SAG-AFTRA Presents President’s and Founders Awards at National Board Meeting

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 20, 2018) — SAG-AFTRA today presented the President’s Award and Founders Award to five distinguished members for their historic contributions to the union. The special tributes were presented during the SAG-AFTRA National Board meeting.

“On behalf of SAG-AFTRA’s membership, I am pleased to recognize and honor the extraordinary accomplishments and lifelong dedication of these five special members,” said SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris. “Through their activism, passion and commitment to union service in support of their fellow members, each in their own way has helped to shape and drive the ideals that we hold dear as an institution.”

Carteris presented the President’s Award to actor and former Screen Actors Guild President Richard Masurfor his meritorious service to the union and its membership.

Masur has been active in union service since 1989, when he ran for a SAG board seat. He was elected SAG president in 1995 and served until 1999. Seven years later, he returned to serve the union as a National Board member and was a key player in the G-1 process that developed the merger agreement between SAG and AFTRA and drafted the SAG-AFTRA Constitution. Today, he is national chair of the Government Affairs and Public Policy Committee, leading the union’s legislative efforts. He is also vice chair of the Telemundo Contract Standing Committee, utilizing his extensive knowledge and experience to help provide protections on behalf of the Spanish-language performer community.

“In the life of this union, I have been honored to have lived during extraordinarily interesting times,” Masur said in accepting his honor. “Every single person sitting in this boardroom is here because they wish only the best for the members of this union. We are all here to do the same thing, which is to get the best wages and working conditions and improve the lives of every member of this union.”

The Founders Award is chosen by SAG-AFTRA’s Honors and Tributes Committee, honoring early members of SAG-AFTRA’s predecessor unions, SAG and AFTRA, who have provided meritorious service to fellow members. This year’s recipients are:

• Barbara Perry, who became a Screen Actors Guild member in 1934, one month before her 13thbirthday. She recently appeared with Louie Anderson in the FX series Baskets. Perry’s daughter, Laurel Lee James, stood alongside her today and read remarks for her mother, channeling Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage … and I humbly thank the board and all the union’s members for playing their parts so gloriously and by kindly recognizing me with this most prestigious award. I can no other answer make than thanks and thanks and ever thanks.”
• Marsha Hunt, who joined the Screen Actors Guild in 1938 and was a board member from March 1945 to November 1947. Her on-camera career suffered during the period of the Hollywood blacklist, but she turned adversity to activism and has been working to better the world ever since. “I’ve never been more touched than by being honored by my fellow actors,” Hunt told the audience today. “This is overwhelming. I love you all.”
• Norman Lloyd, who joined Screen Actors Guild in 1939. He is believed to be the oldest working actor today at age 103, currently appearing in the series Fly. “I remember when I joined the Screen Actors Guild. It wasn’t that old when I joined but we’ve gotten ancient together. Without the Guild, we would be hamburger. That we had the Guild — and that it was always there for us — is something to treasure in our long careers,” Lloyd said.
• June Lockhart, who joined AFRA (which would later become AFTRA) in 1938 and Screen Actors Guild in 1940. Lockhart’s longtime publicist and friend Harlan Boll accepted on her behalf. He read a statement from Lockhart that included this message to her fellow members: “Support each other, protect each other and never miss a chance to vote.”

The ceremony concluded with the presentation of a birthday cake celebrating Hunt’s 101st birthday this past Wednesday, and Lloyd’s 104th on Nov. 8.

On Monday, honors will be presented by the SAG-AFTRA Committee of Locals to actor and National Board member John Carter Brown and broadcaster Belva Davis, recipients of the 2018 Howard Keel Award for their significant contributions to the union. Click here for details.

Photos of today's event available at GettyImages.com.

To download a high-resolution photo for publication, click here. Caption: SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris, top left, with President’s Award honoree Richard Masur and Founders Award honorees Marsha Hunt, left, and Barbara Perry, right. Credit: SAG-AFTRA

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.