Steve Martin

Writing jokes for the Smothers Brothers paid the rent. The Emmy he won for it in 1969 was nice validation. The real breakthrough came from anti-comedy: deliberately bad jokes sold with complete sincerity, building tension until audiences had no choice but to laugh. His first SNL hosting slot in 1976 turned him into a national phenomenon. "Well, excuuuuse me!" landed everywhere. His comedy albums Let's Get Small and A Wild and Crazy Guy both won Grammys. He walked away from stand-up in 1981 at the top of his game, which remains one of the more confident exits in comedy history.

At 80, he's running one of the better-reviewed TV franchises on air. Only Murders in the Building, which he co-created and stars in, premiered in 2021 and hit Season 5 in September 2025, with a sixth season already ordered. Season 4 scored a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Variety reportedly put his per-episode salary at $600,000, with creator fees on top. The 2024 documentary STEVE! (martin) revealed the anxiety behind the persona, which turned out to be more interesting than anyone expected. His opening monologue at the SNL 50th anniversary special in February 2025 closed a particular loop.

The art collection is the most revealing thing about him that isn't comedy. He kept it quiet for decades until a 2001 Las Vegas exhibition exposed the depth of it: Picasso, Francis Bacon. He sold an Edward Hopper painting at Sotheby's for $26.9 million, and separately paid $850,000 for a painting he believed was by German-Dutch modernist Heinrich Campendonk that turned out to be a forgery. He's also been playing banjo since he was 17, won a Grammy for his 2009 bluegrass album, and set up a $50,000 annual prize for bluegrass performers. The wild-and-crazy-guy act was a character. The actual interests run toward the solitary and deliberate.