56th Annual Accolade to Be Presented on Sunday, January 19
During the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards
Simulcast Live on TNT and TBS
LOS ANGELES (December 6, 2019) – Academy Award® winning actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio will present the SAG Life Achievement Award to two-time Oscar®-winning actor, producer and director Robert De Niro during the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, the producers announced today. Accepting SAG-AFTRA’s highest accolade from his co-star in several films, including This Boy’s Life, will be a special moment at the ceremony, which will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.
This Boy’s Life
DiCaprio co-starred with De Niro in This Boy’s Life as Toby, the only son of a single mother in 1950’s Washington state. De Niro played Dwight, Toby’s abusive stepfather. The complexity of each of their roles, and the emotionally charged storyline helped create a lasting bond between the two actors, who went on to work together in three more films. This Boy’s Life, one of DiCaprio’s earliest films, brought his talent to life and helped propel his career as an award-winning actor.
Leonardo DiCaprio
In 2016, Leonardo DiCaprio accepted his first SAG Award for Male Lead in recognition of his outstanding performance in The Revenant. He had previously been nominated for eight SAG Awards – three Male Actor in a Leading Role, one Male Actor in a Supporting Role, and four as part of an ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture, including one for Marvin’s Room, for which he was nominated with De Niro in 1997.
DiCaprio received his first SAG Award nomination for Male Actor in a Leading Role in 2005 for The Aviator, in which he played billionaire Howard Hughes. He was part of the Cast in a Motion Picture nomination for the same film. He won an Oscar® for Best Actor in The Revenant, and has been nominated for five additional Oscars®.
He has been nominated for 11 Golden Globes, winning three for his roles in The Revenant, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Aviator. He was most recently seen starring in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In addition to his brilliant work as an actor, DiCaprio is also an accomplished producer. He has produced such films as Shutter Island, The Aviator and the upcoming Clint Eastwood directed Richard Jewell, a biographical drama based on the bombing at Centennial Olympic Park at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Leonardo DiCaprio is also a passionate activist focused on the environment. At Appian Way, they have put strong efforts to gain headway in the documentary world, especially as it pertains to progressive environmental change producing Before the Flood, a documentary that sheds light on climate change. It also worked with Netflix to produce the Academy Award®-nominated Virunga, directed by Orlando von Einsiedel. Appian is in partnership with Netflix on several additional documentaries, including the critically acclaimed Struggle, The Ivory Game, How to Change the World, Catching the Sun, and the documentary series Fire Chasers. Last year Appian also produced the critically acclaimed documentary series Frontiersmen as a sequel to the Men Who Built America for the History Channel, Jonestown: Terror In The Jungle for AMC/Sundance and currently is in production on a multi-part documentary series about Ulysses S. Grant, also for History Channel. This year, Appian saw success around critical darlings, Sea of Shadows, Ice on Fire, and And We Go Green, which center around environmental issues.
In July 2019, The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation teamed up with Earth Laurene Powell Jobs of Emerson Collective and Brian Sheth of Global Wildlife Conservation to create Earth Alliance, an organization to combat climate change and biodiversity loss. DiCaprio has also been awarded a Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum for his work bringing global attention to the urgent need to address climate change.
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro is the recipient of a SAG Award® for his work as a member of the cast of American Hustle. He received Screen Actors Guild Awards cast nominations for his work in Silver Linings Playbook, for which he also earned an individual nomination, and Marvin’s Room. De Niro is a seven-time Academy Award® nominee, a six-time BAFTA nominee and a nine-time Golden Globe® nominee. De Niro, who made his directorial debut in 1993 with A Bronx Tale, in which he also starred, can currently be seen in Joker.
De Niro’s breakthrough role was in the 1973 film Mean Streets, where he began the first of nine collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. Other films created out of their special partnership include Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Casino, and the recently released Netflix film, The Irishman.
De Niro’s incredible repertoire of films includes his Academy Award®-winning roles in The Godfather II and Raging Bull, as well as Oscar®-nominated turns for his work in The Deer Hunter, Taxi Driver, Awakenings, Cape Fear and Silver Linings Playbook. De Niro has proven his versatility with his memorable dramatic roles in The Untouchables, Jackie Brown and Backdraft, and several successful comedies in his career, including Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, Little Fockers, Analyze This and the dramedy Midnight Run.
Much more information about De Niro’s extraordinary career and why he was chosen to receive the SAG Life Achievement Award can be found here on the SAG Awards website.