Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1531556
66 SAG-AFTRA SPECIAL ISSUE 2025 / sagaf tra.org archives reveals inch-thick booklets of potential Life Achievement Award nominees that were compiled each year. These booklets include clippings of news stories about each candidate along with mini-biographies about their life, service and accomplishments. Though Barbra Streisand took home the award in 2023, she can be found in these nominee booklets as far back as 1994. T H E AWA R D ' S N E W N A M E M E E T S T E L E V I S I O N AU D I E N C E S The first recipient of the Life Achievement Award — after it was given its current name in 1995 and presented as part of the first Screen Actors Guild Awards — was George Burns, whose career spanned vaudeville, film, radio and television, and who was 99 years old at the time he was honored. Born prior to the invention of television and radio, young Burns was described in the nominee booklet as a boy who "sung for a buck whenever there was a crowd." Other tidbits include Burns' support of the Motion Picture and Television Fund and Cedars- Sinai Medical Center — indicating that humanitarian and public service endeavors are an important part of the selection process. Burns' acceptance of the Life Achievement Award during the ceremony that aired from Universal Studios' Stage 12 was his final appearance on television. Above, The November-December 1968 issue of Screen Actor magazine shows the "happy" side of the Screen Actors Guild Annual Award as the cover anticipates the Nov. 17 ceremony. George Burns, 1995 SAG-AFTRA SPECIAL COLLECTIONS