
Late last month the American Film Institute honored Nicole Kidman for her lifetime of achievement. But Nicole is only 56 years old, which raises the question, “What constitutes a lifetime?” Inquiring minds want to know because every year hundreds of organizations give out lifetime achievement awards. In addition to AFI, there’s the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Oscar’s Honorary Award, the Kennedy Center Honors, and my favorite, the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement, named for a man who created a vampire who I believe has been eligible for over 700 lifetime achievement awards.
Kidman’s relative youth is not unique among so-called lifetime honorees. In fact, plenty of other entertainers have been recognized in their 50s, like Orson Welles, Harrison Ford, and Jack Nicholson, and some, like Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, have even been honored in their 40s.
The groups who present these awards set no age restrictions, but they are very clear about their general criteria. AFI’s original by-laws required that a lifetime achievement recipient’s work “must have stood the test of time” (that was later amended to include folks with an active career). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences reserves its Honorary Award “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement.” The Grammys presents their award for “performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording.” And the Kennedy Center Honors are given to those in the performing arts “for their lifetime of contributions to American culture.”
OK, so once again I pose the question, “What constitutes a lifetime?” Peter O’Toole received an Honorary Oscar in his 80s, and Lillian Gish was 90 when she picked up the AFI Lifetime Achievement award. Clearly, they and other elderly honorees have amassed an impressive body of work over many decades. But it doesn’t make any sense to honor anyone for a lifetime of achievement when their lifetime is far from over.
Last year, the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics reported that the average life expectancy in America is 76.1 years, while the United Nations claimed a higher number at 79 years. Regardless, a lifetime achievement award for someone in their 40s or 50s seems premature and a bit disingenuous, sort of like if 6-year-old Prince Louis of Wales wrote an autobiography titled My Life Story. Perhaps AFI and other groups might consider more definable benchmarks for awarding lifetime achievement, such as actual retirement age. In America, for example, the average age of retirement is 63. Or if these esteemed award-giving organizations want to be more age-inclusive, they could align their criteria with those of professional golf, which allows veteran players to move to the seniors tour once they reach 50, which is also about the time you start receiving mail from AARP. In any case, we really need a clear consensus on what constitutes a “lifetime,” especially when recognizing individual achievement.
Once when confronted by Professor Van Helsing, Stoker’s Dracula said, “For one who has not lived even a single lifetime, you are a wise man, Van Helsing.” This tells us two important things. First, Dracula respects his enemies, and second, Van Helsing is not yet eligible for an award.
Rethinking Lifetime Achievement Awards
Late last month the American Film Institute honored Nicole Kidman for her lifetime of achievement. But Nicole is only 56 years old, which raises the question, “What constitutes a lifetime?” Inquiring minds want to know because every year hundreds of organizations give out lifetime achievement awards. In addition to AFI, there’s the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Oscar’s Honorary Award, the Kennedy Center Honors, and my favorite, the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement, named for a man who created a vampire who I believe has been eligible for over 700 lifetime achievement awards.
Kidman’s relative youth is not unique among so-called lifetime honorees. In fact, plenty of other entertainers have been recognized in their 50s, like Orson Welles, Harrison Ford, and Jack Nicholson, and some, like Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, have even been honored in their 40s.
The groups who present these awards set no age restrictions, but they are very clear about their general criteria. AFI’s original by-laws required that a lifetime achievement recipient’s work “must have stood the test of time” (that was later amended to include folks with an active career). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences reserves its Honorary Award “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement.” The Grammys presents their award for “performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording.” And the Kennedy Center Honors are given to those in the performing arts “for their lifetime of contributions to American culture.”
OK, so once again I pose the question, “What constitutes a lifetime?” Peter O’Toole received an Honorary Oscar in his 80s, and Lillian Gish was 90 when she picked up the AFI Lifetime Achievement award. Clearly, they and other elderly honorees have amassed an impressive body of work over many decades. But it doesn’t make any sense to honor anyone for a lifetime of achievement when their lifetime is far from over.
Last year, the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics reported that the average life expectancy in America is 76.1 years, while the United Nations claimed a higher number at 79 years. Regardless, a lifetime achievement award for someone in their 40s or 50s seems premature and a bit disingenuous, sort of like if 6-year-old Prince Louis of Wales wrote an autobiography titled My Life Story. Perhaps AFI and other groups might consider more definable benchmarks for awarding lifetime achievement, such as actual retirement age. In America, for example, the average age of retirement is 63. Or if these esteemed award-giving organizations want to be more age-inclusive, they could align their criteria with those of professional golf, which allows veteran players to move to the seniors tour once they reach 50, which is also about the time you start receiving mail from AARP. In any case, we really need a clear consensus on what constitutes a “lifetime,” especially when recognizing individual achievement.
Once when confronted by Professor Van Helsing, Stoker’s Dracula said, “For one who has not lived even a single lifetime, you are a wise man, Van Helsing.” This tells us two important things. First, Dracula respects his enemies, and second, Van Helsing is not yet eligible for an award.