Steve Martin life and biography

Steve Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer.

Comedian Steve Martin was born Stephen Glenn Martin the son of a would-be actor and housewife mother in Waco, Texas, in 1945. Relocating to Southern California while he was young, Martin eventually got a job working at Disneyland in the mid-to-late 1950s. While working there, he spent a great deal of time in the magic shop and eventually got hired there, becoming an amateur magician and getting his first taste of public performance. While attending high school, Martin became involved in theater and comedy productions at Knott's Berry Farm before moving on to study philosophy at California State University and eventually UCLA.

In 1967, Martin began performing comedy in nightclubs around California. Dropping out of college at age 21, Martin got his first TV job as a writer and occasional performer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. By the mid-'70s, Martin had established himself as a popular stand-up, first as an opening act for successful bands (such as the Carpenters) and then with frequent appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Saturday Night Live. His first stand-up album, Let's Get Small, was a huge success, winning the Comedy Album Grammy and launching Martin into rock-star status as a comic.

Through the rest of the 1970s and early '80s, Martin continued to sell out stadiums and theaters and became one of the most successful stand-up comedians of all time. In 1979, he crossed over into movie stardom with his role in The Jerk. His second album, A Wild and Crazy Guy (named for his catchphrase as one of the Czech brothers on SNL) also won the Comedy Album Grammy. He released two more comedy albums, Comedy is Not Pretty! in 1979 and The Steve Martin Brothers in 1981; deciding he had accomplished what he wanted (and feeling boxed in by success), Martin walked away from stand-up in the early 1980s.

Throughout the 1980s, Martin continued to headline films including The Man With Two Brains, Three Amigos! (co-written by him, SNL creator Lorne Michaels and musician Randy Newman), Parenthood, All of Me, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Roxanne, for which he wrote the screenplay.

Martin continued to act in the 1990s, branching out into dramas like Grand Canyon (1991) and The Spanish Prisoner (1998). He began starring in "family" comedies like the Father of the Bride and Cheaper by the Dozen series, as well as had two more screenplays turned into films: L.A. Story (1991) and Bowfinger (1999).

In the early 1990s, The New Yorker began publishing a series of essays by Martin, which were eventually collected in Pure Drivel in 1993. He also began writing plays at this time, and in 1993 wrote his first, Picasso at the Lapine Agile. He would later adapt and write The Underpants in 2002.

Martin would also go on to publish two novellas: Shopgirl in 2000 (which was later turned into a film in 2005, which Martin wrote and starred in) and The Pleasure of My Company in 2003. In 2008, Martin published Born Standing Up, a memoir about his days as a hugely successful stand-up comedian.

Films:

2009 The Pink Panther 2
2008 Baby Mama
2006 The Pink Panther
2005 Cheaper by the Dozen 2 ; Shopgirl
2003 Cheaper by the Dozen ; Looney Tunes: Back in Action ; Bringing Down the House
2001 Novocaine
2000 Joe Gould's Secret
1999 Bowfinger ; The Out-of-Towners
1998 The Prince of Egypt
1997 The Spanish Prisoner
1996 Sgt. Bilko
1995 Father of the Bride Part II
1994 Mixed Nuts ; A Simple Twist of Fate
1992 Leap of Faith ; House Sitter
1991 Grand Canyon ; Father of the Bride ; L.A. Story
1990 My Blue Heaven
1989 Parenthood
1988 Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
1987 Planes, Trains & Automobiles ; Roxanne
1986 Little Shop of Horrors ; A Three Amigos!
1985 Movers & Shakers
1984 All of Me ; The Lonely Guy
1983 The Man with Two Brains
1982 Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
1981 Pennies from Heaven
1979 The Jerk ; The Muppet Movie
1978 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1977 The Absent-Minded Waiter

Discography:

Let's Get Small (1977)
A Wild and Crazy Guy (1978)
Comedy is Not Pretty! (1979)
The Steve Martin Brothers (1981)
The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo (2009)

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