Bob Kerrey
Kerrey speaking at a March 2009 event regarding education
United States Senator from Nebraska
In office January 3, 1989 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	David K. Karnes
Succeeded by	Ben Nelson
35th Governor of Nebraska
In office January 6, 1983 – January 9, 1987
Lieutenant	Donald McGinley
Preceded by	Charles Thone
Succeeded by	Kay A. Orr
Personal details
Born	Joseph Robert Kerrey (1943-08-27) August 27, 1943 (age 68) Lincoln, Nebraska
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Sarah Paley
Children	Ben Lindsey Henry (b. 2002)
Residence	Omaha, Nebraska
Alma mater	University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Profession	Naval officer, Politician, Restaurateur
Religion	United Church of Christ
Military service
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1966–1969
Rank	Lieutenant, Junior Grade
Unit	SEAL Team 1
Battles/wars	Vietnam War
Awards	Medal of Honor Bronze Star Purple Heart

Joseph Robert "Bob" Kerrey (born August 27, 1943) was the 35th Governor of Nebraska from 1983 to 1987 and a United States Senator from Nebraska from 1989 to 2001. After serving in the Vietnam War and being awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions, he moved into politics. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992. From 2001 to 2010, Kerrey served as president of The New School, a university in New York City.^[1] In May 2010, he was selected to become the head of the Motion Picture Association of America.^[2] But in July 2010, both Kerrey and the MPAA could not reach an agreement^[3] and former Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd was selected instead. On February 27, 2012, aides confirmed that Kerrey was filing to seek election to his old Senate seat, to replace the retiring Democratic incumbent Ben Nelson.^[4] He faces Republican nominee Deb Fischer.

Early life and education[link]

Kerrey was born in Lincoln, Nebraska where he attended the public schools, graduating from Lincoln Northeast High School. He credits Bob Reese, his chemistry teacher, for inspiring his pursuit of a career in the sciences.^[5] He went on to earn a degree in pharmacy from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1966. Kerrey pledged Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and during his senior year he was tackled into the Society of Innocents, the chancellor's senior honorary society of spirit boosters.

Military service[link]

Kerrey served in the United States Navy as a SEAL from 1966 to 1969 during the Vietnam War. He lost the lower part of one leg in combat and received the Medal of Honor for action near Nha Trang Bay in South Vietnam on 14 March 1969.

Medal of Honor citation[link]

His Medal of Honor citation reads:^[6]

Medal of Honor

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a SEAL team leader during action against enemy aggressor (Viet Cong) forces. Acting in response to reliable intelligence, Lt. (j.g.) Kerrey led his SEAL team on a mission to capture important members of the enemy's area political cadre known to be located on an island in the bay of Nha Trang. In order to surprise the enemy, he and his team scaled a 350-foot sheer cliff to place themselves above the ledge on which the enemy was located. Splitting his team in 2 elements and coordinating both, Lt. (jg.) Kerrey led his men in the treacherous downward descent to the enemy's camp. Just as they neared the end of their descent, intense enemy fire was directed at them, and Lt. (jg.) Kerrey received massive injuries from a grenade that exploded at his feet and threw him backward onto the jagged rocks. Although bleeding profusely and suffering great pain, he displayed outstanding courage and presence of mind in immediately directing his element's fire into the heart of the enemy camp. Utilizing his radio, Lt. (jg.) Kerrey called in the second element's fire support, which caught the confused Viet Cong in a devastating crossfire. After successfully suppressing the enemy's fire, and although immobilized by his multiple wounds, he continued to maintain calm, superlative control as he ordered his team to secure and defend an extraction site. Lt. (jg.) Kerrey resolutely directed his men, despite his near unconscious state, until he was eventually evacuated by helicopter. The havoc brought to the enemy by this very successful mission cannot be over-estimated. The enemy soldiers who were captured provided critical intelligence to the allied effort. Lt. (jg.) Kerrey's courageous and inspiring leadership, valiant fighting spirit, and tenacious devotion to duty in the face of almost overwhelming opposition sustain and enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

Thanh Phong raid[link]

In 2001, the New York Times Magazine and 60 Minutes II carried reports on an incident that occurred during Kerrey's Vietnam War service. On February 25, 1969, he led a Swift Boat raid on the isolated peasant village of Thanh Phong, Vietnam, targeting a Viet Cong leader that intelligence suggested would be present. The village was considered part of a free-fire zone by the U.S. military.

Kerrey's SEAL team first encountered a peasant house, or hooch, and killed the people inside with knives. While Kerrey says he did not go inside the hooch and did not participate in the killings, another member of the team, Gerhard Klann, said that the people killed there were an elderly man and woman and three children under 12, and that Kerrey helped kill the man. Despite the differing recollections about who actually stabbed these people, Kerrey accepts responsibility as the team leader for their deaths: "Standard operating procedure was to dispose of the people we made contact with," he told the New York Times Magazine.^[7] Later, according to Kerrey, the team was shot at from the village and returned fire, only to find after the battle that some of the deceased appeared to be under 18, clustered together in the center of the village. "The thing that I will remember until the day I die is walking in and finding, I don't know, 14 or so, I don't even know what the number was, women and children who were dead," Kerrey said in 1998. "I was expecting to find Vietcong soldiers with weapons, dead. Instead I found women and children."^[7]

Kerrey expressed anguish and guilt over the incident:

You can never, can never get away from it. It darkens your day. I thought dying for your country was the worst thing that could happen to you, and I don't think it is. I think killing for your country can be a lot worse.^[8]

Kerrey was awarded a Bronze Star for the raid on Thanh Phong. The citation for the medal reads, "The net result of his patrol was 21 Viet Cong killed, two hooches destroyed and two enemy weapons captured."

Nebraska Governor[link]

Returning to Nebraska, he operated a chain of restaurants and fitness centers from 1972 to 1982 before narrowly defeating Charles Thone in the 1982 election for Governor of Nebraska. He served in that office from 1983 to 1987. In 1986 Kerrey served as the Chairman of the Midwestern Governors Association.

U.S. Senate[link]

Official Senate portrait of Bob Kerrey

Elections[link]

1988

In 1988, ran for the U.S. Senate seat held by recently appointed incumbent Republican David Karnes. Kerrey won the Democratic primary with 92% of the vote.^[9] In the general election, he defeated Karnes 57%-42%.^[10]

1994

He won re-election to a second term defeating businesswoman Jan Stoney^[11] 55%-45%^[12] even though it was during the Republican Revolution of 1994 and that she was endorsed by several state newspapers including McCook Daily Gazette, North Platte Telegraph, Norfolk Daily News, and Grand Island Independent.^[13]

2000

On January 20, 2000, Kerrey announced that he would not seek re-election for a third term. He stated that felt he could best serve the nation in the future as a private citizen, but left the door open to running for public office again in the future. ^[14]

Tenure[link]

As a U.S. Senator representing one of the more conservative states in the country, Kerrey took arguably liberal positions on some hot-button, conservative issues. For example, he was one of only 14 senators to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996. Kerrey also led the opposition in the Senate to the proposed flag burning amendment, which failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority needed for passage. His record on economic issues was mixed but generally liberal. He voted for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which repealed the Glass–Steagall Act in 1999, defending his position against opposition by stating, "The concerns that we will have a meltdown like 1929 are dramatically overblown,".^[15] He voted against phasing out many farm subsidy programs, lawsuit reform measures such as the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, and he was one of the twelve senators to vote against the initial version of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, a welfare reform bill vetoed by President Bill Clinton. Kerrey also voted against the revised version of the legislation that was signed into law by Clinton in August 1996. Kerrey's record on environmental issues and taxation was more moderate, and he was a strong supporter of free trade and limiting the size of the federal government. The Senator pushed for a more aggressive foreign policy, helping to author the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998. He was a member of the New Democrat Coalition.

Committee assignments[link]

He served as the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for the 104th Congress before retiring in 2000. Kerrey served as a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (popularly known as the "9/11 Commission"), where he accused Madeleine Albright, William Cohen, and Donald Rumsfeld of pursuing U.S. interests with insufficient aggression.

1992 presidential election[link]

In September 1991, Kerrey announced his candidacy for the 1992 Democratic nomination for president. In a small field of five second tier candidates devoid of an early frontrunner, Kerrey was seen as the early favorite. However, his performance on the campaign trail often seemed lackluster, especially in comparison to the dynamic Arkansas Governor, Bill Clinton. A weak performance at a Chicago Democratic gathering in November 1991, combined with a lesbian joke that he told Clinton that was overheard on an open mike, diminished the initial positive press coverage Kerrey had enjoyed. Most damaging of all, though, was the revelation that few workers at Kerrey's restaurants and fitness clubs received health insurance, this despite the fact that Kerrey emphasized universal health care as one of his primary campaign themes. Kerrey finished a weak third in the New Hampshire primary in February 1992, despite spending heavily on TV advertising. He briefly rebounded after winning the South Dakota primary, but soon dropped out of the race after finishing fourth in the Colorado primary. Kerrey was on Clinton's "short list" for vice presidential candidate, but Tennessee Senator Al Gore received the nod instead.

The New School[link]

In 2001 Kerrey left the Senate to become President of The New School. At the school, Kerrey initially opposed the efforts of the United Auto Workers to unionize the adjunct (part-time) faculty, agreeing to negotiate with them only after several rulings against the administration by the National Labor Relations Board. A threatened strike of adjunct faculty was averted by the approval of a labor contract just before the strike deadline of October 31, 2005.

Kerrey presided over an ambitious program of reorganization at the university. He overhauled several divisions and brought in the respected Arjun Appadurai as Provost in 2005. Appadurai resigned this post in 2006. On April 14, 2005, Kerrey announced that the university was changing its name from New School University to The New School, and rebranding its eight divisions as specialized, separate entities serving different constituencies.

On December 10, 2008 it was announced that Kerrey had received a vote of no confidence from the University's senior faculty. This was perceived to have come as a response to his management style, his handling of a University budget crisis, and his controversial decision, later retracted,^[16] to act as temporary Provost with the departure of Joseph W. Westphal. Kerrey had five provosts during his 8-year tenure, something the faculty believed was the result of his inability to reconcile with the academic nature of a University and had prevented the growth and development of academic life at the school. Ironically, one of his vocal critics is Arjun Appadurai.^[17] This no-confidence vote was largely a symbolic gesture. The Board of Trustees, themselves under fire from the students for questionable investment of school money and connections to the defense industry, had until that point, stood by Kerrey.^[18]

On December 16, 2008, dozens of students took over the cafeteria in the 65 5th Avenue building; as the occupation continued, the group grew into hundreds of students from the New School, other New York City based universities, labor union members, and other supporters. This evolved into a 30-hour occupation involving hundreds of students, and dozens of police and New School officials. The occupation ended when students accepted a treaty; Kerrey agreed to amnesty, more student space, and more student power in school communications, investments, and decision making.^[19][20]

The following spring semester, students contended that the concessions from the December occupation were being buried in red tape. Early in the morning of April 10, 2009, 19 students took over the entire 65 5th Avenue building, erecting an anarchist flag and demanding once again that Kerrey resign. A few hours later, police in riot gear swarmed the same building, arresting 22 students (including 3 who were not inside) and ending the occupation after five hours.^[21]

On May 7, 2009 Kerrey announced that he would leave New School when his current contract expired on July 1, 2011.^[22] However, he ended up resigning earlier than planned, and was succeeded by David E. Van Zandt on January 1, 2011.^[23]

Return to politics[link]

Speculation[link]

On April 17, 2005, The New York Times reported that Kerrey was interested in becoming a Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York City, joining such candidates as Fernando Ferrer and C. Virginia Fields in opposing the re-election of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. After much speculation over the potential ramifications of his entry into the race, Kerrey eventually withdrew his interest in the 2005 mayoral race.

Following the announcement that Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning would challenge incumbent Senator Chuck Hagel in the Republican Primary, Kerrey began to show interest in returning to the Senate. Kerrey had endorsed Hagel had the Senator chosen to run again.^[24] On August 23, Kerrey said he believed that Sen. Hagel would retire, and he contacted the board of directors at The New School to inform them of the possibility that he might announce a return to Nebraska to run for the open seat.^[25] On September 8, 2007, Republican officials confirmed that Hagel would not run for a third term, heightening speculation that Kerrey would run.^[26]

On October 24, 2007 Kerrey announced through a news release that he would not run for the Senate because his family decided that it was "not the time for me to re-enter politics as a candidate".^[27]

Endorsement of Hillary Clinton[link]

On December 19, 2007, Kerrey endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Presidential nomination. In doing so, he stated that about Senator Barack Obama: "I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. [...] There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal." Some took this as an attack and Kerrey later wrote a letter of apology to Obama, saying: "I answered a question about your qualifications to be president in a way that has been interpreted as a backhanded insult of you. I assure you I meant to do just the opposite." Obama has said that he accepted Kerrey's apology.^[28]

Kerrey made negative comments about John Edwards while speaking of his Hillary Clinton endorsement in January 2008:

"Even before John Edwards was chasing ambulances in North Carolina and Barack was voting ‘present’ in the Illinois state senate, Senator Clinton was involved in major policy initiatives."^[29]

2012 U.S. Senate election[link]

On December 27, 2011, Political Wire reported that Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson would not seek re-election, and asserted that Kerrey was in talks with senior Democrats about the possibility of replacing him.^[30] The Washington Post reported that Kerrey would neither confirm nor deny the rumor.^[31] American Crossroads has been running advertisements critical of Kerrey's potential Nebraska Senate run, focusing on the fact that Kerrey has been living in New York for the last ten years.^[32] Kerrey responded to the ads with an invitation for Karl Rove to eat at one of Kerrey's restaurants in Nebraska, or to work out at one of his gyms that he owns in that state.^[33] On February 27, 2012, the Washington Post reported that Kerrey had earlier decided against a run, but that an aide had confirmed that he was now filing to seek election to his old Senate seat.^[4] Kerrey has decided to run after all.^[34]

Personal life[link]

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While he was Governor of Nebraska, Kerrey dated actress Debra Winger while the latter was in Lincoln filming Terms of Endearment (part of which is set in Nebraska), which won the 1983 Oscar for Best Picture. When confronted with intense questioning by the press over the nature of the relationship, Kerrey famously replied; "What can I say – she swept me off my foot," alluding to the fact that the lower part of one of his legs was amputated due to injuries sustained in his Medal of Honor action in Vietnam.^[35]

He is married to Sarah Paley and lives in New York City.^[35] They had a son Henry (b. September 10, 2001). He has two children from his previous marriage: Ben and Lindsey.

Kerrey is friends with fellow Vietnam veteran James H. Webb. In 2006 he became involved in convincing Webb to run for the US Senate. Webb entered the Virginia Democratic Primary, and Kerrey volunteered to serve as Webb's National Finance Chair. Webb went on to win the extremely close election in Virginia, defeating George Allen. Kerrey has also endorsed, and appeared at campaign events for, Al Franken in his bid for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota.

Honors[link]

On September 9, 2008, a pedestrian bridge connecting Omaha, Nebraska with Council Bluffs, Iowa was named in his honor by the Omaha City Council.

Military awards[link]

200px

Special Warfare insignia
Naval Parachutist Insignia
Medal of Honor|	Bronze Star Medal	Purple Heart Medal

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	United States Navy portal

• List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Vietnam War
• Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge

Notes[link]

References[link]

• "The New School's website of president Bob Kerrey". http://www.newschool.edu/admin/pres/. Retrieved October 5, 2010. 
• Vistica, Gregory L. (April 25, 2001). "One Awful Night in Thanh Phong,". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/25/magazine/25KERREY.html?ex=1138251600&en=3db9255f522f13f6&ei=5070. Retrieved October 5, 2010. ^{[dead link]} by Gregory L. Vistica, New York Times Magazine, April 25, 2001
• "2002 Interview on Education". http://www.educationupdate.com/archives/2002/feb02/htmls/coll_kerrey.html. Retrieved October 5, 2010. 
• "CNN Story on the Thanh Phong Incident". April 25, 2001. http://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/04/25/kerrey.blitzer.02/. Retrieved October 5, 2010. 
• Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.
• "Saddam, Al Qaeda Did Collaborate, Documents Show". http://www.nysun.com/article/29746. Retrieved October 5, 2010. 
• ""The War Within Bob Kerrey", New York Times, published April 26, 2001". The New York Times. April 26, 2001. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801EEDC1539F935A15757C0A9679C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/V/Vietnam%20War. Retrieved October 5, 2010. 
• ""Finish the war. Liberate Iraq. " by Robert Kerrey, The Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2002". http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110002252. Retrieved October 5, 2010. 
• ""My Perspective on the New School Commencement", blog by Bob Kerrey, Huffington Post, posted May 23, 2006". March 28, 2008. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-kerrey/my-perspective-on-the-new_b_21515.html?view=print. Retrieved October 5, 2010. 
• ""Why I'm Not Running Again for the US Senate" blog by Bob Kerrey, Huffington Post, posted October 24, 2007". March 28, 2008. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-kerrey/why-im-not-running-again_b_69700.html. Retrieved October 5, 2010. 

Further reading[link]

• Kerrey, Robert. When I Was a Young Man: A Memoir. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2002.
• Vistica, Gregory L. The Education of Lieutenant Kerrey. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2003.

External links[link]

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Works by or about Bob Kerrey in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• "Americans at War". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzusaODijRs. 

v t e Governors of Nebraska Territorial (1854–1867) Burt Cuming (acting) Izard Cuming (acting) Richardson Morton (acting) Black Morton (acting) Paddock Saunders State (since 1867) Butler James (acting) Furnas Garber Nance Dawes Thayer Boyd Crounse Holcomb Poynter Dietrich Savage Mickey Sheldon Shallenberger Aldrich Morehead Neville McKelvie Bryan McMullen Weaver Bryan Cochran Griswold Peterson Crosby Anderson Brooks Burney Morrison Tiemann Exon Thone Kerrey Orr Nelson Johanns Heineman

v t e United States Senators from Nebraska Class 1 Tipton Paddock Van Wyck Paddock Allen Hayward Allen Dietrich Burkett G. Hitchcock Howell Thompson Hunter Burke Butler Reynolds Hruska Zorinsky Karnes Kerrey Nelson Class 2 Thayer P. Hitchcock Saunders Manderson Thurston Millard Brown Norris Wherry Seaton Griswold Bowring Abel Curtis Exon Hagel Johanns

v t e Members of the 9/11 Commission Kean (Chair) Hamilton (Vice chair) Ben-Veniste Fielding Gorelick Gorton Kerrey Lehman Roemer Thompson

Deb Fischer
Member of the Nebraska Legislature from the 43rd district
Incumbent
Assumed office 2005
Preceded by	Jim Jones
Personal details
Born	(1951-03-01) March 1, 1951 (age 61) Lincoln, Nebraska
Political party	Republican
Residence	Valentine, Nebraska
Alma mater	University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Occupation	Rancher[citation needed]

Debra Strobel 'Deb' Fischer (born March 1, 1951) is a member of the Nebraska Legislature and Nebraska's Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate. Her rural legislative district is in the north-central portion of the state and is the largest geographically in Nebraska.^[1] She is running for a Senate seat against against former Senator Bob Kerrey.

Early life, education, and career[link]

Debra Strobel was born in 1951 in Lincoln, Nebraska.^[2] Her father, Jerry Strobel, was the state directory of roads under governor Kay Orr.^[3] In 1972, she married Bruce Fischer of Valentine, Nebraska, whom she had met while both attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln; she left school without completing her degree to move to Valentine with her husband. In 1988, she returned to the University and completed her B.S. degree in education.^[4]

The Fischers operate the family ranch, Sunny Slope Ranch, near Valentine. Their adults sons Adam, Morgan, and Luke own the majority of the stock in the family corporation, while Debra and Bruce Fischer retain a minority share.^[3]

Nebraska legislature[link]

Elections[link]

In 2004, she ran for the very rural 43rd Nebraska legislative district. She qualified for the general election by ranking in the top two in the open primary election, obtaining 25% in a seven candidate race.^[5] She then defeated Kevin Cooksley 50.4%–49.6%, a difference of just 125 votes.^[6] In 2008, she won re-election unopposed.^[7]

Tenure[link]

She represents physically the largest district in the Nebraska Senate.^[1] She does a weekly radio show on seven stations that cover her district and writes a weekly column printed in several newspapers to inform constituents about what is happening in the Legislature. She also schedules meetings with her constituents to keep in touch.^[8]

In 2007, Fischer helped to filibuster a bill that created a statewide smoking ban for indoor workplaces and public places, while preserving some local government control.^[9]

Fischer's colleagues in the State Senate expect her to be a formidable candidate although fundraising is a concern.^[10]

Committee assignments[link]

Fischer serves as the Chairperson for the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee and is a member of the Executive Board and the Revenue Committee.^[11]

2012 U.S. Senate election[link]

Primary

In January 2012, Fischer officially announced she would run for the U.S. Senate.^[11] In the Republican primary, she defeated State Attorney General Jon Bruning and State Treasurer Don Stenberg.^[12]

During the primary campaign, Fischer was criticized by environmentalists and others because her family's ranch near Valentine grazes cattle on federal land, leasing it for about $110,000 per year less than the market rate on private land. Opponents of federal grazing leases argue that she should relinquish her family's permit if she wants to remain "morally consistent" with her message of less government. Fischer argues that the poor quality of federal lands, plus the restrictions that come with federal leases, make it inappropriate to compare them to private leases.^[13]

General election

Fischer will face former Nebraska senator Bob Kerrey in the general election. If elected, she would be the first woman to represent Nebraska in the Senate since 1954.^[14]

Personal life[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Deb Fischer U.S. Senate campaign website
• "Nebraska Unicameral Legislature". Sen. Deb Fischer. http://news.legislature.ne.gov/dist43. Retrieved March 15, 2009. 
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission

Steve Martin
Martin in April 2011
Birth name	Stephen Glenn Martin
Born	(1945-08-14) August 14, 1945 (age 66) Waco, Texas, United States
Medium	Concert, film, recordings, television, books
Nationality	American
Years active	1967–present
Genres	Surreal humor, Musical comedy, physical comedy, sketch comedy, Wit/word play Music: bluegrass
Influences	British television, Red Skelton, Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny, Laurel and Hardy, Wally Boag[1]
Influenced	Judd Apatow, Will Arnett, Louis C.K., Stephen Colbert,[2] Eddie Izzard, Patton Oswalt,[3] Lucy Porter, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart
Spouse	Victoria Tennant (1986–1994)[4] Anne Stringfield (2007–present)
Signature
Website	www.stevemartin.com
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music 1969 The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
Grammy Awards
Best Comedy Album 1978 Let's Get Small 1979 A Wild and Crazy Guy Best Country Instrumental Performance 2002 Foggy Mountain Breakdown Best Bluegrass Album 2009 The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo
American Comedy Awards
Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy 2000 Lifetime Achievement
NYFCC Award for Best Actor
All of Me (1984)

Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, author, playwright, producer, musician and composer. Martin came to public notice as a writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and later became a frequent guest on The Tonight Show. In the 1970s, Martin performed his offbeat, absurdist comedy routines before packed houses on national tours. In 2004, Comedy Central^[5] ranked Martin at sixth place in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics.

Since the 1980s, having branched away from stand-up comedy, Martin has become a successful actor in both comedic and dramatic roles, as well as an author, playwright, pianist, and banjo player, eventually earning Emmy, Grammy, and American Comedy awards, among other honors.

Early life[link]

Martin was born in Waco, Texas,^[6] the son of Mary Lee (née Stewart) and Glenn Vernon Martin, a real estate salesman and aspiring actor.^[4][7] Martin was raised in Inglewood, California, and then later in Garden Grove, California, in a Baptist family.^[8] Martin was a cheerleader of Garden Grove High School.^[9] One of his earliest memories is of seeing his father, as an extra, serving drinks onstage at the Call Board Theatre on Melrose Place. During World War II, in England, Martin's father had appeared in a production of Our Town with Raymond Massey. Years later, he would write to Massey for help in Steve's fledgling career, but would receive no reply. Expressing his affection through gifts of cars, bikes, etc., Martin's father was stern, and not emotionally open to his son.^[10] He was proud but critical, with Martin later recalling that in his teens his feelings for his father were mostly ones of hatred.^[11] Martin's first job was at Disneyland, selling guidebooks on weekends and full-time during the summer school break. That lasted for three years (1955–1958). During his free time he frequented the Main Street Magic shop, where tricks were demonstrated to potential customers.^[10] By 1960, he had mastered several of the tricks and illusions, and took a paying job there in August. There he perfected his talents for magic, juggling, and creating balloon animals, frequently performing for tips.^[12] In his authorized biography, close friend Morris Walker suggests that Martin could "be described most accurately as an agnostic [...] he rarely went to church and was never involved in organized religion of his own volition".^[13]

Comedy[link]

After high school graduation, Martin attended Santa Ana Junior College, taking classes in drama and English poetry. In his free time, he teamed up with friend and Garden Grove High School classmate Kathy Westmoreland to participate in comedies and other productions at the Bird Cage Theatre. He joined a comedy troupe at Knott's Berry Farm.^[10] Later, he met budding actress Stormie Sherk, and they developed comedy routines and became romantically involved. Sherk's influence caused Martin to apply to the California State University, Long Beach, for enrollment with a major in Philosophy.^[10] Stormie enrolled at UCLA, about an hour's drive north, and the distance eventually caused them to lead separate lives.^[14]

Inspired by his philosophy classes, Martin considered becoming a professor instead of an actor-comedian. His time at college changed his life. "It changed what I believe and what I think about everything. I majored in philosophy. Something about non-sequiturs appealed to me. In philosophy, I started studying logic, and they were talking about cause and effect, and you start to realize, 'Hey, there is no cause and effect! There is no logic! There is no anything!' Then it gets real easy to write this stuff, because all you have to do is twist everything hard—you twist the punch line, you twist the non sequitur so hard away from the things that set it up".^[15] Martin recalls wondering in a psychology class "What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it? What if I headed for a climax, but all I delivered was an anticlimax? What would the audience do with all that tension? Theoretically, it would have to come out sometime. But if I kept denying them the formality of a punch line, the audience would eventually pick their own place to laugh, essentially out of desperation."^[16] Martin periodically spoofed his philosophy studies in his 1970s stand-up act, comparing philosophy with studying geology. "If you're studying geology, which is all facts, as soon as you get out of school you forget it all, but philosophy you remember just enough to screw you up for the rest of your life."^[17]

In 1967, Martin transferred to UCLA and switched his major to theater. While attending college, he appeared in an episode of The Dating Game. Martin began working local clubs at night, to mixed notices, and at twenty-one he dropped out of college.^[18]

Career[link]

Early career – stand-up[link]

Steve Martin, circa 1977

In 1967, his former girlfriend Nina Goldblatt, a dancer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, helped Martin land a writing job with the show by submitting his work to head writer Mason Williams.^[19] Williams initially paid Martin out of his own pocket. Along with the other writers for the show, Martin won an Emmy Award^[20] in 1969, aged 23.^[10] He also wrote for John Denver (a neighbor of his in Aspen, Colorado, at one point), The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. Martin's first TV appearance was on The Steve Allen Show in 1969. He says: "[I] appeared on The Virginia Graham Show, circa 1970. I looked grotesque. I had a hairdo like a helmet, which I blow-dried to a puffy bouffant, for reasons I no longer understand. I wore a frock coat and a silk shirt, and my delivery was mannered, slow and self-aware. I had absolutely no authority. After reviewing the show, I was depressed for a week."^[21] During these years his roommates included comedian Gary Mule Deer and singer/guitarist Michael Johnson.^[22] Martin opened for groups such as The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Carpenters, and Toto. He appeared at San Francisco's The Boarding House, among other venues. He continued to write, earning an Emmy nomination for his work on Van Dyke and Company in 1976.

In the mid-1970s, Martin made frequent appearances as a stand-up comedian on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.,^[21] and on The Gong Show, HBO's On Location and NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL). SNL's audience jumped by a million viewers when he made guest appearances, though despite a common misconception, he was never a cast member.^[10] Martin has guest-hosted Saturday Night Live 15 times, bested only in number of presentations by host Alec Baldwin (who has hosted 16 times as of September 2011). On the show, Martin popularized the air quotes gesture, which uses four fingers to make double quote marks in the air.^[23] While on the show Martin became close with several of the cast members, including Gilda Radner. On the day Radner died of ovarian cancer in 1989, a visibly shaken Martin hosted SNL and featured footage of himself and Radner together in a 1978 sketch.

His TV appearances in the 1970s led to the release of comedy albums that went platinum.^[10] The track "Excuse Me" on his first album, Let's Get Small, helped establish a national catch phrase.^[10] His next album, A Wild and Crazy Guy (1978), was an even bigger success, reaching the No.2 spot on the US sales chart, selling over a million copies. "Just a wild and crazy guy" became another of Martin's known catch phrases.^[10] The album featured a character based on a series of Saturday Night Live sketches where Martin and Dan Aykroyd played "Georgi" and "Yortuk" the Festrunk Brothers, a couple of bumbling Czechoslovak would-be playboys. The album ends with the song "King Tut", sung and written by Martin and backed by the "Toot Uncommons", members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. It was later released as a single, reaching No.17 on the US charts in 1978 and selling over a million copies.^[10][24] The song came out during the King Tut craze that accompanied the popular traveling exhibit of the Egyptian king's tomb artifacts. Both albums won Grammys for Best Comedy Recording in 1977 and 1978, respectively. Martin performed "King Tut" on the April 22, 1978, edition of SNL.

On his comedy albums, Martin's stand-up is self-referential and sometimes self-mocking. It mixes philosophical riffs with sudden spurts of "happy feet", banjo playing with balloon depictions of concepts like venereal disease, and the controversial kitten juggling (he is a master juggler). His style is off-kilter and ironic, and sometimes pokes fun at stand-up comedy traditions, such as Martin opening his act (from A Wild and Crazy Guy) by saying, "I think there's nothing better for a person to come up and do the same thing over and over for two weeks. This is what I enjoy, so I'm going to do the same thing over and over and over [...] I'm going to do the same joke over and over in the same show, it'll be like a new thing." Or: "Hello, I'm Steve Martin, and I'll be out here in a minute."^[23][25] In one comedy routine, used on the Comedy Is Not Pretty! album, Martin claimed that his real name was "Gern Blanston". The riff took on a life of its own. There is a Gern Blanston website, and for a time a rock band took the moniker as their name.^[26] He stopped stand-up in 1981 to concentrate on movies and never went back.^[10]

Acting career – film[link]

Martin in 1982

By the end of the 1970s, Martin had acquired the kind of following normally reserved for rock stars, with his tour appearances typically occurring at sold-out arenas filled with tens of thousands of screaming fans. But unknown to his audience, stand-up comedy was "just an accident" for him; his real goal was to get into film.^[15]

Martin's first film was a short, The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977). The seven-minute-long film, also featuring Buck Henry and Teri Garr, was written by and starred Martin. The film was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Short Film, Live Action. He made his first feature film appearance in the musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, where he sang The Beatles' "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". In 1979, Martin co-wrote and starred in his first full-length movie, The Jerk, directed by Carl Reiner. The movie was a huge success, grossing over $100 million on a budget of approximately $4 million.^[27]

Stanley Kubrick met with him to discuss the possibility of Martin starring in a screwball comedy version of Traumnovelle (Kubrick later changed his approach to the material, the result of which was 1999's Eyes Wide Shut). Martin was executive producer for Domestic Life, a prime-time television series starring friend Martin Mull, and a late-night series called Twilight Theater. It emboldened Martin to try his hand at his first serious film, Pennies from Heaven, a movie he was anxious to perform in because of his desire to avoid being typecast. To prepare for that film, Martin took acting lessons from director Herbert Ross, and spent months learning how to tap dance. The film was a financial failure; Martin's comment at the time was "I don't know what to blame, other than it's me and not a comedy."^[28]

Martin was in three more Reiner-directed comedies after The Jerk: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid in 1982, The Man with Two Brains in 1983 and All of Me in 1984, possibly his most critically acclaimed comic performance to date.^[29][30] In 1986, Martin joined fellow Saturday Night Live veterans Martin Short and Chevy Chase in ¡Three Amigos!, directed by John Landis, and written by Martin, Lorne Michaels, and singer-songwriter Randy Newman. It was originally entitled The Three Caballeros and Martin was to be teamed with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. In 1986, Martin was in the movie musical film version of the hit Off-Broadway play Little Shop of Horrors (based on a famous B-movie), playing the sadistic dentist, Orin Scrivello. The film was the first of three films teaming Martin with Rick Moranis. In 1987, Martin joined comedian John Candy in the John Hughes movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles. That same year, Roxanne, the film adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac which Martin co-wrote, won him a Writers Guild of America, East award. It also garnered recognition from Hollywood and the public that he was more than a comedian. In 1988, he performed in the Frank Oz film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a remake of Bedtime Story, alongside Michael Caine.