10 THINGS YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT
WILD and crazy guy Steve Martin racked up his sixth Golden Globe nomination with his role in Only Murders in the Building, the comedy series he co-created with John Hoffman. The Hulu show kicks off its second season this month and once again sees Martin, 76, sharing the screen with Saturday Night Live alum Martin Short and Selena Gomez, pop singer and former kid star of Barney & Friends. Here are ten things you don’t know about the banjoplaying funnyman.
1
He was a cheerleader at Garden Grove High School in California.
2
He first picked up the banjo at 17 and credits the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s John McEuen with helping him learn how to master the instrument.
3
His first job was selling guidebooks on weekends at Disneyland in Anaheim.
4
In 1967, galpal Nina Goldblatt, a dancer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, helped him land a writing gig for the TV variety show by passing on his work.
5
His famous former flames include Bernadette Peters, Karen
Carpenter and Mary Tyler Moore.
6
His hair and beard were originally dark brown, but he went gray by age 32.
7
He’s appeared on 27 SNL episodes and guest-hosted 15 times — second only to Alec Baldwin, who’s hosted 17 times.
8
At 67, he became a father for the first time with the 2012 birth of daughter Mary — five years after marrying second wife Anne Stringfield.
9
An avid art collector, he spent $850,000 on what he believed to be a genuine painting by German Expressionist Heinrich Campendonk — only to later learn the colorful canvas was a
forgery.
10
His comedy influences include Charlie Chaplin, Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis and Woody Allen.