SAG-AFTRA Actors Elliott Gould, Clyde Kusatsu and Diane Ladd to Receive Prestigious Union Service Award

The SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles Local has named members Elliott Gould, Clyde Kusatsu and Diane Ladd as the 2025 recipients of the Local’s Ralph Morgan Award for exceptional union service. The presentation ceremony will take place later this year. 

"It is a privilege and a delight for our Los Angeles Local to recognize the remarkable contributions of Elliott, Clyde, and Diane,” said Los Angeles Local President Jodi Long. “They all have made an indelible impact on not only our organization but on each and every member they touched during their tenure here. This award will serve as a token of our deep appreciation for their leadership and commitment to our SAG-AFTRA community. “

Established in 1981, the Los Angeles Local’s Ralph Morgan Award is named in honor of the first president of the Screen Actors Guild, who served three terms as SAG president, first during the union’s inception in 1933, and then additional terms in 1938–1940. Upon the end of his final term as president, the SAG Board presented him with a scroll reading, “Devotion to the cause of actors, courage to fight for the right, sacrifice of self for others.” Inscribed on the award, these words remain the qualification for all recipients. 

“It is truly an honor for the members of the SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles Honors and Tributes Committee to recognize the unwavering dedication of these three extraordinary union leaders. Clyde, Diane and Elliott have devoted countless hours over the years, tirelessly working to better the lives of their fellow members, first at SAG and later at SAG-AFTRA. This award is a small way of expressing the gratitude we feel for everything they’ve done,” said committee Chair Joe d’Angerio. “Besides working with our awardees for 20 years in service of the membership and the admiration I have for them as actors, I consider them to be my friends.”

Elliott Gould’s body of work includes films such as Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice — for which he received a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination — M*A*S*H, and A Bridge Too Far, and recurring television roles on Friends, Kim Possible and Ray Donovan, among others.  

Gould has had extensive service in Screen Actors Guild governance, first taking a seat on the National Board in 2000. He served several terms on the board, including two years as national recording secretary. After merger, Gould returned to union service and was elected twice to the National Board of SAG-AFTRA and served three terms on the Los Angeles Local Board of Directors, with his service continuing until January 2025. He also served on numerous national and Los Angeles committees throughout his SAG-AFTRA service, including the Los Angeles Local Sexual Harassment Prevention and Government Affairs and Public Policy Committees.

Clyde Kusatsu’s career spans more than five decades and over 300 productions. His many professional credits include diverse roles in theatrical motion pictures such as Midway, In the Line of Fire, American Pie and 47 Ronin, and television series All in the Family, Ally McBeal, The Young and the Restless, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Hawaii Five-O, both the original and the reboot.  

Kusatsu was elected to SAG’s Hollywood Division Board as an alternate national director beginning in 2008 and was elected as a board member in 2010. His service continued post-merger; in addition to serving on the SAG-AFTRA National Board, he was elected to the first of four two-year terms as national vice president, Los Angeles in 2013. Kusatsu was elected president of the Los Angeles Local of SAG-AFTRA in 2013 and served until 2015, after which he continued on the LA Board for two additional terms. He has also served on numerous local and national committees, including contract negotiating committees, often in leadership roles such as chair. He currently serves as secretary of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation.

Diane Ladd has appeared in more than 200 film and television roles. In film, her performances in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Rambling Rose and Wild at Heart earned her Academy Award nominations. On the small screen, she starred in the Hallmark Channel’s Chesapeake Shores and has had guest and recurring roles on numerous shows.

Ladd was elected to a two-year term on the Screen Actors Guild National Board in 1982 and returned to serve throughout the 2000s. In addition to her extensive Screen Actors Guild Hollywood Board and national committee service, she was elected to two four-year terms on the SAG-AFTRA National Board beginning in 2015. Ladd was also elected to three two-year terms on the Los Angeles Local Board of Directors and served as co-chair of the Los Angeles Government Affairs and Public Policy Committee during the 2019–2021 term.

About SAG-AFTRA

SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other entertainment and media professionals. SAG-AFTRA members are the faces and voices that entertain and inform America and the world. A proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO, SAG-AFTRA has national offices in Los Angeles and New York and local offices nationwide representing members working together to secure the strongest protections for entertainment and media artists into the 21st century and beyond. Visit SAG-AFTRA online at SAGAFTRA.org.