Steve Martin Biography Quotes 21 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Stephen Glenn Martin was born on August 14, 1945, in Waco, Texas, and grew up in Southern California, spending formative years in Inglewood and Garden Grove. His father, Glenn Martin, worked in real estate and had an interest in acting, and his mother, Mary Lee, encouraged his early curiosity. As a teenager, he found work at Disneyland, notably at Merlin's Magic Shop, where he honed sleight-of-hand skills and learned the rhythms of crowd engagement. He also performed at Knott's Berry Farm, blending magic, comedy, and banjo picking into a nascent stage persona. Martin attended Santa Ana College and later California State University, Long Beach, where he studied philosophy, a discipline that sharpened the absurdist and logical-edge humor that would later define his stand-up.

Early Writing and Television
Before he became famous as a performer, Martin made his mark as a television writer. He joined the writing staff of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and, along with colleagues such as Mason Williams, Rob Reiner, and Bob Einstein, earned an Emmy Award in 1969. He also contributed material to The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour and other variety programs, developing a precise sense of how to craft comedic set pieces. As he began performing his material on television, especially on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, viewers met a comic who could fuse intellectual playfulness with a cartoonish sense of fun.

Stand-Up Breakthrough
Martin's stand-up in the 1970s was both mainstream and conceptual. Dressed in a white suit, he mixed anti-comedy, physical gags like the arrow-through-the-head, and musical interludes on the banjo. His rambling logic, balloon animals, and loopy catchphrases, including "Well, excuuuse me!" felt new and deliberately self-aware. Appearances on Saturday Night Live, collaborating with performers such as Dan Aykroyd, made him a national sensation; their "Two wild and crazy guys" sketches became cultural shorthand. His albums Let's Get Small (1977) and A Wild and Crazy Guy (1978) were bestsellers and won Grammy Awards, and the novelty single "King Tut" took his absurdist bite into pop music charts. By decade's end he was selling out arenas, a rarity for comedians at the time.

Transition to Film
Martin pivoted to movies at the height of his stand-up fame. The Jerk (1979), directed by Carl Reiner, presented him as a daffy, wholehearted innocent and became a breakout hit. He continued working with Reiner on a series of inventive comedies, including Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), The Man with Two Brains (1983), and All of Me (1984), the last pairing him brilliantly with Lily Tomlin. He expanded his range in Pennies from Heaven (1981), a stylized musical co-starring Bernadette Peters, showing a commitment to risk and reinvention. The late 1980s brought a run of beloved films: Roxanne (1987), which he wrote and starred in, reimagined Cyrano de Bergerac; Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), with John Candy and director John Hughes, blended slapstick with warmth; and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), opposite Michael Caine and directed by Frank Oz, showcased elegant farce. Parenthood (1989) saw him under Ron Howard's direction in a humane ensemble comedy.

Writer and Creator
Parallel to his screen acting, Martin developed a significant literary career. He wrote for The New Yorker, producing wry, tightly constructed pieces that later appeared in collections such as Cruel Shoes and Pure Drivel. His play Picasso at the Lapin Agile (1993) demonstrated his interest in art, ideas, and historical whimsy. He published fiction including the novella Shopgirl (2000), adapted into a 2005 film in which he starred alongside Claire Danes, and The Pleasure of My Company (2003). His memoir, Born Standing Up (2007), offered an unsentimental, precise portrait of his ascent in comedy and his decision to walk away from stand-up at its peak.

1990s and 2000s on Screen
In the 1990s, Martin alternated between romantic comedies, ensemble pieces, and more experimental work. L.A. Story (1991), which he wrote and headlined, satirized and celebrated Los Angeles. Father of the Bride (1991) and its sequel (1995) paired him with Diane Keaton and Martin Short, becoming family comedy touchstones. He took a sharp turn in David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner (1997), a sleek con game thriller that revealed his dramatic poise. Bowfinger (1999), which he wrote and starred in opposite Eddie Murphy and under Frank Oz's direction, lampooned Hollywood's dreams and delusions. In the 2000s he led Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), played an updated Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther films, and joined Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin in It's Complicated (2009). He continued to collaborate widely, from Queen Latifah to Jean Reno, moving with ease between broad comedy and character-driven stories.

Music and the Banjo
A lifelong banjo player, Martin became a serious recording and touring musician. The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo (2009) earned a Grammy Award, affirming that his musical ambitions were not a side joke but a parallel career. He began an enduring partnership with the bluegrass ensemble Steep Canyon Rangers, releasing albums and touring extensively. With Edie Brickell he recorded Love Has Come for You (2013), and the pair created the original musical Bright Star (2016). Set in the American South and built on acoustic textures, Bright Star earned multiple Tony Award nominations and reflected Martin's gift for marrying narrative with melody.

Later Work and Television
Martin became a frequent and deft awards-show host, leading the Academy Awards in 2001 and 2003, and co-hosting in 2010 with Alec Baldwin. He remained a fixture on Saturday Night Live as one of its most frequent hosts, a friendly co-conspirator with the show's producers and performers, including creator Lorne Michaels. In the late 2010s he teamed with long-time friend Martin Short for touring stage shows that combined stand-up, sketch, and music, leading to the Netflix special An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life. Their chemistry carried into Only Murders in the Building, a series Martin co-created with John Hoffman. Co-starring Selena Gomez, the show blends true-crime podcast culture with classic comic timing and reintroduced Martin's precision as both writer and performer to a new generation.

Honors and Recognition
Martin's mantel includes multiple Grammys for both comedy and bluegrass, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (2005), and an Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (2013) recognizing his contributions to cinema. These honors reflect a career that has influenced comedians, screenwriters, and musicians alike, from the structure of modern stand-up to the mainstreaming of bluegrass.

Personal Life and Legacy
Martin married actress Victoria Tennant in 1986; the marriage ended in 1994. In 2007 he married writer Anne Stringfield, and the couple later welcomed a daughter. Beyond stage and screen, he is known as an avid art collector and advocate for the visual arts, interests that surface in his novels and essays. He has balanced the meticulous craftsmanship of a writer with the spontaneity of a performer, whether duetting on stage with Edie Brickell or volleying with John Candy in a blizzard. From the self-referential dazzle of The Jerk to the tender fatherhood of Father of the Bride and the wry wisdom of his later work, Steve Martin's career traces a singular American path: restless reinvention powered by technical rigor, playful intelligence, and a refusal to repeat himself.

Our collection contains 21 quotes who is written by Steve, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Writing - Art - Sarcastic - Movie.

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