Steve Martin born on August 14, 1945, is an American actor, comedian, writer, musician, and producer. Martin started his career as a stand-up comedian but eventually made his way to Television, movies, and Broadway.
Steve Martin Biography and Net Worth
| Net Worth $150 M |
| Full Name Stephen Glenn Martin |
| Birth Date August 14, 1945 |
| Age 76 years |
| Birthplace Waco, Texas, United States |
| Profession Actor, Comedian, Musician, Writer |
| Wife Anne Stringfield |
Steve Martin Early Life
Steve Martin was raised in Inglewood, California and later he moved to Garden Grove, California. While attending school, Martin also had a part-time job at Disneyland selling guidebooks. While his time there he learned various magic and illusion tricks, juggling, and how to make balloon animals which landed him a full-time job at a magic shop in Fantasyland. After completing his High school, Martin joined Santa Ana College, where he took classes in English and poetry. Martin also participated in various comedies and other production at The Bird Cage theatre in his free time. He also joined a comedy troupe at Knott’s Berry Farm. Later, he changed his major to philosophy and joined California State University, Long Beach. During his time as a philosophy student, Martin considered giving up acting and becoming a professor. However in 1967, Martin transferred to UCLA and started studying theatre. In college, Martin appeared in an episode of ‘The Dating Game’. Martin was also working in local clubs at night, and eventually he dropped out of college at the age of 21.
Steve Martin Career
In 1967, Martin got a writing job where he wrote for the show ‘The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hours’ , which earned Martin his first Emmy award along with other writers of the show. Martin also wrote for ‘The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour’ and ‘The Sony and Cher Comedy Hour’. He also made his first TV appearance on ‘The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hours’ in 1968. During this time, Martin opened for groups such as Toto, The carpenters, and The Nitty Gritty Dirt band. In 1976, Martin earned an Emmy nomination for his work as a writer on Van Dyke and Company.
Steve Martin started working as a stand-up comedian in mid 1970s, where he made various appearances on The Tonight show starring Johnny Carson, The Gong show, On Location, The Muppet show, and NBC’s Saturday Night Live (SNL). Martin was considered one the most successful hosts of SNL, and audience ratings would jump by a million whenever he made a guest appearance. Martin appeared a total of 27 times on the show and guest hosted SNL 15 times. While appearing on the show Martin popularized the air quotes gesture.
In 1977, Martin released his first comedy album called ‘Let’s Get Small’ that went platinum. His second album ‘A Wild and Crazy Guy’ (1978) was a much bigger success and sold over a million copies, reaching the No.2 spot on U.S. sales charts. Martin was awarded Grammys for best comedy recording for both his albums in 1977 and 1978 respectively.
Martin’s stand-up comedy became such a huge hit at the time that he started performing sold-out shows at full-sized stadiums. He also started wearing a white three piece suite to be visible for all the audience, and that later became a part of his act. In 1981, Martin stopped performing as stand-up comedian and didn’t return for 35 years. Martin believed that his act was conceptual and once the concept was delivered and understood there was no need to keep going. His goal wasn’t to find a certain niche and stay there, he wanted a dynamic career. In 2016, Martin did make a subtle comeback to stand-up comedy by opening shows for Jerry Seinfeld. In the same year he started a national tour with Martin Short which landed them a Netflix comedy special in 2018. The special received four primetime Emmy nominations.
While stand-up comedy just happened as a lucky coincidence, Martin’s real goal of joining the entertainment industry was to appear in films. He had various small acting credits to his name, but his breakthrough film appearance was in a short-film titled ‘The absent minded water’ (1977) which was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1979, comedy movie ‘The jerk’ starring Martin was a huge commercial success. Martin appeared in various acting projects including Father of the bride, bringing down the house, cheaper by the dozen, shopgirl and pink panther 1 and 2. He also guest starred on The Simpsons and 30 rocks. In 2009, Martin appeared in a romantic comedy called ‘It’s Complicated’ and that same year an article in The Guardian stated Martin to be one of the best actors who have never received an Academy Award nomination. Currently, Steve Martin is starring and producing a series called ‘Only murders in the building’ which is a huge success.
As a writer, Martin has also written a full length play, novellas, and a novel. He also published his memoir in 2007. Martin also had a great success at Broadway receiving Tony nomination for his work. Steve Martin has hosted academy awards three times and has also released a Grammy award winning album in 2009 called ‘The Crow: New song for the 5 string Banjo’.
Steve Martin wife
Steve Martin has been married to Anne Stringfield since 2007 and the couple also shares a daughter named Mary Martin.
Steve Martin Net worth
With successful career as comedian, actor, writer, musician, and producer, Martin has an earned a huge net worth of almost 150 million dollars.
