22nd Screen Actors Guild Awards - Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award

Carol Burnett

The Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award is given by the Screen Actors Guild's National Honors and Tributes Committee "for outstanding achievement in fostering the finest ideals of the acting profession."  The award predates the 1st Screen Actors Guild Awards by over thirty years, having been presented annually since 1962, except for 1964 and 1981.

Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and writer. She is best known for her long-running TV variety show, The Carol Burnett Show, for CBS. She has achieved success on stage, television, and film in varying genres including dramatic and comedy roles.

Born in San Antonio, Texas to alcoholic parents, Burnett moved with her grandmother to Hollywood, where she attended Hollywood High School and eventually studied theater and musical comedy at UCLA. Later she performed in nightclubs in New York City and had a breakout success on Broadway in 1959 in Once Upon a Mattress, for which she received a Tony Award nomination. She soon made her television debut, regularly appearing on The Garry Moore Show for the next three years, and won her first Emmy Award in 1962. Burnett moved to Los Angeles, California, and began an 11-year run as star of The Carol Burnett Show on CBS television from 1967 to 1978. With its vaudeville roots, The Carol Burnett Show was a variety show that combined comedy sketches with song and dance. The comedy sketches included film parodies and character pieces. Burnett created many memorable characters during the show's television run, and both she and the show won numerous Emmy and Golden Globe Awards.

During and after her variety show, Burnett appeared in many television and film projects. Her film roles include Pete 'n' Tillie (1972), The Four Seasons (1981), Annie (1982), Noises Off (1992), and Horton Hears a Who! (2008). On television, she has appeared in other sketch shows; in dramatic roles in 6 Rms Riv Vu (1974) and Friendly Fire (1979); in various well-regarded guest roles, such as in Mad About You, for which she won an Emmy Award; and in specials with Julie Andrews, Dolly Parton, Beverly Sills, and others. She also returned to the Broadway stage in 1995 in Moon Over Buffalo, for which she was again nominated for a Tony Award.