The Kennedy Center Honors were devised in 1978 to honor Americans who have made exceptional lifetime contributions to the arts.
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Aaron Copland (born 1900, died 1990)
American composer.
- 1979 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Arthur Miller (born 1915)
American playwright.
- 1984 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Benny Carter (born 1907)
American jazz musician, composer and bandleader.
- 1996 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Clint Eastwood (born 1930)
American actor, director and politician.
- 2000 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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William James ''Count'' Basie (born 1904, died 1984)
American jazz musician.
- 1981 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Danny Kaye (born 1913, died 1987)
American actor and comedian. Original name: David Kaminsky.
- 1984 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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John Birks ''Dizzy'' Gillespie (born 1917, died 1993)
American jazz musician.
- 1990 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Edward Albee (born 1928)
American playwright.
- 1996 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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George Burns (born 1896, died 1996)
American comedian and actor. Original name: Nathan Birnbaum.
- 1988 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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George Balanchine (born 1904, died 1983)
Russian-born American choreographer. Original name: Georgy Melitonovich Balanchivadze.
- 1978 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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George Abbott (born 1887, died 1995)
American playwright, screenwriter, actor, director, and producer.
- 1982 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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(Eldred) Gregory Peck (born 1916)
American actor and producer.
- 1991 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Neil Simon (born 1927)
American playwright.
- 1995 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Pete Seeger (born 1919)
American folk singer and songwriter.
- 1994 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Richard Rodgers (born 1902, died 1979)
American composer.
- 1978 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Roy Acuff (born 1903, died 1992)
American musician and songwriter.
- 1991 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Sammy Davis, Jr. (born 1925, died 1990)
American actor and singer.
- 1987 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Stephen Sondheim (born 1930)
American composer of musical theatre.
- 1993 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Thomas ''Tennessee'' Williams (born 1911, died 1983)
American playwright.
- 1979 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Virgil Thomson (born 1896, died 1989)
American composer, musician and critic.
- 1983 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Perry Como (born 1912)
American singer.
- 1987 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Stevie Wonder (born 1950)
American singer, songwriter and musician who has been blind since birth. Original name: Steveland Morris.
- 1999 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Willie Nelson (born 1933)
American musician, singer and songwriter.
- 1998 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Johnny Cash (born 1932)
American singer and songwriter known as ''The Man in Black.''
- 1996 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Henry Fonda (born 1905, died 1982)
American actor. Father of actors Jane and Peter Fonda.
- 1979 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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James Cagney (born 1899, died 1986)
American actor.
- 1980 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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James Stewart (born 1908, died 1997)
American actor and WWII bomber pilot.
- 1983 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Frederick Loewe (born 1901, died 1988)
Austrian-American composer and songwriter.
- 1985 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Antony Tudor (born 1909, died 1987)
British ballet dancer and choreographer.
- 1986 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Nathan Milstein (born 1904, died 1992)
Russian-born American violinist.
- 1987 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Alwin Nikolais (born 1912, died 1993)
American composer and choreographer.
- 1987 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Alvin Ailey (born 1931, died 1989)
American choreographer.
- 1988 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Alexander Schneider (born 1908, died 1993)
Russian-born American violinist and conductor.
- 1988 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Roger L. Stevens (born 1910)
Founder of the National Council on the Arts and the Kennedy Center
- 1988 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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William Schuman (born 1910, died 1992)
American composer and educator.
- 1989 Kennedy Center Honors recipient.
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Jule Styne (born 1905, died 1994)
English-born American composer.
- 1990 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Billy Wilder (born 1906)
Austrian writer, director and producer.
- 1990 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Adolph Green (born 1915)
American actor, playwright and composer. With Betty Comden, created many famous musical comedies, including Singin' in the Rain.
- 1991 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Fayard Nicholas (born 1914)
American tap dancer.
- 1991 Kennedy Center Honors recipient, with his brother Harold
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Harold Nicholas (born 1921)
American tap dancer.
- 1991 Kennedy Center Honors recipient, with his brother Fayard
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Mstislav Rostropovich (born 1927)
Soviet cellist, pianist and conductor.
- 1992 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Arthur Mitchell (born 1934)
American dancer.
- 1993 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Georg Solti (born 1912, died 1997)
Hungarian-born English musician and conductor.
- 1993 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Harold Prince (born 1928)
American theatrical director.
- 1994 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Jacques d'Amboise (born 1934)
American dancer, choreographer and educator.
- 1995 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Riley ''B.B.'' King (born 1925)
American blues guitarist and singer.
- 1995 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Bill Cosby (born 1937)
American actor and comedian.
- 1998 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Cary Grant (born 1904, died 1986)
American actor. Original name: Archibald Alexander Leach.
- 1981 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Bob Hope (born 1903)
English-born American comedian and actor.
- 1985 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Harry Belafonte (born 1927)
Jamaican singer, actor and civil-rights activist.
- 1989 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Eugene Ormandy (born 1899, died 1985)
Hungarian-born American conductor. Original name: Jenö Ormandy Blau.
- 1982 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Artur Rubinstein (born 1887, died 1982)
Polish-born American pianist.
- 1978 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Rudolf Serkin (born 1903, died 1991)
Austrian-born American pianist.
- 1981 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Robert Shaw (born 1916, died 1999)
American conductor.
- 1991 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Isaac Stern (born 1920)
Russian-born American violinist.
- 1984 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Paul Newman (born 1925)
American actor, director, producer and race-car driver.
- 1992 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Victor Borge (born 1908)
Comedian
- 1999 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Placido Domingo (born 1940)
Spanish opera singer.
- 2000 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Jack Lemmon (born 1925)
American actor and comedian.
- 1996 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Sidney Poitier (born 1924)
American actor and director. First African American to win an Oscar for Best Actor.
- 1995 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Lionel Hampton (born 1914)
American jazz musician; master of the vibraphone.
- 1992 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Fred Astaire (born 1899, died 1987)
American dancer and actor. Original name: Frederick Austerlitz.
- 1978 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Bob Dylan (born 1941)
American musician, singer and songwriter. Original name: Robert Allan Zimmerman.
- 1997 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Benny Goodman (born 1909, died 1986)
American jazz musician.
- 1982 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Gene Kelly (born 1912, died 1996)
American dancer, actor, director and producer.
- 1982 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Leonard Bernstein (born 1918, died 1990)
American conductor and composer.
- 1980 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Ray Charles (born 1930)
American singer, songwriter and musician. Known for bridging numerous styles, including rhythm and blues, country and rock.
- 1986 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Charlton Heston (born 1923)
American actor, writer, director and producer.
- 1997 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Jerome Robbins (born 1918, died 1998)
Director and choreographer.
- 1981 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Chuck Berry (born 1926)
American musician, singer and songwriter.
- 2000 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Johnny Carson (born 1925)
American comedian; longtime host of ''The Tonight Show.''
- 1993 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Kirk Douglas (born 1916)
American actor. Original name: Issur Danielovitch.
- 1994 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Morton Gould (born 1913, died 1996)
American composer and conductor.
- 1994 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Frank Sinatra (born 1915, died 1998)
American singer and actor.
- 1983 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Jason Robards, Jr. (born 1922)
American actor.
- 1999 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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(Thomas) Sean Connery (born 1930)
Scottish actor and producer.
- 1999 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Alan Jay Lerner (born 1918, died 1986)
American lyricist.
- 1985 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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André Previn (born 1929)
American composer, pianist and conductor.
- 1998 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
- 1998 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Edward Villella (born 1936)
American dancer.
- 1997 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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John Kander (born 1927)
- 1998 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Fred Ebb (born 1935)
- 1998 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Mikhail Baryshnikov (born 1948)
Dancer
- 2000 Kennedy Center Honors recipient
