolved date**: 2012
- **dissolved status**: Merged with American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
- **office**: Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
- **people**: Ken Howard, President
David White, National Executive Director
 Amy Aquino, Secretary-Treasurer
Anne-Marie Johnson, 1st Vice President
Mike Hodge, 2nd Vice President
David Hartley Margolin, 3rd Vice President
- **website**: [http://www.sag.org/ www.sag.org]