When wild and crazy guy Steve Martin (1945-) was selected to host the 73rd Academy Awards Show in 2001, he said about his appearance, "If you can't win 'em, join 'em."

As of 2010, the comic had hosted the Oscars three times (2001, 2003, 2010) despite never being nominated for an award.

"The greatest thing you can do is surprise yourself," he said.

Born in Waco, Texas, the diverse performer began as a television writer. An excellent magician and banjo player, his career was launched with hilarious stand-up routines on the Johnny Carson Show and Saturday Night Live. (Remember his arrow-through-the-head monologues and how he sang the hilarious King Tut?)

"A joke that works is complete knowledge in a nanosecond," observed the multi-talented performer, praised by USA Today for "his good-natured mastery of mock sincerity."

How can he be so good? "Steve Martin has never failed," praised director Carl Reiner.

Martin, the versatile star of such films as The Jerk (1979), Grand Canyon (Lawrence Kasdan, 1991),  and All of Me (1984), is also an accomplished writer.

"You have to sit and wait until your mind thinks for you," he said about writing. His book Pure Drivel (1999) and novella Shopgirl (2000) were New York Times best-sellers. In 2012 he released a collection of Twitter tweets called The Ten, Make That Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten: The Tweets of Steve Martin.

"I realized a long time ago that working on acting is best done by working on yourself," he said. "The smarter and richer you become as a person, the better actor you're going to be because you're going to know more about people."

Well excuuuuuuuse me!