He's one of the greatest stand-up comedians of all-time, and when he gave that up, he
became a massive movie star, not to mention one of the most popular Saturday Night Live
hosts ever.
Yet in recent years, Steve Martin has all but disappeared from both the big screen and
the small.
So what's he been up to instead?
Here's a look at the real reason we don't hear from Steve Martin anymore.
Busy with bluegrass
Banjo-playing once played a major role in Martin's stand-up routines, but his banjo
skills are actually no joke.
In the late 2000s, Martin reinvented himself as a serious musician.
How serious?
Not only has he had a number one hit single and performed at the Grand Ole Opry several
times, he even won a Grammy for the song "Love Has Come for You" with musical partner Edie
Brickell.
"Love.
Love.
Love has come for you."
Martin thinks there's something mysterious and uniquely American about the banjo, telling
NPR "There's something very compelling about it to certain people.
I'd like to think it's because we're Americans and the banjo is truly an American instrument,
and it captures something about our past."
The write stuff
Considering Martin wrote the scripts for several hit films, including Roxanne, Bowfinger, and
L.A. Story, it's not really a surprise that he's been just as successful in the publishing
business as he has been in the movie business.
In 2000, his novella Shopgirl was a top ten New York Times Bestseller for 15 weeks, and
he later followed that up with the novels The Pleasure of My Company and An Object of
Beauty.
His most successful book, though, isn't fiction, but rather his 2007 memoir Born Standing Up:
A Comic's Life, which chronicles his rise to the top of the standup world before abruptly
quitting forever in 1981.
Martin told NPR he sees the book as less about comedy and more about the journey of a self-made
man.
"I think it's somehow an American story, because I started untalented.
I didn't have any gifts except perseverance."
The Great White Way
Given Steve Martin's fondness for both music and writing, it makes sense that the star
would eventually set his sights on Broadway.
In 2014, Martin and Brickell wrote and produced Bright Star, a musical drama inspired by the
duo's album Love Has Come for You.
The play made its way to Broadway in 2016, where it racked up five Tony nominations,
including Best Musical, Best Book in a Musical, and Best Score, but lost to the cultural juggernaut
known as Hamilton.
But Bright Star wasn't Martin's first foray into playwriting.
In 1993, Martin penned Picasso at the Lapin Agile, which depicts a conversation between
Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein.
The play made international headlines in 2009, when outraged parents objected to the characters'
"questionable behavior" and successfully prevented students at Oregon's La Grande High School
from mounting a production.
Martin responded by offering to fund an off-campus production of Picasso and penned a scathing
editorial in the La Grand Observer in which he argued that, despite the play's adult content,
"the spirit of the play and its endorsement of the arts and sciences are appropriate for
young eyes and minds."
Family man
Steve Martin tends to keep his private life to himself.
In 2007, he invited his closest friends over for a dinner party which turned out to be
a surprise wedding.
In 2012, when the actor was 67 years old, Martin's wife, former New York Times staffer
Anne Stringfield, gave birth to the comedian's first child — and nobody knew about it for
months.
In fact, the public still doesn't even know what her name is, something Martin has made
light of in interviews.
"Thought about the name quite a bit.
'Conquistador,' what do you think?"
Being a dad has changed Martin's priorities.
He told The Telegraph, "When I was younger, I was selfish and focused on my career.
Now, I'm just hanging around the house playing with [my daughter].
It's great."
Hi, art
Ever since he bought his first print in 1968, Martin has been an avid art collector, with
a collection that includes everything from multiple Picassos to the grungy alternative
cartoons of American comic book artist Robert Crumb.
"And the first thing I bought happened to be an Ed Ruscha print of Hollywood.
The Hollywood sign."
While Martin usually keeps the details of his personal collection characteristically
private, the comedian used his fame to bring attention to a little-known Canadian artist
named Lawren Harris by organizing an exhibition that appeared in Los Angeles, Boston, and
Toronto.
Of course, for Martin, art collecting isn't all fun and games.
In 2004, he bought "Landscape With Horses" by Dutch painter Heinrich Campendonk for $850,000,
only to learn later that the piece was one of 44 forgeries produced by a group of German
criminals.
Even then, Martin was able to take it all in stride.
Sit-down comedy
In February, 2016, Steve Martin took the stage at New York's Beacon Theater and delivered
a 10-minute stand-up set — his first in 35 years.
It was a favor to headliner Jerry Seinfeld after an appearance on Seinfeld's Comedians
in Cars Getting Coffee, where Martin explained why he suddenly quit stand-up at the top of
his game in 1981.
"Part of my goal was to be absurd in a very serious time.
I could tell that the era was ending too.
I could feel it."
Old man Martin
Let's face it: even for a young man, filming a movie can be a grueling experience.
Despite Hollywood's glamorous image, actors often work extremely long hours, get very
little sleep, and don't always get days off, often spending weeks away from home.
Martin told Biography, now that he's in his seventies and has a family, that stuff doesn't
sound so appealing anymore.
"It's difficult, the process of making a movie.
If a studio had its way, they'd have you working 14 hours a day, every day.
As you get older, your life actually becomes more important than your career, believe it
or not."
He could make a comeback
Martin may be spending his time out of the spotlight now, but he's still one of the most
respected names in Hollywood, both for his comedic and dramatic acting skills.
There's no question he could make a comeback if he wanted to.
But between his music, his plays, his novels, and his family, right now it doesn't seem
like making movies is a priority for him.
To which there's really only one one appropriate response:
"Well, excuuuuuuse me!"
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