Steve Martin

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Lore & Background

Steve Martin was born on August 14, 1945, in Waco, Texas, to Mary Lee and Glenn Vernon Martin, a real estate salesman and aspiring actor. He grew up in a Baptist family in Inglewood, California, and later in Garden Grove, where he was a cheerleader at Garden Grove High School. His first job was at Disneyland, selling guidebooks from 1955 to 1958, and by 1960 he was working at the Magic shop in Fantasyland, perfecting magic, juggling, and balloon animal skills under mentor Wally Boag. He attended Santa Ana College, then Cal State Long Beach majoring in philosophy, before transferring to UCLA and switching to theater; he dropped out at age twenty-one. Martin's early career included writing for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, for which he won an Emmy in 1969 at age twenty-three, and he later wrote for The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. His stand-up comedy gained prominence in the 1970s with frequent appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Saturday Night Live, where he popularized the air quotes gesture. His first national television appearance was on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1968.

Reader's Guide

Steve Martin's significance lies in his transformation of American comedy through his absurdist, anti-punchline style, which challenged traditional stand-up conventions. He recalled reading a treatise on comedy that led him to think: 'What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it?' His work on Saturday Night Live—where his appearances boosted the audience by a million viewers—and his film career, including iconic roles in The Jerk (1979), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), and the Father of the Bride films (1991–1995), cemented his status as a versatile entertainer. He also achieved success in music, winning three Grammy Awards for his music and two for his comedy albums Let's Get Small (1977) and A Wild and Crazy Guy (1978). Later in his career, he co-created and starred in the Hulu series Only Murders in the Building (2021), earning three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, a Golden Globe Award nomination, and a Peabody Award nomination. His legacy includes receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2005, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007, an Honorary Academy Award in 2013, and an AFI Life Achievement Award in 2015, reflecting his broad impact on comedy, film, and music.

Did You Know?

• Martin won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1969 at age twenty-three for writing on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
• His first job was selling guidebooks at Disneyland from 1955 to 1958, and he later worked at the Magic shop in Fantasyland.
• Martin's comedy album A Wild and Crazy Guy (1978) reached No. 2 on the U.S. sales chart and sold over a million copies.
• He has appeared on twenty-seven Saturday Night Live shows and guest-hosted sixteen times, second only to Alec Baldwin as of February 2017.
• Martin co-created and starred in the Hulu series Only Murders in the Building (2021), earning three Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

A Career Spanning Every Medium

Stephen Glenn Martin, born August 14, 1945, has built a career that touches virtually every form of entertainment. As a writer, actor, producer, comedian, and musician, he has accumulated an extraordinary shelf of honors: five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy, a Screen Actors Guild Award, eight Golden Globe nominations, and two Tony nominations. His lifetime achievements were further recognized with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2005, Kennedy Center Honors in 2007, an Honorary Academy Award in 2013, and an AFI Life Achievement Award in 2015. Comedy Central placed him sixth among the 100 greatest stand-up comics in 2004. His filmography stretches from The Jerk (1979) through Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), The Man with Two Brains (1983), All of Me (1984), ¡Three Amigos! (1986), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Roxanne (1987), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), L.A. Story (1991), Bowfinger (1999), and Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003). He also embraced the family-patriarch role in Parenthood (1989), the Father of the Bride films (1991–1995), Bringing Down the House (2003), and the Cheaper by the Dozen films (2003–2005).

Roots in Magic, Philosophy, and a Stern Father

Martin's creative instincts were shaped long before the stage. Born in Waco, Texas, to a real estate salesman who also aspired to act, he grew up in a Baptist household in California. His father, proud but emotionally closed, expressed love through material gifts, and young Steve recalled feeling mostly hatred toward him during his teenage years. His first job—selling guidebooks at Disneyland from 1955 to 1958—planted a seed that would never fully fade. In his spare hours he haunted the Main Street Magic shop, absorbing tricks and illusions, and by 1960 he was performing magic, juggling, and balloon-animal routines for tips in Fantasyland under the mentorship of Wally Boag. At Santa Ana College and later Cal State Long Beach, where he majored in philosophy, he discovered that non-sequiturs and the absence of logical cause-and-effect were the engine of his comedy. He later described how studying logic taught him to twist punchlines: 'you twist the punch line, you twist the non-sequitur so hard away from the things that set it up.' He also recalled thinking: 'What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it?'

From Television Pioneers to the Martin & Short Era

Martin first entered the public eye as a writer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, earning a Primetime Emmy in 1969 at age twenty-three, and went on to become a familiar face hosting Saturday Night Live—he has appeared on twenty-seven SNL shows and guest-hosted sixteen times. The 1970s saw him become one of America's most bankable stand-up comedians, filling theaters nationwide with his offbeat, absurdist routines. His comedy albums Let's Get Small (1977) and A Wild and Crazy Guy (1978) each won a Grammy; the latter reached No. 2 on the U.S. sales chart and sold over a million copies. Decades later, a new chapter opened: since 2015, Martin has toured nationally with fellow comedian Martin Short. Their 2018 Netflix special, An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life, drew four Primetime Emmy Award nominations. In 2021, Martin co-created and starred in the Hulu series Only Murders in the Building alongside Short and Selena Gomez, earning three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, a Golden Globe Award nomination, and a Peabody Award nomination. The trio's chemistry was further showcased when they co-hosted Saturday Night Live together in 2022.

Banjo Strings and Broadway Curtains

Long before he was writing punchlines, Martin was picking a banjo. He has played the instrument since an early age and wove music into his comedy routines from the very start of his professional life. His recordings span bluegrass collaborations with various acts and stand-alone albums, earning him three Grammy Awards for music in addition to the two he won for comedy records. The stage called to him in a different register as well. In 2016 he wrote the book for the Broadway musical Bright Star, to which he also contributed co-written music, and in 2017 he wrote the book for the comedy musical Meteor Shower. Both productions premiered on Broadway, adding a theatrical dimension to a career already rich with film, television, and stand-up. His two Tony Award nominations reflect the breadth of his ambitions. Whether strumming a banjo in a bluegrass session or shaping the narrative arc of a stage musical, Martin has consistently treated each new medium as an invitation to stretch his comedic and creative instincts into unfamiliar territory.