History of the Screen Actors Guild Awards

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) had been around 62 years before they decided Oscar wasn't enough. SAG wanted to recognize the craft of acting exclusively in both television and film. The Screen Actors Guild had bestowed a number of luminaries with a Life Achievement Award since 1962, but had never produced a televised awards ceremony with varying categories.

In 1995, the first Screen Actors Guild awards ceremony broadcast live, handing statutes to the likes of Tom Hanks, Jodie Foster, Jason Alexander, Helen Hunt and George Burns.

"The Actor"

Like The Academy Awards' Oscar, SAG's statute "The Actor" stands before its recipients in the nude. "The Actor" instead extends a comedy mask in his hand also holding a tragedy mask close to his heart. The SAG award has come to carry great weight in being a predictor of who takes the Oscar.

SAG award winners also carry a great weight in receiving "The Actor", with statutes weighing as much a bowling ball. They are 12 pounds of solid bronze, which was a bronze developed for US Navy shell casings and propellers during World War II. It is an official work of art commissioned by the Screen Actors Guild.

SAG's influence on Oscars

In his book "All About Oscar", Emanuel Levy notes the influence SAG award winners have at the Academy Awards. With actors representing 24 percent of voting Academy members, history has shown 80 percent of SAG winners go on to win the Oscar.

Who Votes?

According to SAG, 4,200 of their members are randomly selected to make nominations. This consists of 2,100 SAG members nominating for television and the other half for film. Today, there are over 200,000 guild members and this is who makes the final vote on nominees. Prestige is an understatement when you consider the thousands of actors who gave kudos to your performance.

Screen Actors Guild Awards in Television

Television actress Julianna Margulies has the most statutes lining her shelf with a total of 7. She was awarded for her role as Nurse Carol Hathaway on "ER" and then in "The Good Wife." "ER" dominated SAG awards, as Margulies's co-star Anthony Edwards won 6 times. 4 of their awards came in the Television Drama Ensemble category, which also included George Clooney during his time on "ER."

Television actors tend to win the most SAG awards due to consistently great runs on primetime. The show "30 Rock" gave Alec Baldwin 5 SAG awards and Tiny Fey 4. James Gandolfini and Edie Falco both received 4 SAG awards for "The Sopranos." During nine seasons of "Seinfeld", Julia Louis Dreyfus won 5 awards and Jason Alexander picked up 4, 3 of which for Best Comedy Ensemble.

Remember the show "Frasier"? For their portrayal as the heady Crane brothers, David Hyde Pierce and Kelsey Grammer were nominated 19 times. Pierce won twice, sharing an award for Ensemble Comedy with Grammer. Rainn Wilson is the only actor to win Television SAG awards in an ensemble in both comedy ("The Office") and drama ("Six Feet Under").

Screen Actors Guild Awards in Film

Film actors don't quite tally up as many repeat victories, though Actresses like Helen Mirren ("Gosford Park", "The Queen", "The Last Station") and Christine Baranski ("Cybill", "The Birdcage", "Chicago") have won a total of 4 awards in both television and film categories. Tom Hanks received the first SAG award for Male Actor in a Leading Role as "Forrest Gump." Richard Crouse mentions in his book "Reel Winners" that Hank's acceptance speech inspired a regular feature at the awards ceremony. The actor reflected back to the gig that got him his guild membership, which prompted producers of the ceremony to include the annual segment, "How I Got My Card."