Stand-ups on screen

Steve Martin

On the stage… Absurdity mixed with outrageous physical comedy and subtle philosophical asides. Martin would take the stage with a plastic arrow through his head, then rail against the outrageous cruelty known as cat juggling, and shuffle off to the self-written tune of “King Tut.”

On the big screen… The outrageousness flowed straight into Martin’s early movies, particularly 1979’s “The Jerk” [pictured], which opened with him delivering the line “I was born a poor black child.” A string of sophisticated comedies (including black-and-white film noir farce “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” and the mad scientist spoof “The Man with Two Brains”) followed, before Martin proved his dramatic chops with 1987’s “Roxanne.”