Laura Linney Wins 2010 Common Wealth Award for Dramatic Arts

Four renowned leaders and achievers who have influenced modern society through their work and their accomplishments were honored with the 31st annual Common Wealth Awards of Distinguished Service. The awards recognize and encourage outstanding achievement worldwide in designated fields of human endeavor.

The 2010 Common Wealth Award winners are:

Annie Leibovitz, famed photographer and celebrity portraitist, for Mass Communications;
Laura Linney, award-winning actress of Broadway, film and television, for Dramatic Arts;
Greg Mortenson, renowned humanitarian; co-founder of Central Asia Institute and founder of Pennies for Peace, for Public Service;
Sir Salman Rushdie, preeminent Indian-British writer and powerful literary voice, for Literature.
The honorees were recognized at the April 24th Common Wealth Awards ceremony, hosted by The PNC Financial Services Group at the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington. Connie Bond Stuart, PNC regional president, presented the awards.

Stuart noted that "The 2010 Common Wealth honorees have devoted themselves to a lifetime of excellence in their respective careers. They have educated, entertained and inspired people the world over. We salute these high achievers for their contributions to the arts and public service, and we look forward to a future that continues to bear the imprint of their outstanding work."

The Common Wealth Awards of Distinguished Service were first presented in 1979 and are funded by The Ralph Hayes Common Wealth Foundation. PNC is trustee and administrator of the foundation, which was created under the will of the late Ralph Hayes, an influential business executive and philanthropist.

A total of $4.8 million in prize money has been conferred to 173 honorees during the 31-year history of The Common Wealth Awards. The honorees received a sculpted trophy and a shared prize of $200,000 during the ceremony.

More than 500 invited guests attended The Common Wealth Awards ceremony, including Delaware's leaders from the business community, government and elected office, education, the arts and community service.

Ralph Hayes served on the board of directors of PNC Delaware's predecessor banks from 1935 to 1965. Through The Common Wealth Awards, he sought to recognize outstanding achievement in eight disciplines: dramatic arts, literature, science, invention, mass communications, public service, government, and sociology. The awards also provide an incentive for people to make future contributions to the world community.

The roster of past Common Wealth Award recipients reveals the caliber of talent and the global scope of the honorees and their achievements. Among the past winners are 11 Nobel laureates, including human rights leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former statesman Henry Kissinger and authors Gabriel García Márquez and Toni Morrison. Other Common Wealth Award winners include former Secretary of State Colin Powell; children's television icon, the late FrEd Rogers; H.M. Queen Noor of Jordan; dance legend Mikhail Baryshnikov; Hollywood icons Sidney Poitier and Meryl Streep; astronaut Buzz Aldrin; primatologist Jane Goodall; ocean explorer Robert Ballard; television journalists Walter Cronkite and Cokie Roberts; and World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee.