Actor® Statuettes Cast for 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®

SAG Awards® will be Simulcast on TNT and TBS on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2011

Los Angeles (Jan. 21, 2011) – The Actor® statuettes—which this year’s 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® honorees will receive for outstanding performances in 2010 in five film and eight primetime television categories—have been cast in solid bronze at the American Fine Arts Foundry in Burbank, California.

The 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® ceremony will be simulcast live coast-to-coast on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011 at 8 p.m. (ET), 7 p.m. (CT), 6 p.m. (MT) and 5 p.m. (PT) from the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles. An encore presentation will air on TNT at 10 p.m. (ET) 9 p.m. (CT), 8 p.m. (MT) and 7 p.m. (PT). Prior to the televised ceremony, the SAG Honors for television and film stunt ensembles will be announced during the live tnt.tv and tbs.com webcasts from the red carpet which begin at 6 p.m. (ET)/3 p.m. (PT).

Each Actor statuette carries a serial number engraved at its base. Numbering began with No. 1. The first statuette cast is on display at Screen Actors Guild headquarters in Los Angeles. 660 statuettes have been awarded since the first Actors were presented in 1995. The Actor weighs 12 pounds and stands 16 inches tall.  Each Actor is cast in solid bronze, using the lost wax process. The statuette has a green-black patina finish and stands on a base of polished black granite. The Actor is the work of a team of fine arts professionals. The Actor was sculpted by Edward Saenz and designed by Jim Heimann and Jim Barrett. The statuette is produced at the American Fine Arts Foundry under the supervision of Brett Barney.

Screen Actors Guild will not know how many of The Actor statuettes it will need until the awards presenters open the envelopes on Jan. 30.  Voting information for the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards was mailed on Dec. 30, 2010 to the entire active membership of Screen Actors Guild, who will vote on all categories, either online or via requested paper ballots. Votes must be received by noon (PT) on Jan. 28 at Integrity Voting Systems, the Guild’s official teller. Results will be sealed until they are opened onstage at the SAG Awards ceremony.

Though the number of categories and special awards is known ahead of time, the possibility of multiple recipients sharing awards in the Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Motion Picture, Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series categories makes the total number of statuettes that will be awarded unpredictable. Any surplus Actor statuettes will find a home in the guild’s vault until next year.

Five 10-foot, 200-pound likenesses of The Actor statuette, that were introduced at the 9th and 10th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, will grace the red carpet, the stage, the media rooms and Post-Awards Gala at the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.  Scenario Design in Los Angeles constructed the painted fiberglass statues under the supervision of Scenario Design President Paul Buckley and Scenic and Sculpting Department Head Daniel Lucas.

The 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards is produced by Jeff Margolis Productions in association with Screen Actors Guild Awards®, LLC. For more information about the SAG Awards, SAG, TNT and TBS visit http://sagawards.org/about.

Contact: Tosha Whitten Griggs
twgriggs@sagawards.org
(310) 235-1030