Steve Martin was honored on Sunday with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. This is one of the nation's top comedy awards.

At the ceremony, Martin mentioned some of the previous awards he had got, including a writing Emmy for "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Tour".
"But of course the Mark Twain Prize is more special to me," he said, "because it's more recent."

Steve Martin is everything from a stand-up comedian to an actor, a writer and, last but not least, a really funny man.

Martin has started writing in the late 1960s, for the Smothers Brothers' show.
He became known as a stand-up comedian on campuses and in Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show".
The actor earned his fame as a zany comedian playing larger-than-life characters in "Saturday Night Live", in the 1970s.
His first movie hit was "The Jerk" in 1979.

Martin has also wrote screenplays, for movies such as "Roxanne" (1987) and "A Simple Twist of Fate" (1994).

This fall, Steve Martin can be seen in his latest film, "Shopgirl", starring opposite Claire Danes. The movie was already acclaimed for the script (written by Steve Martin) and for the actor's performance.