Comic actress Lily Tomlin to get Screen Actors Guild lifetime award

(Reuters) – Lily Tomlin, one of America’s most enduring comic actresses, will receive a lifetime achievement award in January from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the group announced on Thursday.

Tomlin, 76, who rose to fame in 1969 through television’s “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” weekly show, went on to headline movies like “Nashville,” and Broadway shows that have brought multiple Emmy and Tony awards.

SAG President Gabrielle Carteris in a statement called her “an extraordinary actress, as equally adept at narrative drama as in comedy roles. But it is through her many original characters that Lily’s creative genius fully shines.”

Tomlin, who also has two of America’s highest artistic awards with a Kennedy Center Honor and Mark Twain Humor Prize, is currently co-starring in the Netflix comedy series “Grace and Frankie” with Jane Fonda.

Tomlin will receive her lifetime achievement honor at the SAG annual awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Jan. 29. Previous recipients include Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett, Clint Eastwood and Elizabeth Taylor.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)