Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to Present Carol Burnett with SAG’s Life Achievement Award

Carol Burnett SAG Award Winner
Carol Burnett (Photo by Randee St. Nicholas, Copyright 2010 Mabel Cat Inc)

Amy Poehler and Tina Fey will have the honor of presenting Carol Burnett with the Screen Actors Guild’s Life Achievement Award during the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 30, 2016. The SAG Awards, which will air live on TNT and TBS at 5pm PT/8pm ET, are voted on by members of SAG-AFTRA and unlike other major awards, the SAG Awards only honor the work of actors (you won’t see Best Film, Best Director, or other categories from SAG). Membership in SAG-AFTRA currently stands at 116,741.

Complete list of 2016 SAG Awards nominees

The Life Achievement Award is given to “an actor who fosters the finest ideals of the acting profession, including career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment.” Burnett, the 52nd actor to earn the honor, joins a list of recipients that includes Debbie Reynolds, Rita Moreno, 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.

Carol Burnett, 2015 Life Achievement Award Recipient Details (Courtesy of SAG)

The 2015 Life Achievement Award will join Carol Burnett’s record of preeminent industry honors, which include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a Kennedy Center Honor and its Mark Twain Prize for Humor, a Peabody Award, the Television Critics Association’s Career Achievement Award, dozens of Emmy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, five American Comedy Awards, 12 People’s Choice Awards, an Ace Award, a Horatio Alger Award, both Crystal and Lucy Awards from Women in Film, the TV Land Legend Award, the Jimmy Stewart Museum’s Harvey Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


Burnett first made her mark as a member of “The Garry Moore Show” ensemble and for her Tony®-nominated performance in the original Broadway musical production of “Once Upon a Mattress.” Her rise to household name came in 1967, when “The Carol Burnett Show” premiered on CBS with a talented ensemble featuring Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner. Burnett’s portrayal of “Starlet” O’Hara in a “Gone with the Wind” parody is always counted among the top 10 greatest moments in television history. Its famous Bob Mackie-designed “curtain-rod” dress now resides at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Burnett’s film credits include John Huston’s version of the musical “Annie”; Peter Bogdanovich’s “Noises Off”; Robert Altman’s “A Wedding”; and Alan Alda’s “Four Seasons.” On Broadway she starred in A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters,” Stephen Sondheim’s musical “review” “Putting It Together,” and Ken Ludwig’s farce “Moon Over Buffalo.” She also starred in the highly acclaimed television movies “Friendly Fire” and “Life of the Party: The Story of Beatrice,” produced and starred in numerous specials, and guest-starred on such series as “Glee,” “Hot in Cleveland,” and “Law and Order: SVU.”

Burnett has written three New York Times-bestselling memoirs: “One More Time,” followed by “This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection” and “Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story,” both Grammy® nominees for best spoken word recordings. She added playwright to her credits when she and her daughter, Carrie Hamilton, wrote “Hollywood Arms.” Sadly, Carrie passed away four months prior to the play’s premiere at the Chicago Goodman Theatre in April 2002. Directed by Hal Prince, “Hollywood Arms” premiered on Broadway later that year.

This year, Burnett already has been seen in the PBS telecast of “A Celebration of American Creativity: In Performance at the White House” and returned to CBS’ “Hawaii Five-0” for a special episode.

Burnett is in active development with CBS Films on “Sunrise in Memphis,” a theatrical project originated by her late daughter Carrie and is writing her fourth book, entitled “In Such Good Company,” a poignant love letter to the golden era of television that simultaneously examines what made “The Carol Burnett Show” an iconic success.