Carol Burnett to Receive SAG Life Achievement Award

Trailblazing comedian Carol Burnett will be the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award at the 22nd annual SAG Awards®. The comedic actor, singer, dancer, producer and author will receive the performers union’s top accolade during a simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016.

“Carol Burnett is a creative dynamo and a comedic genius,” said SAG-AFTRA President Ken Howard. “She embodies the generosity and courage that the greatest actors use in creating enduring and memorable characters. From her heartbreakingly hilarious Starlet O’Hara to the adorably inept Eunice and alarmingly funny Miss Hannigan, Carol has delighted and inspired millions of viewers and thousands of comedic actors.

“She took risks as a performer and through her courage, encouraged fellow actors to try new things and always, always reach for the sky,” he added. “Her innate love of actors led to the creation of an ensemble cast that made The Carol Burnett Show a masterpiece of variety programming.”

Burnett is a veteran of comedic and dramatic roles on television, film and Broadway, but is best known for The Carol Burnett Show. Named in 2007 by TIME magazine as one of “100 Best Television Shows of All Time,” and by Variety in 2011 as one of “The 25 Shows That Changed Television,” The Carol Burnett Show ran for 11 years, averaged 30 million viewers per week, and received 25 Emmy Awards, making it one of the most honored shows in television history.

Born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1933, Burnett was raised in a small studio apartment in Hollywood by her grandmother. With no financial means, Burnett could only dream of college. After receiving an anonymous donation of $50 to pay for her tuition to UCLA, she enrolled. While studying journalism, she took an acting class, and the rest is history.

When not performing or on occasion presenting her Q&A format “Laughter & Reflection,” she enjoys spending time with her husband Brian, her two daughters Erin and Jody, her grandsons, and her cat, Nikki.  As a passionate supporter of the arts and education, she established several scholarships around the country, including the Carol Burnett Musical Theatre Competition at her alma mater, UCLA, and the Carrie Hamilton Foundation, to honor her daughter’s memory. She is a Lifetime Director of the Hereditary Disease Foundation Among the other arts, health and youth charities to which she lends her support are the Sundance Institute, Young Playwrights Inc., the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, Girls Inc. of Greater Santa Barbara and the Hereditary Disease Foundation for which she has been named a Lifetime Director.

The SAG Life Achievement Award is given annually to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession.”