A PARADE OF STEVES

NOVEMBER 9, 1980 STEVE’S DREAM

In 1980, Steve Martin was a 34-year-old sensation, thanks to Saturday Night Live, The Jerk and his popular comedy albums (the single “King Tut” sold a million copies).

APRIL 28, 1991 WHY HE’S A FOOL FOR LOVE

At 45, Martin had been in the funny business for two decades, and inside that man who used to wear a trick arrow through his head was a true romantic waiting to come out, writer Gail Buchalter said.

AUGUST 30, 1998 CAN THIS BE STEVE MARTIN?

“You know what I am?” a 53-year-old Martin said to writer Dotson Rader. “I’m a softie. My work in film has been increasingly romantic and sentimental, and that’s also the progress of my life. It’s not that I’ve mellowed. I’m much more energized, more emotional, more open.” Divorced from Victoria Tennant after an eight-year marriage and having gone through a breakup with girlfriend Anne Heche, Martin was still open to love and marriage and was thinking about how to re-create his life. “As men get older,” he said, “the reward of what they do dissipates. But some transform themselves. They become new creatures. When you couple that transformation with a wisdom about what life is and the way it works, then you don’t depend on others to make you desirable,” he said. “It’s certainly in my mind to have an emotionally rich old age.”

JANUARY 13, 2019 WILD & CRAZY GUYS

Before there was the Hulu hit Only Murders in the Building, there was the Steve Martin and Martin Short live comedy tour. And before that, there was Father of the Bride and its sequel—and nearly 35 years of friendship. Short estimates they’ve shared roughly 850,000 dinners and numerous family vacations together—and countless chortles. But they’re both serious about one thing: Making people laugh.