by Nathaniel R
Right now we... no, always, we really like her. So to does the Kennedy Center Honors, which has selected the two-time Oscar winner and three-time Emmy winner as one of their five recipients of the prestigious honor for contribution to the American arts. In addition to Sally Field, this year's star-studded December gala will honor the R&B band Earth Wind & Fire, the program Sesame Street, the conductor/composer Michael Tilson Thomas, and singer Linda Rondstadt (who is having a very big year because an Oscar-hopeful doc about her The Sound of My Voice is also revving up for release). We tend to forget who the Kennedy Center has honored and who they haven't yet, so after the jump a list of all famous actors or director recipients to date...
Actors & Directors
(though some of the actors listed were honored more for their music if they were crossovers)
+ = honored as a pair
- 1978 Fred Astaire
- 1979 Henry Fonda
- 1980 James Cagney
- 1981 Cary Grant, Helen Hayes
- 1982 Lillian Gish, Gene Kelly
- 1983 Elia Kazan, Frank Sinatra, and James Stewart
- 1984 Danny Kaye
- 1985 Irene Dunne, Bob Hope
- 1986 Lucille Ball, Hume Cronyn + Jessica Tandy
- 1987 Bette Davis, Sammy Davis Jr.
- 1988 George Burns, Myrna Loy
- 1989 Harry Belafonte, Claudette Colbert
- 1990 Katharine Hepburn,Billy Wilder
- 1991 Gregory Peck
- 1992 Paul Newman + Joanne Woodward, Ginger Rogers
- 1994 Kirk Douglas
- 1995 Sidney Poitier
- 1996 Jack Lemmon
- 1997 Lauren Bacall, Charlton Heston
- 1998 Shirley Temple Black
- 1999 Sean Connery, Jason Robards
- 2000 Clint Eastwood, Angela Lansbury
- 2001 Julie Andrews, Jack Nicholson
- 2002 James Earl Jones, Elizabeth Taylor
- 2003 Carol Burnett, Mike Nichols
- 2004 Warren Beatty, Ossie Davis + Ruby Dee
- 2005 Julie Harris, Robert Redford
- 2006 Dolly Parton, Steven Spielberg
- 2007 Steve Martin, Diana Ross, Martin Scorsese
- 2008 Morgan Freeman, Barbra Streisand
- 2009 Mel Brooks, Robert DeNiro
- 2010 Oprah Winfrey
- 2011 Meryl Streep
- 2012 Dustin Hoffman
- 2013 Shirley Maclaine
- 2014 Tom Hanks, Sting, and Lily Tomlin
- 2015 George Lucas, Rita Moreno, Cicely Tyson
- 2016 Al Pacino
- 2017 LL Cool J
- 2018 Cher, Reba McEntire
- 2019 Sally Field, Linda Ronstadt
Doris Day famously turned down their offer. Mel Brooks and Katharine Hepburn both refused the first offer but accepted the second. The Trumps are the first presidential couple to skip the ceremony. To quote Chicago composers Kander & Ebb, also honored by the Kennedy Center, 'whatever happened to class?'
MAY WE SUGGEST? Some people that are the right age for this that they should maybe consider: Bernadette Peters, Harvey Fierstein, Liza Minnelli, Jane Fonda, Ellen Burstyn, Glenn Close, Stockard Channing, Kathleen Turner, Ann Reinking, and Sigourney Weaver.
And may we prematurely suggest Michelle Pfeiffer, B.D. Wong, Audra McDonald, Cherry Jones, Viola Davis, Holly Hunter, Laura Dern, Brad Pitt, and Angela Bassett for the 2028-2040 ceremonies when they're closer to the typical age range of honorees?