132-400: ¡Three Amigos! is a 1986 American Western comedy film directed by John Landis , written by Lorne Michaels , Steve Martin , and Randy Newman (who also wrote the film's songs), produced by Michaels and George Folsey Jr. (who also served as second unit director ), and starring Martin, Chevy Chase , Martin Short , Alfonso Arau , Tony Plana , Patrice Martinez , and Joe Mantegna . It
264-551: A Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance in 2002. His first solo music album, The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo (2009) received the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album . Stephen Glenn Martin was born on August 14, 1945, in Waco, Texas , the son of Mary Lee (née Stewart; 1913–2002) and Glenn Vernon Martin (1914–1997), a real estate salesman and aspiring actor. He has an older sister, Melinda. Martin
396-516: A piñata . Lucky frees himself, but Dusty and Ned are discovered and held captive. The German, having idolized Ned's quick-draw and gun-spinning pistol skills in childhood, challenges him to a shootout. Ned kills the German and Lucky holds El Guapo at gunpoint long enough for Carmen and the Amigos to escape in the German's plane. Returning to Santa Poco with El Guapo's army in pursuit, the Amigos rally
528-415: A "moron". Chase agreed to do the line after Landis threatened to give it to Short instead. Chase recalled making a "hideous" insult about Landis's supposed lack of stunt precautions at a 50-foot (15 m) cliff, in reference to Landis's ongoing Twilight Zone accidental death trial, which Landis overheard on live microphone and over which he nearly started a fistfight. Chase later said that making this movie
660-561: A "mythic vision of the plains and deserts of the American West". Specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways, wilderness, and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a stock plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution, which is often dispensed through a shootout or quick draw duel. The Western genre sometimes portrays
792-519: A Miss Rene film is visible when the Amigos steal their costumes from the studio. A number of deleted scenes featuring Sam Kinison as a mountain man were lost, as were most of Drescher's other scenes. Elmer Bernstein wrote the score for Three Amigos and Randy Newman wrote the songs. Three Amigos grossed $ 39.2 million in the U.S. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 45% based on 42 reviews and an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, " Three Amigos! stars
924-629: A Musical and Best Original Score and received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and the Outstanding Critics Circle Award for Best New Score. He also received a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album . Martin's next work as a playwright was the comic play Meteor Shower which opened at San Diego 's Old Globe Theatre in August 2016, and went on to Connecticut 's Long Wharf Theatre later
1056-419: A Variety Special and Outstanding Music and Lyrics for "The Buddy Song". By the end of the 1970s, Martin had acquired the kind of following normally reserved for rock stars, with his tour appearances typically occurring at sold-out arenas filled with tens of thousands of screaming fans. But unknown to his audience, stand-up comedy was "just an accident" for him; his real goal was to get into film. Martin had
1188-403: A cantina near Santa Poco, a German pilot inquires about El Guapo and demands respect for his friends who will arrive soon. The Amigos stop at the cantina in costume soon afterward and are assumed to be the German's friends. They mistake the fearful patrons for star-struck fans and perform a cheerful song and dance ("My Little Buttercup"). After they leave, the German's associates arrive and shoot up
1320-444: A dancer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour , helped Martin land a writing job with the show by submitting his work to head writer Mason Williams . Williams initially paid Martin out of his own pocket. Along with the other writers for the show, Martin won an Emmy Award in 1969 at the age of twenty-three. He wrote for The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour . Martin's first television appearance
1452-582: A guest star in 30 Rock as Gavin Volure in the episode Gavin Volure . He was nominated for an Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series . The following year he starred in Nancy Meyers ' romantic comedy It's Complicated (2009), opposite Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin . In 2009, an article in The Guardian listed Martin as one of the best actors never to receive an Oscar nomination. During
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#17327766873471584-418: A late-night series called Twilight Theater . It emboldened Martin to try his hand at his first serious film, Pennies from Heaven (1981), based on the 1978 BBC serial by Dennis Potter . He was anxious to perform in the movie because of his desire to avoid being typecast . To prepare for that film, Martin took acting lessons from director Herbert Ross and spent months learning how to tap dance . The film
1716-416: A list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics . The Guardian named him one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination. Martin first came to public notice as a writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour , for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1969, and later as a frequent host on Saturday Night Live . He became one of the most popular U.S. stand-up comedians during
1848-470: A magical swordsman to locate El Guapo, but Dusty botches the ritual and shoots the swordsman. At his hideout, El Guapo prepares for his 40th birthday party, when he will accept a shipment of weapons from the German and then bed Carmen. The Amigos find the hideout by following the German's plane and swing in from the outer wall with mixed results. Lucky is immediately captured and chained in a dungeon, Dusty crashes into Carmen's room, and Ned ends up suspended from
1980-609: A national catch phrase . His next album, A Wild and Crazy Guy (1978), was an even bigger success, reaching the No. 2 spot on the U.S. sales chart, selling over a million copies. "Just a wild and crazy guy" became another of Martin's known catchphrases. The album featured a character based on a series of Saturday Night Live sketches in which Martin and Dan Aykroyd played the Festrunk Brothers; Yortuk and Georgi were bumbling Czechoslovak would-be playboys. The album ends with
2112-481: A number of occasions, famous examples being Support Your Local Sheriff! , Cat Ballou , Mel Brooks 's Blazing Saddles , and Rustler's Rhapsody . George Lucas 's Star Wars films use many elements of a Western, and Lucas has said he intended for Star Wars to revitalize cinematic mythology, a part the Western once held. The Jedi , who take their name from Jidaigeki , are modeled after samurai, showing
2244-485: A person to come up and do the same thing over and over for two weeks. This is what I enjoy, so I'm going to do the same thing over and over and over [...] I'm going to do the same joke over and over in the same show, it'll be like a new thing. Or: "Hello, I'm Steve Martin, and I'll be out here in a minute." In one comedy routine, used on the Comedy Is Not Pretty! album, Martin claimed that his real name
2376-452: A popular art form. Western films commonly feature protagonists such as cowboys, gunslingers, and bounty hunters, who are often depicted as seminomadic wanderers who wear Stetson hats, bandannas , spurs, and buckskins , use revolvers or rifles as everyday tools of survival and as a means to settle disputes using frontier justice. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds. The first films that belong to
2508-478: A professor instead of an actor-comedian. Being at college changed his life. It changed what I believe and what I think about everything. I majored in philosophy. Something about non sequiturs appealed to me. In philosophy, I started studying logic , and they were talking about cause and effect , and you start to realize, 'Hey, there is no cause and effect! There is no logic! There is no anything!' Then it gets real easy to write this stuff because all you have to do
2640-573: A revival of Waiting for Godot directed by Mike Nichols. He played Vladimir , with Robin Williams as Estragon and Bill Irwin as Lucky. Martin starred in the Ron Howard film Parenthood with Rick Moranis in 1989. He later re-teamed with Moranis in the Mafia comedy My Blue Heaven (1990). In 1991, Martin starred in and wrote L.A. Story , a romantic comedy, in which the female lead
2772-570: A setting, where it tasked players to lead a party of settlers moving westward in a covered wagon from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. The game only grew popular in the 1980s and 1990s as an educational game. The first video game Westerns to engage the mass public arrived in arcade games focused on the gunfighter in Westerns based on depictions in television shows, films and Electro-mechanical games such as Dale Six Shooter (1950), and Sega 's Gun Fight (1970). The first of these games
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#17327766873472904-688: A sheriff in fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming . Originally aired on the A&;E network from 2012 to 2014, it was picked up by Netflix in 2015 until the show's conclusion in 2017. AMC and Vince Gilligan's critically acclaimed Breaking Bad is a much more modern take on the Western genre. Set in New Mexico from 2008 through 2013, it follows Walter White ( Bryan Cranston ), a chemistry teacher diagnosed with Stage III Lung Cancer who cooks and sells crystal meth to provide money for his family after he dies, while slowly growing further and further into
3036-682: A small role in the 1972 film Another Nice Mess . In 1974, he starred in the Canadian travelogue production The Funnier Side Of Eastern Canada, created to promote tourism in Montreal and Toronto, which also included standup segments filmed at the Ice House in Pasadena, California. His first substantial film appearance was in a short titled The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977). The seven-minute-long film, also featuring Buck Henry and Teri Garr ,
3168-688: A ten-minute stand-up routine before turning the stage over to Seinfeld. Also in 2016 he staged a national tour with Martin Short and the Steep Canyon Rangers , which yielded a 2018 Netflix comedy special, Steve Martin and Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life . The special received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations with Martin receiving two nominations for Outstanding Writing for
3300-485: A trio of gifted comedians and has an agreeably silly sense of humor, but they're often adrift in a dawdling story with too few laugh-out-loud moments." On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100 based on 13 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade "B" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave
3432-501: A victory party for the Amigos. The next morning, El Guapo and his gang come to Santa Poco and call them out, but they think it's another show. After Lucky is shot, they realize they are confronting real bandits and beg for mercy, explaining that they are harmless actors. El Guapo decides they are not worth killing, orders the village looted, and kidnaps Carmen. The Amigos leave Santa Poco in disgrace. Ned persuades Lucky and Dusty to go after El Guapo and become real heroes. They try summoning
3564-545: A writer for the syndicated single-panel comic Bliss . Together, they published the cartoon collection A Wealth of Pigeons . In 2022, they collaborated again for Martin's illustrated autobiography, Number One is Walking . In 1993, Martin wrote his first full-length play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile . The first reading of the play took place in Beverly Hills, California at his home, with Tom Hanks reading
3696-589: Is a genre of literature set in the American Old West, most commonly between 1860 and 1900. The first critically recognized Western was The Virginian (1902) by Owen Wister . Other well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey , from the early 1900s, Ernest Haycox , Luke Short , and Louis L'Amour , from the mid 20th century. Many writers better known in other genres, such as Leigh Brackett , Elmore Leonard , and Larry McMurtry , have also written Western novels. The genre's popularity peaked in
3828-512: Is a series of seven books that meshes themes of Westerns, high fantasy , science fiction, and horror. The protagonist Roland Deschain is a gunslinger whose image and personality are largely inspired by the Man with No Name from Sergio Leone's films. In addition, the superhero fantasy genre has been described as having been derived from the cowboy hero, only powered up to omnipotence in a primarily urban setting. The Western genre has been parodied on
3960-443: Is a war film, but its action and characters are Western-like. The character played by Humphrey Bogart in noir films such as Casablanca and To Have and Have Not —an individual bound only by his own private code of honor—has a lot in common with the classic Western hero. In turn, the Western has also explored noir elements, as with films such as Colorado Territory and Pursued . In many of Robert A. Heinlein 's books,
4092-492: Is all facts, as soon as you get out of school you forget it all, but philosophy you remember just enough to screw you up for the rest of your life. In 1967, Martin transferred to UCLA and switched his major to theater. While attending college, he appeared in an episode of The Dating Game , winning a date with Deana Martin . Martin began working local clubs at night, to mixed notices, and at twenty-one, he dropped out of college. In 1967, his former girlfriend Nina Goldblatt,
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4224-651: Is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and musician. Known for his work in comedy films, television , and recording , he has received many accolades , including five Grammy Awards , a Primetime Emmy Award and an Honorary Academy Award , in addition to nominations for two Tony Awards . He also received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2005, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007, and an AFI Life Achievement Award in 2015. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Martin at sixth place in
4356-413: Is maintained predominantly through relatively impersonal institutions such as courtrooms . The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a seminomadic wanderer, usually a cowboy or a gunfighter. A showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns. In some ways, such protagonists may be considered
4488-699: Is of English , Scottish , Welsh , Scots-Irish , German , and French descent and grew up in Inglewood, California , with his sister and then later in Garden Grove, California , in a Baptist family. Steve was a cheerleader at Garden Grove High School . One of his earliest memories is seeing his father, as an extra serving drinks onstage at the Callboard Theater on Melrose Place in West Hollywood, California . During World War II , in
4620-501: Is self-referential and sometimes self-mocking . It mixes philosophical riffs with sudden spurts of "happy feet", banjo playing with balloon depictions of concepts like venereal disease , and the "controversial" kitten juggling (he is a master juggler; the "kittens" were stuffed animal toys ). His style is off-kilter and ironic and sometimes pokes fun at stand-up comedy traditions, such as Martin opening his act (from A Wild and Crazy Guy ) by saying: I think there's nothing better for
4752-757: Is the place to go for music (raucous piano playing), women (often prostitutes ), gambling (draw poker or five-card stud), drinking ( beer , whiskey , or tequila if set in Mexico), brawling, and shooting. In some Westerns, where civilization has arrived, the town has a church, a general store, a bank, and a school; in others, where frontier rules still hold sway, it is, as Sergio Leone said, "where life has no value". Author and screenwriter Frank Gruber identified seven basic plots for Westerns: Gruber said that good writers used dialogue and plot development to develop these basic plots into believable stories. The American Film Institute defines Western films as those "set in
4884-426: Is the story of three American silent film stars who are mistaken for real heroes by the suffering people of a small Mexican village. The actors must find a way to live up to their reputation and stop a malevolent group of bandits . Orion Pictures released Three Amigos on December 12, 1986, and it earned $ 39.2 million against a budget of $ 25 million. In 1916, the bandit El Guapo and his gang collect tribute from
5016-400: Is twist everything hard—you twist the punch line , you twist the non sequitur so hard away from the things that set it up. Martin recalls reading a treatise on comedy that led him to think: What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it? What if I headed for a climax, but all I delivered was an anticlimax? What would
5148-412: Is usually punctuated with a Western music score , including American folk music and Spanish / Mexican folk music such as country , Native American music , New Mexico music , and rancheras . Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid , desolate landscape of deserts and mountains . Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting
5280-724: The Father of the Bride films (1991–1995), Bringing Down the House (2003), and the Cheaper by the Dozen films (2003–2005). Since 2015, Martin has embarked on several national comedy tours with fellow comedian Martin Short . In 2018, they released their Netflix special An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life which received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations. In 2021, he co-created and starred in his first television show,
5412-834: The American frontier (commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West") between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States , particularly the Southwestern United States , as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada . The frontier is depicted in Western media as a sparsely populated hostile region patrolled by cowboys , outlaws , sheriffs , and numerous other stock gunslinger characters. Western narratives often concern
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5544-1342: The Atari 2600 and Gun Fight (1978) for the Bally Astrocade were derivative of Midway's Gun Fight . These early video games featured limited graphical capabilities , which had developers create Westerns to the most easily recognizable and popular tropes of the gunfighter shootouts. Western radio dramas were very popular from the 1930s to the 1960s. There were five types of Western radio dramas during this period: anthology programs, such as Empire Builders and Frontier Fighters ; juvenile adventure programs such as Red Ryder and Hopalong Cassidy ; legend and lore like Red Goose Indian Tales and Cowboy Tom's Round-Up ; adult Westerns like Fort Laramie and Frontier Gentleman ; and soap operas such as Cactus Kate . Some popular shows include The Lone Ranger (first broadcast in 1933), The Cisco Kid (first broadcast in 1942), Dr. Sixgun (first broadcast in 1954), Have Gun–Will Travel (first broadcast in 1958), and Gunsmoke (first broadcast in 1952). Many shows were done live, while others were transcribed. Westerns have been showcased in short-episodic web series. Examples include League of STEAM , Red Bird , and Arkansas Traveler . Within
5676-660: The Bird Cage Theatre . He joined a comedy troupe at Knott's Berry Farm . Later, he met budding actress Stormie Sherk , and they developed comedy routines and became romantically involved. Sherk's influence caused Martin to apply to the California State University, Long Beach , for enrollment with a major in philosophy. Sherk enrolled at UCLA , about an hour's drive north, and the distance eventually caused them to lead separate lives. Inspired by his philosophy classes, Martin considered becoming
5808-730: The Chicago International Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival before going into limited release in the US. In 2007, he published a memoir, Born Standing Up , which Time magazine named as one of the Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2007, ranking it at No. 6, and praising it as "a funny, moving, surprisingly frank memoir." In 2010, he published the novel An Object of Beauty. Beginning in 2019, Martin has collaborated with cartoonist Harry Bliss as
5940-537: The Grand Canyon , Yosemite , and the giant redwoods , due in part to exhibitors' inability to switch over to widescreen during the Great Depression . After renewed commercial successes in the late 1930s, the popularity of Westerns continued to rise until its peak in the 1950s, when the number of Western films produced outnumbered all other genres combined. The period from 1940 to 1960 has been called
6072-516: The Hulu comedy series Only Murders in the Building , alongside Short and Selena Gomez , for which he earned three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, a Golden Globe Award nomination, and a 2021 Peabody Award nomination. In 2022, Martin and Short co-hosted Saturday Night Live together with Gomez making an appearance. Martin is also known for writing
6204-657: The Main Street Magic shop , where tricks were demonstrated to patrons. While working at Disneyland, he was captured in the background of the home movie that was made into the short-subject film Disneyland Dream , incidentally becoming his first film appearance. By 1960, he had mastered several magic tricks and illusions and took a paying job at the Magic shop in Fantasyland in August. There he perfected his talents for magic, juggling, and creating balloon animals in
6336-614: The United Kingdom , his father appeared in a production of Our Town with Raymond Massey . Expressing his affection through gifts like cars and bikes, Steve's father was stern and not emotionally open to his son. He was proud but critical, with Steve later recalling that in his teens his feelings for his father were mostly of hatred. Steve Martin's first job was at Disneyland , selling guidebooks on weekends and full-time during his school's summer break. The work lasted for three years (1955–1958). During his free time, he frequented
6468-457: The space opera series Firefly used an explicitly Western theme for its portrayal of frontier worlds. Anime shows such as Cowboy Bebop , Trigun and Outlaw Star have been similar mixes of science-fiction and Western elements. The science fiction Western can be seen as a subgenre of either Westerns or science fiction. Elements of Western films can be found also in some films belonging essentially to other genres. For example, Kelly's Heroes
6600-419: The "Golden Age of the Western". It is epitomized by the work of several prominent directors including Robert Aldrich , Budd Boetticher , Delmer Daves , John Ford , and others. Some of the popular films during this era include Apache (1954), Broken Arrow (1950), and My Darling Clementine (1946). The changing popularity of the Western genre has influenced worldwide pop culture over time. During
6732-432: The 1960s and 1970s, Spaghetti Westerns from Italy became popular worldwide; this was due to the success of Sergio Leone 's storytelling method. After having been previously pronounced dead, a resurgence of Westerns occurred during the 1990s with films such as Dances with Wolves (1990), Unforgiven (1992), and Geronimo (1993), as Westerns once again increased in popularity. When television became popular in
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#17327766873476864-416: The 1960s, due in part to the shuttering of many pulp magazines, the popularity of televised Westerns , and the rise of the spy novel. Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside of a few Western states, now only carry a small number of Western novels and short-story collections. Literary forms that share similar themes include stories of
6996-654: The 1970s, performing his brand of offbeat, absurdist comedy routines before sold-out theaters on national tours. Martin went on to star in film roles, including such films as The Jerk (1979), Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), The Man with Two Brains (1983), All of Me (1984), ¡Three Amigos! (1986), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), L.A. Story (1991), Bowfinger (1999) and Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003). He played family patriarchs in Parenthood (1989),
7128-458: The 1970s. These games and drew on the imagery of a mythic West portrayed in stories, films, television shows, and other assorted Western-themed toys. When game developers went to the imaginary West to create new experiences, they often drew consciously or unconsciously from Western stories and films. The 1971 text-based, Mainframe computer game The Oregon Trail was first game to use the West as
7260-401: The 1992 comedy Housesitter , with Goldie Hawn and Dana Delany . In 1994, he starred in A Simple Twist of Fate ; a film adaptation of Silas Marner . In David Mamet 's 1997 thriller The Spanish Prisoner , Martin played a darker role as a wealthy stranger who takes a suspicious interest in the work of a young businessman ( Campbell Scott ). In 1998, Martin guest starred with U2 in
7392-568: The 200th episode of The Simpsons titled " Trash of the Titans ", providing the voice for sanitation commissioner Ray Patterson, and also voiced Hotep in the animated film The Prince of Egypt . In 1999, Martin and Hawn starred in a remake of the 1970 Neil Simon comedy, The Out-of-Towners , and Martin went on to star with Eddie Murphy in the comedy Bowfinger , which he also wrote. He also appeared in Disney's Fantasia 2000 to introduce
7524-546: The 2010s, Martin sparsely appeared in film and television. In 2011, he appeared with Jack Black , Owen Wilson , and JoBeth Williams in the birdwatching comedy The Big Year directed by David Frankel . The film was criticized for its lightweight story and was a box office bomb. After a three-year hiatus, Martin returned in 2015 when he voiced a role in the DreamWorks animated film Home alongside Jim Parsons and Rihanna . The film received mixed critical reception but
7656-582: The American West that [embody] the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier ". Originally, these films were called "Wild West dramas", a reference to Wild West shows like Buffalo Bill Cody's . The term "Western", used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th-century popular Western fiction , and were firmly in place before film became
7788-570: The American frontier, the gaucho literature of Argentina , and tales of the settlement of the Australian Outback. A number of visual artists focused their work on representations of the American Old West. American West-oriented art is sometimes referred to as "Western Art" by Americans. This relatively new category of art includes paintings, sculptures, and sometimes Native American crafts. Initially, subjects included exploration of
7920-494: The Amigos refuse it with: "Our reward is that justice has been done." They then ride off into the sunset. The film was written by Steve Martin , Lorne Michaels , and Randy Newman . According to Michaels, Martin approached him with the idea for the film and asked him to co-write it. Martin originally had the working title Three Caballeros , the same as the Disney cartoon . Newman contributed three original songs: "The Ballad of
8052-520: The April 22, 1978, SNL program. Decades later, in 2012, The A.V. Club described Martin's unique style and its effect on audiences: [Martin was] both a consummate entertainer and a glib, knowing parody of a consummate entertainer. He was at once a hammy populist with an uncanny, unprecedented feel for the tastes of a mass audience and a sly intellectual whose goofy shtick cunningly deconstructed stand-up comedy. On his comedy albums, Martin's stand-up
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#17327766873478184-403: The Dozen 2 . In 2006, he starred in the box office hit The Pink Panther , as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau . He reprised the role in 2009's The Pink Panther 2 . When combined, the two films grossed over $ 230 million at the box office. In the comedy Baby Mama (2008), starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler , Martin played the founder of a health food company. Martin also appeared as
8316-672: The Eastern Bloc, or action films involving the Russian Revolution , the Russian Civil War , and the Basmachi rebellion. Many elements of space-travel series and films borrow extensively from the conventions of the Western genre. This is particularly the case in the space Western subgenre of science fiction. Peter Hyams 's Outland transferred the plot of High Noon to Io, moon of Jupiter. More recently,
8448-458: The Mexican village of Santa Poco. Carmen, daughter of the village leader, searches for someone who can rescue her townspeople. Visiting a village church, she sees a silent film featuring The Three Amigos, a trio of gunfighters who protect the vulnerable. Believing them to be real heroes, Carmen sends a telegram asking them to come and stop El Guapo. Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms, and Ned Nederlander,
8580-524: The Prairie , McCloud , The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams , and the short-lived but highly acclaimed How the West Was Won that originated from a miniseries with the same name. In the 1990s and 2000s, hour-long Westerns and slickly packaged made-for-TV movie Westerns were introduced, such as Lonesome Dove (1989) and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman . Also, new elements were once again added to
8712-508: The Rest of Your Life with Martin Short in 2018. In 2020, Martin reprised his role as George Banks in the short Father of the Bride, Part 3(ish) . Martin stars in and is an executive producer of Only Murders in the Building , a Hulu comedy series alongside Martin Short and Selena Gomez , which he created alongside John Hoffman . In August 2022, Martin revealed that the series will likely be his final role, as he does not intend to seek out roles or cameos for other shows or films once
8844-655: The Three Amigos", "My Little Buttercup", and " Blue Shadows on the Trail ", and the musical score was composed by Elmer Bernstein . It was shot outside Grants, New Mexico, and in Simi Valley, California ; Coronado National Forest ; Old Tucson Studios ; Culver City and Hollywood . John Landis was on trial over the Twilight Zone tragedy during the editing of Three Amigos , and the studio heavily edited
8976-419: The Western formula, such as the space Western , Firefly , created by Joss Whedon in 2002. Deadwood was a critically acclaimed Western series that aired on HBO from 2004 through 2006. Hell on Wheels , a fictionalized story of the construction of the first transcontinental railroad , aired on AMC for five seasons between 2011 and 2016. Longmire is a Western series that centered on Walt Longmire ,
9108-881: The Western genre are a series of short single reel silents made in 1894 by Edison Studios at their Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey . These featured veterans of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show exhibiting skills acquired by living in the Old West – they included Annie Oakley (shooting) and members of the Sioux (dancing). The earliest known Western narrative film is the British short Kidnapping by Indians , made by Mitchell and Kenyon in Blackburn , England, in 1899. The Great Train Robbery (1903, based on
9240-705: The Western states and cowboy themes. Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell are two artists who captured the "Wild West" in paintings and sculpture. After the death of Remington Richard Lorenz became the preeminent artist painting in the Western genre. Some art museums, such as the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Wyoming and the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, feature American Western Art. With anime and manga ,
9372-478: The Wild West and modern technology like cars and cellphones, while also focusing primarily on being a Crime drama makes the show a unique spin on both genres. Walter's reliance on the desert environment makes the Western-feel a pivotal role in the show, and would continue to be used in the spinoff series Better Call Saul . The neo-Western drama Yellowstone was streamed from 2018-2024. Western fiction
9504-501: The actors who portray the Amigos, demand a salary increase for their next project and are fired by their boss Harry Flugelman. He has them evicted from the studio mansion, banned from his lot, and the clothes they borrowed from wardrobe repossessed. They soon receive Carmen's telegram, misinterpreting it as a job offer to perform a show in Santa Poco. The Amigos break into the studio to retrieve their costumes and head for Mexico . At
9636-404: The audience do with all that tension? Theoretically, it would have to come out sometime. But if I kept denying them the formality of a punch line, the audience would eventually pick their own place to laugh, essentially out of desperation. Martin periodically spoofed his philosophy studies in his 1970s stand-up act, comparing philosophy with studying geology. If you're studying geology, which
9768-418: The biggest hits of the year. Released through United Artists, Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream screen star in the wake of a decade of headlining B Westerns. Wayne had been introduced to the screen 10 years earlier as the leading man in director Raoul Walsh 's spectacular widescreen The Big Trail , which failed at the box office in spite of being shot on location across the American West, including
9900-430: The books to the musical Bright Star (2016) and to the comedy Meteor Shower (2017), both of which premiered on Broadway ; he co-wrote the music to the former. He has played banjo since an early age and has included music in his comedy routines from the beginning of his professional career. He has released several music albums and has performed with various bluegrass acts, including Earl Scruggs , with whom he won
10032-421: The box office like Pennies , endangering his young career. In 1986, Martin joined fellow Saturday Night Live veterans Martin Short and Chevy Chase in ¡Three Amigos! , directed by John Landis , and written by Martin, Lorne Michaels , and singer-songwriter Randy Newman . It was originally entitled The Three Caballeros and Martin was to be teamed with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi . In 1986, Martin
10164-400: The cantina when the off-guard patrons mock their fine clothes. Carmen picks up the Amigos and takes them to the village, where they are pampered in the best house in town. The next morning, when El Guapo's men raid the village, the Amigos do a Hollywood-style stunt show that leaves the men bemused. The bandits ride off, making the villagers think they have defeated the enemy. The village throws
10296-618: The classic comics of the late 1940s and early 1950s (namely Kid Colt, Outlaw , Rawhide Kid , and Red Ryder ) or more modern ones as Blueberry ), cartoons, and parodies (such as Cocco Bill and Lucky Luke ). In the 1990s and 2000s, Western comics leaned towards the fantasy , horror and science fiction genres, usually involving supernatural monsters, or Christian iconography as in Preacher . More traditional Western comics are found throughout this period, though (e.g., Jonah Hex and Loveless ). Video game Westerns emerged in
10428-752: The conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original, Native American, inhabitants of the frontier. The Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–"frontier justice"–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are often played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them (e.g., True Grit has revenge and retribution as its main themes). This Western depiction of personal justice contrasts sharply with justice systems organized around rationalistic, abstract law that exist in cities, in which social order
10560-414: The content. In an open letter in the local Observer newspaper, Martin wrote: I have heard that some in your community have characterized the play as 'people drinking in bars, and treating women as sex objects.' With apologies to William Shakespeare, this is like calling Hamlet a play about a castle [...] I will finance a non-profit, off-high school campus production [...] so that individuals, outside
10692-428: The culture, such as spaghetti Westerns (Italy), meat pie Westerns (Australia), ramen Westerns (Asia), and masala Westerns (India). Being period drama pieces, both the Western and samurai genre influenced each other in style and themes throughout the years. The Magnificent Seven was a remake of Akira Kurosawa 's film Seven Samurai , and A Fistful of Dollars was a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo , which itself
10824-455: The decision, he said, "My act was conceptual. Once the concept was stated, and everybody understood it, it was done... It was about coming to the end of the road. There was no way to live on in that persona. I had to take that fabulous luck of not being remembered as that, exclusively. You know, I didn't announce that I was stopping. I just stopped." In 2016, Martin made a low-key comeback to live comedy, opening for Jerry Seinfeld . He performed
10956-407: The earlier British film A Daring Daylight Burglary ), Edwin S. Porter 's film starring Broncho Billy Anderson , is often erroneously cited as the first Western, though George N. Fenin and William K. Everson point out (as mentioned above) that the "Edison company had played with Western material for several years prior to The Great Train Robbery ". Nonetheless, they concur that Porter's film "set
11088-463: The early 1960s, and their replacement by hour-long television shows, increasingly in color. Traditional Westerns died out in the late 1960s as a result of network changes in demographic targeting along with pressure from parental television groups. Future entries in the genre would incorporate elements from other genera, such as crime drama and mystery whodunit elements. Western shows from the 1970s included Hec Ramsey , Kung Fu , Little House on
11220-525: The film adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac , which he co-wrote and won him a Writers Guild of America Award . It also garnered recognition from Hollywood and the public that he was more than a comedian. In 1988, he performed in the Frank Oz film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels , a remake of Bedtime Story , alongside Michael Caine . Also in 1988, he appeared at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center in
11352-671: The film down after he submitted his final cut. Martin performed his own lasso tricks for the film — a skill he acquired at the age of twelve while working at Disneyland. The production went through many cast changes before filming. Martin had been attached to the project since 1980 and he, Dan Aykroyd , and John Belushi were originally going to star. At one point, Steven Spielberg was slated to direct; he wanted Martin, Bill Murray , and Robin Williams to play Lucky, Dusty, and Ned, respectively. Landis has said that Rick Moranis would have been cast as Ned had Short been unavailable. When Aykroyd became unavailable, Chase replaced him. John Candy
11484-408: The film itself. Martin reportedly developed tinnitus after filming a pistol-shooting scene. But in an interview with Pitchfork , he clarified that the tinnitus was from years of listening to loud music and performing for noisy crowds. There were difficulties between the main actors and Landis. Most famously, Chase refused to tell a particular joke that he thought would make his character look like
11616-476: The film one star out of four, writing, "The ideas to make Three Amigos into a good comedy are here, but the madness is missing." Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that it was "likable" but lacked a "distinctive style", though certain jokes are crafted with "enjoyable sophistication". Caroline Wetsbrook of Empire awarded the film three out of five stars and wrote that it was "good-natured enough to sustain its ultimately thin premise". Neil McNally of
11748-426: The genre tends towards the science-fiction Western – e.g., Cowboy Bebop (1998 anime), Trigun (1995–2007 manga), and Outlaw Star (1996–1999 manga). Although contemporary Westerns also appear, such as Koya no Shonen Isamu , a 1971 shonen manga about a boy with a Japanese father and a Native American mother, or El Cazador de la Bruja , a 2007 anime television series set in modern-day Mexico. Part 7 of
11880-576: The gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using wider themes of justice , freedom, rugged individualism, manifest destiny , and the national history and identity of the United States . Native American populations were often portrayed as averse foes or savages . Originating in vaquero heritage and Western fiction , the genre popularized the Western lifestyle , country - Western music , and Western wear globally. Throughout
12012-464: The harshness and isolation of the wilderness, and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Western films generally have specific settings, such as isolated ranches, Native American villages, or small frontier towns with a saloon. Oftentimes, these settings appear deserted and without much structure. Apart from the wilderness, the saloon usually emphasizes that this is the Wild West ; it
12144-466: The heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress . Similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ronin in modern Japanese culture. The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, although some notable examples (e.g. the later Westerns of John Ford or Clint Eastwood 's Unforgiven , about an old contract killer ) are more morally ambiguous. Westerns often stress
12276-676: The history of the genre, it has seen popular revivals and been incorporated into various subgenres. The classic Western is a morality drama , presenting the conflict between wilderness and civilization . Stories commonly center on the life of a male drifter , cowboy , or gunslinger who rides a horse and is armed with a revolver or rifle . The male characters typically wear broad-brimmed and high-crowned Stetson hats, neckerchief bandannas , vests , and cowboy boots with spurs . While many wear conventional shirts and trousers, alternatives include buckskins and dusters . Women are generally cast in secondary roles as love interests for
12408-401: The illicit drug market, eventually turning into a ruthless drug dealer and killer. While the show has scenes in a populated suburban neighborhood and nearby Albuquerque , much of the show takes place in the desert, where Walter often takes his RV car out into the open desert to cook his meth, and most action sequences occur in the desert, similar to old-fashioned Western movies. The clash between
12540-780: The influence of Kurosawa. The character Han Solo dressed like an archetypal gunslinger, and the Mos Eisley cantina is much like an Old West saloon. Meanwhile, films such as The Big Lebowski , which plucked actor Sam Elliott out of the Old West and into a Los Angeles bowling alley, and Midnight Cowboy , about a Southern-boy-turned-gigolo in New York (who disappoints a client when he does not measure up to Gary Cooper), transplanted Western themes into modern settings for both purposes of parody and homage. Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945)
12672-783: The jurisdiction of the school board but within the guarantees of freedom of expression provided by the Constitution of the United States can determine whether they will or will not see the play. Inspired by Love has Come for You , Martin and Edie Brickell collaborated on his first musical, Bright Star . It is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina in 1945–46, with flashbacks to 1923. The musical debuted on Broadway on March 24, 2016. Charles Isherwood of The New York Times praised its score by Martin and Brickell writing, "The shining achievement of
12804-406: The larger scope of the Western genre, there are several recognized subgenres. Some subgenres, such as spaghetti Westerns , maintain standard Western settings and plots, while others take the Western theme and archetypes into different supergenres, such as neo-Westerns or space Westerns . For a time, Westerns made in countries other than the United States were often labeled by foods associated with
12936-788: The late 1940s and 1950s, Television Westerns quickly became an audience favorite. Beginning with rebroadcasts of existing films, a number of movie cowboys had their own TV shows. As demand for the Western increased, new stories and stars were introduced. A number of long-running TV Westerns became classics in their own right, such as: The Lone Ranger (1949–1957), Death Valley Days (1952–1970), The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955–1961), Cheyenne (1955–1962), Gunsmoke (1955–1975), Maverick (1957–1962), Have Gun – Will Travel (1957–1963), Wagon Train (1957–1965), The Rifleman (1958–1963), Rawhide (1959–1966), Bonanza (1959–1973), The Virginian (1962–1971), and The Big Valley (1965–1969). The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
13068-485: The literary descendants of the knights-errant , who stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the Arthurian romances . Like the cowboy or gunfighter of the Western, the knight-errant of the earlier European tales and poetry was wandering from place to place on his horse, fighting villains of various kinds, and bound to no fixed social structures, but only to his own innate code of honor. Like knights-errant,
13200-461: The major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns, leaving the genre to smaller studios and producers. These smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. An exception was The Big Trail, a 1930 American pre-Code Western early widescreen film shot on location across the American West starring 23-year-old John Wayne in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh. The epic film noted for its authenticity
13332-563: The male lead; or in supporting roles as saloon girls, prostitutes or as the wives of pioneers and settlers . The wife character often provides a measure of comic relief . Other recurring characters include Native Americans of various tribes described as Indians or Red Indians, African Americans , Chinese Americans , Spaniards , Mexicans , law enforcement officers , bounty hunters , outlaws , bartenders , merchants , gamblers , soldiers (especially mounted cavalry ), and settlers ( farmers , ranchers , and townsfolk). The ambience
13464-683: The manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is based in the American Western setting. The story follows racers in a transcontinental horse race, the "Steel Ball Run". Golden Kamuy (2014–2022) shifts its setting to the fallout of the Russo-Japanese War , specifically focusing on Hokkaido and Sakhalin , and featuring the Ainu people and other local tribes instead of Native Americans, as well other recognizable Western tropes. Western comics have included serious entries, (such as
13596-654: The manner of mentor Wally Boag , frequently performing for tips. In his authorized biography, close friend Morris Walker suggests that Martin could "be described most accurately as an agnostic ... he rarely went to church and was never involved in organized religion of his own volition". In his early 20s, Martin dated Melissa Trumbo, daughter of novelist and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo . After high school, Martin attended Santa Ana College , taking classes in drama and English poetry. In his free time, he teamed up with friend and Garden Grove High School classmate Kathy Westmoreland to participate in comedies and other productions at
13728-561: The mid-1970s, Martin made frequent appearances as a stand-up comedian on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson , and on The Gong Show , HBO 's On Location , The Muppet Show , and NBC 's Saturday Night Live ( SNL ). SNL 's audience jumped by a million viewers when he made guest appearances, and he was one of the show's most successful hosts. Martin has appeared on twenty-seven Saturday Night Live shows and guest-hosted sixteen times, second only to Alec Baldwin , who has hosted seventeen times as of February 2017 . On
13860-464: The musical is its winsome country and bluegrass score, with music by Mr. Martin and Ms. Brickell, and lyrics by Ms. Brickell...the songs — yearning ballads and square-dance romps rich with fiddle, piano, and banjo, beautifully played by a nine-person band — provide a buoyancy that keeps the momentum from stalling." The musical went on to receive five Tony Award nominations including Best Musical . Martin himself received Tony nominations for Best Book of
13992-622: The novellas Shopgirl (2000) and The Pleasure of My Company (2003), both more wry in tone than raucous. A story of a 28-year-old woman behind the glove counter at the Saks Fifth Avenue department store in Beverly Hills , Shopgirl was made into a film starring Martin and Claire Danes . The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2005 and was featured at
14124-432: The pattern—of crime, pursuit, and retribution—for the Western film as a genre". The film's popularity opened the door for Anderson to become the screen's first Western star; he made several hundred Western film shorts. So popular was the genre that he soon faced competition from Tom Mix and William S. Hart . Western films were enormously popular in the silent film era (1894–1927). With the advent of sound in 1927–1928,
14256-525: The premise is polished to sparkling." Martin hosted the Academy Awards solo in 2001 and 2003 , and with Alec Baldwin in 2010 . In 2020, Martin opened the 92nd Academy Awards alongside Chris Rock with comedy material. They were not previously announced as that year's hosts, and joked after their opening monologue, "Well we've had a great time not hosting tonight". In 2005, Martin co-hosted Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years , marking
14388-626: The role of Pablo Picasso and Chris Sarandon reading the role of Albert Einstein . Following this, the play opened at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, and played from October 1993 to May 1994, then went on to run successfully in Los Angeles, New York City, and several other US cities. In 2009, the school board in La Grande, Oregon , refused to allow the play to be performed after several parents complained about
14520-511: The same year. The play opened on Broadway at the Booth Theater on November 29, 2017. The cast features Amy Schumer , Laura Benanti , Jeremy Shamos and Keegan-Michael Key , with direction by Jerry Zaks . Critic Allison Adaot of Entertainment Weekly wrote, " Meteor Shower is a very funny play. Keening-like-a-howler-monkey funny. Design-a-new-cry-laughing-emoji funny...In the confident hands of writer and comedy maestro Steve Martin,
14652-630: The segment Pines of Rome , along with Itzhak Perlman . By 2003, Martin ranked fourth on the box office stars list, after starring in Bringing Down the House (2003) and Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), each of which earned over $ 130 million at U.S. theaters. That same year, he also played the villainous Mr. Chairman in the animation/live action blend, Looney Tunes: Back in Action . In 2005, Martin wrote and starred in Shopgirl , based on his own novella (2000), and starred in Cheaper by
14784-566: The series ends. Martin's first book was Cruel Shoes , a collection of comedic short stories and essays. It was published in 1979 by G. P. Putnam's Sons after a limited release of a truncated version in 1977. Throughout the 1990s, Martin wrote various pieces for The New Yorker . In 2002, he adapted the Carl Sternheim play The Underpants , which ran Off Broadway at Classic Stage Company , and in 2008 co-wrote and produced Traitor , starring Don Cheadle . He has also written
14916-637: The settlement of other planets is depicted in ways explicitly modeled on American settlement of the West. For example, in his Tunnel in the Sky , settlers set out to the planet New Canaan, via an interstellar teleporter portal across the galaxy, in Conestoga wagons , their captain sporting mustaches and a little goatee and riding a Palomino horse—with Heinlein explaining that the colonists would need to survive on their own for some years, so horses are more practical than machines. Stephen King 's The Dark Tower
15048-482: The show, Martin popularized the air quotes gesture. While on the show, Martin grew close to several cast members, including Gilda Radner . On the night she died of ovarian cancer , a visibly shaken Martin hosted SNL and featured footage of himself and Radner together in a 1978 sketch. In the 1970s, his television appearances led to the release of comedy albums that went platinum . The track "Excuse Me" on his first album, Let's Get Small (1977), helped establish
15180-675: The song " King Tut ", written and sung by Martin and backed by the "Toot Uncommons", members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band . It was later released as a single, reaching No. 17 on the U.S. charts in 1978 and selling over a million copies. The song came out during the King Tut craze that accompanied the popular traveling exhibit of the Egyptian king's tomb artifacts. Both albums won Grammys for Best Comedy Recording in 1977 and 1978, respectively. Martin performed "King Tut" on
15312-406: The villagers to stand up for themselves with their best talent, sewing. The bandits arrive and are shot at by Amigos from all sides, forcing them to retreat as El Guapo takes a fatal wound. The villagers, all dressed as Amigos, gather around him. He compliments the Three Amigos on their cleverness, then shoots Lucky in the foot before dying. The villagers offer the Amigos all the money they have, but
15444-403: The website Den of Geek called a cult film that was "unfairly overlooked" when first released and praised the performances of Martin, Chase, and Short; the comedic timing of Landis's direction; and Bernstein's "sweeping, majestic" score. The film was ranked 79th on Bravo's list of the "100 Funniest Movies". Western (genre) The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in
15576-439: Was Midway 's Gun Fight , an adaptation of Taito 's Western Gun (1975) which featured two players against each other in a duel set on a sparse desert landscape with a few cacti and a moving covered wagon to hide behind. Atari 's Outlaw (1976) followed which explicitly framed the shootouts between "good guys" and "outlaws" also borrowing from gunfighter themes and imagery. Early console games such as Outlaw (1978) for
15708-507: Was "Gern Blanston". The riff took on a life of its own. There is a Gern Blanston website, and for a time a rock band took the moniker as its name. Martin's show soon required full-sized stadiums for the audiences he was drawing. Concerned about his visibility in venues on such a scale, Martin began to wear a distinctive three-piece white suit that became a trademark for his act. Martin stopped doing stand-up comedy in 1981 to concentrate on movies and did not return for thirty-five years. About
15840-489: Was "the most fun I've ever had". Several deleted scenes were included in the Blu-ray release. An alternative opening features Santo Poco being pillaged by El Guapo and his men, prompting Carmen's search for help. Extended sequences of the Three Amigos at the studio mansion and backlot lead into another deleted subplot involving an up-and-coming rival actress at the studio, Miss Rene ( Fran Drescher ). A billboard featuring
15972-635: Was a financial failure due to Depression era theatres not willing to invest in widescreen technology. By the late 1930s, the Western film was widely regarded as a pulp genre in Hollywood, but its popularity was dramatically revived in 1939 by major studio productions such as Dodge City starring Errol Flynn , Jesse James with Tyrone Power , Union Pacific with Joel McCrea , Destry Rides Again featuring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich , and especially John Ford's landmark Western adventure Stagecoach starring John Wayne , which became one of
16104-461: Was a financial failure; Martin's comment at the time was "I don't know what to blame, other than it's me and not a comedy." Martin was in three more Reiner-directed comedies after The Jerk : Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid in 1982, The Man with Two Brains in 1983 and All of Me in 1984, his most critically acclaimed performance up to that point. Martin was by now requesting almost $ 3 million per film, but Plaid and Two Brains both failed at
16236-644: Was a financial success. In 2016, he played a supporting role in Ang Lee 's war drama Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk . He also appeared as himself in Jerry Seinfeld 's Netflix series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee in 2016. He also appeared in the taped version of Oh, Hello on Broadway (2017) as the guest. He also starred in the Netflix comedy special An Evening You Will Forget for
16368-500: Was a huge success, grossing over $ 100 million on a budget of approximately $ 4 million. Stanley Kubrick met with him to discuss the possibility of Martin starring in a screwball comedy version of Traumnovelle (Kubrick later changed his approach to the material, the result of which was 1999's Eyes Wide Shut ). Martin was executive producer for Domestic Life , a prime-time television series starring friend Martin Mull , and
16500-664: Was depressed for a week. During these years his roommates included Gary Mule Deer and Michael Johnson . Gary Mule Deer supplied the first joke Martin submitted to Tommy Smothers for use on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour show. Martin opened for groups such as The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (who returned the favor by appearing in his 1980 television special All Commercials ), The Carpenters , and Toto . He appeared at The Boarding House , among other venues. He continued to write, earning an Emmy nomination for his work on Van Dyke and Company in 1976. In
16632-573: Was in the movie musical film version of the hit Off-Broadway play Little Shop of Horrors (based on a famous B-movie ), playing the sadistic dentist, Orin Scrivello. The film was the first of three films teaming Martin with Rick Moranis . In 1987, Martin joined comedian John Candy in the John Hughes movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles . That same year, Martin starred in Roxanne ,
16764-470: Was inspired by Red Harvest , an American detective novel by Dashiell Hammett . Kurosawa was influenced by American Westerns and was a fan of the genre, most especially John Ford . Despite the Cold War , the Western was a strong influence on Eastern Bloc cinema, which had its own take on the genre, the so-called Red Western or Ostern. Generally, these took two forms: either straight Westerns shot in
16896-399: Was on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1968. He says: [I] appeared on The Virginia Graham Show, circa 1970. I looked grotesque. I had a hairdo like a helmet, which I blow-dried to a puffy bouffant, for reasons I no longer understand. I wore a frock coat and a silk shirt, and my delivery was mannered, slow and self-aware. I had absolutely no authority. After reviewing the show, I
17028-466: Was played by his then-wife Victoria Tennant . Martin also appeared in Lawrence Kasdan 's Grand Canyon , in which he played the tightly wound Hollywood film producer, Davis, who was recovering from a traumatic robbery that left him injured, which was a more serious role for him. Martin also starred in a remake of the comedy Father of the Bride in 1991 (followed by a sequel in 1995) and in
17160-415: Was set for the role originally intended for Belushi, but was too large to ride a horse. Candy recommended Short to Martin, as they had worked together at SCTV . Martin and Short became close friends and continue to perform together. Candy was later seen riding a horse in the 1991 film Delirious . While Steve Martin has top billing in some posters as well as DVD covers today, Chevy Chase has top billing in
17292-515: Was the first Western television series written for adults, premiering four days before Gunsmoke on September 6, 1955. The peak year for television Westerns was 1959, with 26 such shows airing during primetime. At least six of them were connected in some extent to Wyatt Earp : The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp , Bat Masterson , Tombstone Territory , Broken Arrow , Johnny Ringo , and Gunsmoke . Increasing costs of American television production weeded out most action half-hour series in
17424-441: Was written by and starred Martin. The film was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Short Film, Live Action . He made his first substantial feature film appearance in the musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , where he sang The Beatles ' " Maxwell's Silver Hammer ". In 1979, Martin starred in the comedy film The Jerk , directed by Carl Reiner , and written by Martin, Michael Elias, and Carl Gottlieb . The film
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