Kennedy Center Honors - 2015

The Kennedy Center Honors took place at the White House on December 9, 2015 and will broadcast on CBS on December 29, 2015.


Eagles ( American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1971) (Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner)

The band has sold more than 120 million albums worldwide.  They have been awards six Grammy Awards, five #1 albums and topped the single charts five times.  They were also inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Initially they were only together from 1971-1980.  They reunited in 1994 for an MTV concert special. A live recording, Hell Freezes Over, sold million of copies and launched a tour which ended in August 1996.

Carole King (Born Carol Joan Klein on February 9, 1942 in Manhattan, New York City) (Singer-songwriter)

King and her then husband Gerry Goffin began writing songs for various artists in the 1960s.  She made her breakthrough album Tapestry in 1971 which topped the U.S. charts for 15 weeks in 1971. She has made 25 solo albums.

King has won four Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987. She and Goffin were awarded the National Academy of Songwriters' Lifetime Achievement Award in 1988 and in 1990, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  King was honored with the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and in 2004, Goffin and King received the Trustees Award from The Recording Academy.  In December, 2012, King received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  She was the first woman to be the recipient of the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

George Lucas (Born on May 14, 1944 in Modesto, California) (Filmmaker, entrepreneur)

Lucas is best known for creating Star Wars and Indiana Jones.  In 1973 he was the writer-director of the film American Graffiti.  It was inspired by his teen years in Modesto, California and received five Academy Awards nominations including Best Picture.

In 1977 Star Wars became the highest-grossing film at the time and the winner of six Academy Awards.  Following Star Wards, he produced The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).  With Steven Spielberg, he co-created and wrote the Indiana Jones firlms Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Temple of Doom (1984), and The Last Crusade (1989).  In 1999, Lucas wrote a Star Wars prequel trilogy - Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002), and Revenge of the Sith (2005).  He also wrote the Indian Jones sequel Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).

Rita Moreno (Born Rosa Dolores Alverio on December 11, 1931 in Humacao, Puerto Rico) (Actress, Singer, Dancer)

Moreno is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers to have won an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy for The Electric Company Album in 1972, and a Tony for Googie Gomez in Broadway's The Ritz.  She was the second Puerto Rican to win an Oscar in 1962 for her role as Anita is the film version of West Side Story and The Golden Globe.

In film, she has performed in The King and I as Tuptim and Singin' in the Rain starring Gene Kelly.  Other films habe been The Night of the Following Day, Marlowe, Carnal Knowledge, The Ritz, The Four Seasons, I Like it Like That, Angus, Carlo's Wake, Blue Moon, Pinero and Casa de los Babys.

Her theater roles include Lola in Damn Yankees, Anne Sullivan in The Miracle Worker, Doris in The Owl and the Pussycat, and Mama Rose in Gypsy.  This past January, Rita was honors as the 50th recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.

Seiji Ozawa (Born on September 1, 1935 to Japanese parents in Makden, Manchukuo) (Conductor)

Ozawa is known for his advocacy of modern composers and his work with the San Francisco Symphony and the Boston Symphony.  He began his career in piano, but because of an rugby accident shifted his musical focus from piano performance to conducting.

In 1959, he won first prize at the International Competetion of Orchestra Conductors held in Besancon, France.  He studied under Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein.  He served as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Ravinia Festival, Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony.  In 1973, he became the Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Cicely L. Tyson (Born on December 18, 1924 in New York City, New York) (Actress)

Cicely was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and the Golden Globe Award for her performance as Rebecca Morgan in Sounder (1972).  She starred in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), and won two Emmy Awards and was nominated for a BAFTA Award.

She has been nominated for twelve Primetime Emmy Awards and won three. In 2011, she appeared in the film The Help.  Others films include The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (Emmy), Roots, King, Sweet Justice, The Marva Collins Story, and A Lesson Before Dying.  Also, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, fried Green Tomatoes, Because of Winn-Dixie, Hoodlu, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea's Family Reunion, Why Did I Get Married Too?, and Alex Cross.

Tyson has won many awards including many NAACP Image Awards.  She has a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame and is the recipient of the NAACP's highest honor, the Spingarn Award.