SAG-AFTRA to Present Richard Masur with the 2018 President's Award

SAG-AFTRA announced today that former Screen Actors Guild President Richard Masur is the 2018 recipient of the President's Award. The award will be presented Saturday during the SAG-AFTRA National Board plenary. Introduced at last year's SAG-AFTRA convention, the President's Award celebrates a member who has given meritorious service to the union and its membership.

"It is an honor and privilege for me to recognize Richard's many contributions with this award," said SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris. "For decades, he has worked to enrich the lives of performers; from volunteering on committees, serving on local and national boards, to ultimately two terms as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. Richard embodies the true meaning of leadership and service."

Masur began his professional acting career in 1972 at the Long Wharf Theater in New HAVEN before moving to Broadway the following year in The Changing Room. His career quickly expanded to film and television as a character actor, where he has since appeared in more than 60 feature films and TV movies and scores of television episodes. He received an Emmy nomination for The Burning Bed, and an Academy Award nomination for writing and directing the short subject Love Struck.

In 1989, at a friend's suggestion, he decided to run for a SAG board seat and has been involved with working to provide the strongest protections for entertainment and media artists ever since. In 1995, he was elected SAG president and served until 1999. Seven years later, he returned to serve the union as a National Board member and was a key player in the G-1 process that developed the merger agreement between SAG and AFTRA and drafted the SAG-AFTRA Constitution. Both were approved by members in the successful merger of 2012.

Masur has served his fellow members on more than two-dozen committees and sat at the table for many contract negotiations. Today, he is National Chair of the Government Affairs and Public Policy Committee, leading the union's legislative efforts. He is also Vice Chair of the Telemundo Contract Standing Committee, utilizing his extensive knowledge and experience to help provide protections on behalf of the Spanish-language performer community. He continues to serve union members as a trustee on the SAG-Producers Pension Plan and SAG-AFTRA Health Plan.

Mike Hodge, the late New York Local President, was posthumously selected to receive the inaugural President's Award in 2017.