Lily Tomlin will receive the Life Achievement Award at the 2017 Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) awards.

Lily Tomlin

Lily Tomlin

The 76-year-old actress will be the 53rd recipient of the accolade, in recognition of her career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment, and she will pick up the honour at the ceremony on January 29.

SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris said: "Lily Tomlin is an extraordinary actress, as equally adept at narrative drama as in comedy roles. But it is through her many original characters that Lily's creative genius fully shines.

"She has an ability to create diverse and distinct characters that are at once familiar, eccentric and oh so honest - in a way that illuminates life's hidden corners. From Edith Ann to Frankie, her characters are wholly unique, and by exposing every nuance of human behaviour they widen our scope of understanding.

"On behalf of nearly 160,000 SAG-AFTRA members, we are honoured to bestow our SAG Life Achievement Award on the truly amazing Lily Tomlin."

The 'Grace and Frankie' actress - who launched her career in 1969 - has won a number of awards throughout the years, including two Tonys, a Grammy, multiple Emmys, two Peabody Awards, a Writer's Guild of America award, a 2014 Kennedy Center Award, and the 2003 Mark Twain Prize for American Humour.

The 'Grandma' star is also an LGBT advocate and co-founded the Los Angeles LGBT Center's Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center.


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