Steve Martin's crazy, off-the-wall brand of humor had major effects on stand-up, television, film, and print. From the 1970s, when his white-suited appearances on the ensemble comedy show Saturday Night Live were widely enjoyed and copied, to the 1990s, when his witty short pieces were printed on the back page of the New Yorker, Martin has brought his wacko bursts of intelligent comedy to millions. Clean-cut yet uninhibited, Martin rolled with the decades, growing from a novelty act to a respected comedic actor and author.

Martin was born August 14, 1945, in Waco, Texas. His family moved to California when he was five, and he grew up near Disneyland. He dropped out of college at 21 and began writing comedy for the Smothers Brothers in the late 1960s and then for Sonny and Cher in the early 1970s. He appeared on the Tonight Show more than forty...