Famous Screen Actors Guild Controversies

Actors seem rife with controversy, which could imply that organized actors are a breeding ground of hullabaloo. Though, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) rallies up a different kind of controversy from the sex fueled drug crazes in tabloids. It's politically driven controversy, at least in the politics of entertainment and Hollywood.

The Screen Actors Guild formed in 1933 and has since bonded association with the AFL-CIO. Unions are notorious rebel rousers and depending on which side of the negotiating table you're on, bastions of labor rights or royal pains in the ...

This is the primary role of the Screen Actors Guild: protect the rights of working actors and also handing out prestigious awards since 1995. One of the earliest unionized actions of SAG was to join the Writers Guild (WGA) boycott of the 1936 Academy Awards. Headline making controversy at SAG can also be traced back to the McCarthy Era. The House Un-American Committee (HUAC) targeted union groups trying to smoke out communist influence.

Free speech toting actors hopped a bandwagon to D.C. to speak out against this, including John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, Henry Fonda, Danny Kaye, Edward G. Robinson, Katharine Hepburn, Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly among others. This all revolved around the blacklisted Hollywood Ten brought before HUAC.

Though, SAG pushed forward a motion for guild board officers to sign a non-communist oath and then in 1953 all members were required to sign a loyalty oath. SAG made its "loyalty oath" for signing members optional when the Grateful Dead refused to sign on as members for appearing in the film "Petulia." It was removed permanently in 1974, apparently after communist take-over (wink-wink).

These turbulent times in entertainment were much bigger than SAG, yet the guild went on to do what unions do best: go on strike. Less than a year after the Hollywood Ten, actors nearly went into full strike mode against the studios, but it was avoided. This didn't stop SAG from rallying its members into action in 1960 in one of the biggest union sweeps against the Hollywood studio system.

This allowed actors to get their hands on residuals for broadcast rights, which began in a 1952 SAG Strike, but actors and writers (WGA) both made residual compensation industry wide after the 1960 strike. SAG didn't hold another strike for nearly 18 years. The 4 strikes in the guild's history were industry-centered news and lacked an impacting controversy, aside from the studios having to pay up.

The 1980 strike made primetime awareness as viewers of the 32nd Emmy Awards saw the impact. SAG had joined the Union of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) to demand higher minimums for television actors by boycotting the Emmys. In giving the only acceptance speech of the night actor Powers Boothe famously said "This is either the most courageous moment of my career or the stupidest."

Powers Boothe stood alone in 1980 with what unions call crossing the picket line, but 20 years later another SAG strike boiled with controversy. Leading the charge was newly inducted SAG president William Daniels who had a take-no-prisoners approach to the 2000 strike. It lasted for a grueling 6 months, the longest in the guild's history. Daniels's rein was short lived as a result of his hard-line tactics.

Critics of Daniels also disapproved of his adamant opposition to a SAG merger with the AFTRA union. Daniels called AFTRA a "crummy little union", even though SAG polls had favored a merger. The bigger controversy during the 2000 Commercials Strike was perhaps the 1,500 actors who cashed in on jobs freed up from boycotting SAG members. SAG brought evidence of non-union jobs to trial, including a hefty fine to Elizabeth Hurley who worked an Estée Lauder commercial during the strike.

With SAG membership approaching over 200,000 the battle over pay and rights will surely keep raging.