Tag: 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

Credit: Mike LaMonica

Morgan Freeman will present the SAG 50th Life Achievement Award to Rita Moreno at the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, Executive Producer/Director Jeff Margolis and Executive Producer Kathy Connell announced today.

SAG-AFTRA is honoring Rita Moreno for her career achievement and humanitarian accomplishments. Past recipients of the Life Achievement Award include Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Ernest Borgnine, Betty White, James Earl Jones, Charles Durning, Julie Andrews, Shirley Temple Black, James Garner, Karl Malden, Clint Eastwood, Edward Asner, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier, Kirk Douglas, Elizabeth Taylor, Angela Lansbury, Robert Redford, and George Burns.

Credit: Mark Hill

In 1971, Freeman and Moreno were among the stars of “The Electric Company,” a comedy variety show created by the Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) featuring live-action sketches, cartoons, and songs. Inspired by The Motown Sound, “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” and Broadway, the series was designed to teach basic reading concepts to children ages 7 to 10. Adored by audiences and critics alike, “The Electric Company” became known as the most popular instructional show on television over its six-year run. The series won an Emmy® for Outstanding Children’s Series, and its soundtrack album earned a Grammy®.

Actor® recipient Morgan Freeman has been nominated for four SAG Awards®. In 2005, he took home an Actor® for his supporting role in “Million Dollar Baby” as well as receiving a concurrent nomination as a member of the film’s cast. He also received nominations for his lead roles in “Shawshank Redemption” (1995) and “Invictus” (2010). Some of Freeman’s other acting credits include “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Unforgiven,” “Se7en,” “Kiss the Girls,” “Nurse Betty,” “Bruce Almighty,” “Gone Baby Gone,” “The Bucket List,” and “The Dark Knight.”

Rita Moreno, 82, continues to embody the creative diversity that has been the hallmark of her nearly 70-year career. One of only 11 artists and the only Hispanic performer to have won the entertainment industry’s four top competitive awards, she earned her Oscar in 1962 for her iconic portrayal of saucy Anita in “West Side Story,” a role which drew on memories of the racial taunts she endured as a young Puerto Rican immigrant living in a Bronx “barrio.” Her 1972 Grammy honored her performance on “The Electric Company Album,” based on the long-running PBS children’s literacy television series on which Moreno played multiple roles in a memorable cast that included Bill Cosby and Morgan Freeman. She was again honored by the Recording Academy with the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. The Tony came for her 1975 satiric turn as flamboyant, talentless Puerto Rican bathhouse singer Googie Gomez in Broadway’s “The Ritz.” A six-time Emmy nominee, she won her first of the Television Academy’s honors in 1977 for one of her many guest appearances on “The Muppet Show.” The following year, she earned a second Emmy for her dramatic guest performance on “The Rockford Files.”

Over the decades, Moreno has collected dozens of other show business honors, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1995. A favorite of Chicago audiences and critics, she received that city’s coveted Joseph Jefferson Award in 1968 as Serafina in “The Rose Tattoo” and in 1985 was awarded the prestigious Sara Siddons Award for her comic portrayal of Olive Madison in the female version of “The Odd Couple.” In 1998 she received the first of two National Council of La Raza ALMA awards for her role as Sister Peter Marie Reimondo in the gritty HBO prison drama “Oz,” as well as the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

In addition to film, stage, television and concert commitments, Moreno fills her spare time by lecturing to various organizations and university audiences. She speaks on such varied topics as The Value of Diversity to our Culture, The Power of Language, Getting Older Without Getting Old and A History of the Arts in Film TV & Theatre.

After her Oscar win, Moreno came to realize that being a public figure could give voice to important causes. She was among the Hollywood luminaries mobilized by Harry Belafonte to take part in the historic March on Washington on August 28, 1963. She has since been involved with many civic, cultural, and charitable organizations and events supporting such important causes as racial equality, hunger, early childhood education, higher education for minority students through such organizations as The Jackie Robinson Foundation, and health issues like HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Her longtime interest in fitness led to her producing the 1992 exercise video “Rita Moreno: Now You Can! Fit and Fabulous Forever.”

Moreno has served on The National Endowment for the Arts and as a Commissioner for The President’s White House Fellowships. She has also served as a member of The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

At a White House ceremony in June 2004, Moreno was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. The medal is the highest honor bestowed upon a civilian and ranks second only to The Congressional Medal of Honor as the nation’s highest award. It is conferred on individuals for a lifetime of meritorious service.

For additional background on Ms. Moreno visit sagawards.org/awards/life-achievement-award-recipient/50th.

The 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, one of the awards season’s premier events, will honor outstanding performances from 2013 in five film categories and eight television categories, including the distinctive ensemble awards. This year’s Actor® recipients will be announced at the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center during a live simulcast on TNT and TBS on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014, at 8 p.m. (ET) / 5 p.m. (PT). A primetime encore presentation will follow immediately on TNT at 10 p.m. (ET) / 7 p.m. (PT). A live stream of the SAG Awards® can also be viewed online on sagawards.tntdrama.com and tbs.com, as well as through the Watch TBS and Watch TNT apps for iOS or Android. (Viewers must sign in using their TV provider user name and password in order to view the live stream.)

Sasha Alexander, star of the TNT original drama “Rizzoli & Isles,” and Clark Gregg, star of the ABC series “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” will reveal the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® nominations on Wednesday, Dec. 11 at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. The nominations announcement will be telecast live on TNT at 9 a.m. (ET) / 6 a.m. (PT) and webcast live on tntdrama.com and tbs.com. Prior to the announcement, this year’s stunt ensemble nominees will be unveiled during a live webcast at 8:50 a.m. (ET) / 5:50 a.m. (PT).

Alexander has also been named social media ambassador for this year’s SAG Awards. During the six weeks leading up to the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony – which will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014, at 8 p.m. (ET), 7 p.m. (CT), 6 p.m. (MT) and 5 p.m. (PT) – Alexander will serve as the online face for the awards. Through posts on Twitter and Facebook, she will give viewers access to behind-the-scenes moments, including updates on the production, presenters and fashion. She will also be posting from the red carpet on awards night. Follow twitter.com/sagawards for all of Alexander’s #sagawards updates.

In TNT’s “Rizzoli & Isles,” which is set to return with new episodes in February, Alexander plays brilliant and eccentric medical examiner Maura Isles, who works closely on cases with Boston Police Detective Jane Rizzoli (Harmon). Prior to her role on “Rizzoli & Isles,” Alexander played Special Agent Caitlin Todd in the first two seasons of the popular drama “NCIS.” She was also a regular on the critically acclaimed drama “Dawson’s Creek,” as well as “Presidio Med” and “The Nine.” In addition, she has had guest-starring roles on such popular shows as “Friends,” “House” and “Greg the Bunny.” She most recently was the romantic lead opposite Rhys Darby in the movie “Coming & Going,” which premiered on TNT in July 2011.

On the big screen, Alexander was part of the all-star cast of the hit film “He’s Just Not That Into You” and co-starred with Jim Carrey in the movie “Yes Man.” Her other feature film credits include “Mission: Impossible III,” “Tenure,” “Love Happens,” “The Last Lullaby,” “Play Dead” and “All Over the Guy,” as well as the upcoming “The Girl from Nagasaki,” a modern adaptation of “Madame Butterfly.”

As a mother, Alexander has been a passionate advocate of sustaining an environmentally healthy household. She’s a supporter of Healthy Child, Healthy World, an organization that empowers parents to protect children from harmful chemicals. Additionally, Alexander is heavily involved with the UN Foundation and their amazing programs for empowering and educating young women around the world, including GirlUp and the Shot@Life Campaign.

Clark Gregg currently stars as Agent Phil Coulson in the ABC hit series “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” a role he previously played in the movie blockbusters “The Avengers,” “Thor,” and the “Iron Man” films. Gregg co-starred with Julia Louis Dreyfus on the comedy series “The New Adventures of Old Christine.”  He is also known for recurring roles on “The West Wing,” “Sports Night,” “Will & Grace,” and “Sex and the City.”

Clark began his acting career as a founding member and former artistic director of the Atlantic Theater Company in New York.  He moved to Los Angeles in the mid-‘90s to pursue film and television work and has since appeared in such films as Joss Whedon’s adaptation of “Much Ado About Nothing,” “The To Do List,” “Trust Me,” “Labor Day,” “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” “500 Days of Summer,” “Choke,” “In Good Company,” “Spartan,” “Magnolia,” and “The Human Stain.” He earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his work in Tod Williams’ “The Adventures of Sebastian Cole.”

Also an experience screenwriter and director, Gregg wrote the screenplays for such films as “What Lies Beneath” and the Sundance Special Jury Prize winning “Choke,” which also marked his directorial debut.  His second film, “Trust Me,” which he directed from his own script, stars Gregg, Amanda Peet, Allison Janney, and Felicity Huffman and premiere at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. “Trust Me” will be released in May 2014.

Visit sagawards.org/about, “like” on facebook.com/sagawardsofficialpage, follow on twitter.com/sagawards, follow the SAG Awards on Google+ at google.com/+SAGawards, on Instagram by following @sagawards, and on Tumblr at sagawards.tumblr.com.