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On November 12, 2003, The President of The United States
presented Tommy Tune with the nations' highest honor for Artistic
Achievement, The
National Medal of Arts.
In a private ceremony in the oval office of the White House, Mr.
Tune received this honor to add to his already unprecedented nine
Tony Awards
in four different categories plus, among other accolades, eight
Drama Desk
Awards, two Obie
Awards, two Astaire Awards, the American Dance Award, the
Drama
League Award, and the George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement.
It was back in 1965 when Tommy Tune first danced onto the Great
White Way and into the chorus of Baker Street.
Next up was A Joyful Noise in 1967 and How
Now Dow Jones in 1968. Five years and countless raves
later Tommy garnered his first Tony
Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in Michael Bennett's
Seesaw.
Tune's
first foray into directing was the groundbreaking Off-Broadway
hit The Club in 1976. Back on Broadway, but this
time as choreographer and co-director Tune gave us The
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas followed by A
Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, for which he
won his second Tony Award, this time for Best Choreography.

Tommy returned to Off-Broadway in 1981 to direct the highly controversial
production of Carol Churchill’s Cloud 9.
The next year Tommy brought us Nine, The Musical for which he won his third
Tony, and his first for Directing a Broadway Musical.
A double Tony Award win followed for Mr. Tune as Best Actor in
a Musical and Best Choreography for the Broadway hit My
One and Only co-starring Twiggy. Grand Hotel,
The Musical followed with Tony wins for Best Choreography
and Best Direction and the following year Mr. Tune did what no
artist had done before when he won the same two prestigious honors
back to back this time for The Will Rogers Follies.
Tommy once again returned to the other side of the Broadway footlights
in his one-man song and dance show, Tommy Tune Tonight!,
later touring with it throughout the country and around the world.
Of his unique talents as a director, choreographer, singer, dancer
and actor, the New York Times proclaimed, “Mr. Tune has
reshuffled the elements of the old-style musical into state of
the art.” Andy Warhol once said that Tommy Tune “exudes
a cultivated serenity and a genuine love of life.”
Tommy has shied away from Hollywood moviemaking, appearing in
only two films early in his illustrious career. He was featured
in Hello, Dolly! starring Barbra Streisand and
directed by Gene Kelly, and in Ken Russell's The
Boy Friend where he first met Twiggy.
Tune has sung and danced for three U.S. Presidents, the Queen
of England and the Royal Family of Monaco. In 1991, Gwen Verdon
inducted him into Broadway's Theatre Hall of Fame, and Hollywood
soon followed suit when three years later he was honored with
his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame appropriately placed
directly in front of the Capezio Dancewear shop.
In 1997 Tommy gave us Footnotes, his memoir about
his extraordinary life in the theatre, and Slow
Dancin', a CD compilation of his favorite romantic ballads.
The end of the millennium was the beginning of a dream come true
for Tommy Tune when he made his Las Vegas debut as the star of
EFX, the ninety million dollar spectacular at
the MGM
Grand Hotel.
When he’s not drawing crowds, Mr. Tune is painting canvases
in his Manhattan studio. Not content to entertain audiences
on land alone, Tommy has recently created an elaborate musical
entitled Paparazzi for the Holland America Line.
Mr. Tune's
latest production, Dr. Dolittle, in which he played the
title role, toured the country in 2006.
He resides in New York City and is currently
preparing two original musicals for the near future.
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