“It was 1964 when a young John Lasseter and his family made the 40-minute trek to Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre from their Whittier home to see ‘Mary Poppins’ on the big screen,” Nicole Sperling reports for The Los Angeles Times. “He and his siblings skipped around the stars embedded in the sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard before taking in the spectacle on the screen. It was an unforgettable moment for the then 7-year-old cartoon lover and one he recounted with family and friends Tuesday when he received his very own star.”
Sperling reports, “The Hollywood Walk of Fame has taken its hits over the years as a for-profit publicity vehicle for celebrities but none of that cynicism was in the air for the Pixar creative guru’s tribute, which saw the goofy 54-year-old lay his Hawaiian-shirted self over the shiny star — fittingly located in front of the El Capitan Theatre, where every Pixar movie has played in the company’s 25-year history — after admitting that ‘this is the greatest honor you could give me.'”
Sperling reports, “Lasseter closed out the event with a tearful speech that thanked his family, his colleagues and Pixar President Ed Catmull. He also evoked the memory of Steve Jobs, his partner at Pixar. He repeated Jobs’ only request of Lasseter, which was to ‘make it great.’ ‘Without Steve, Pixar wouldn’t exist. These films wouldn’t exist. I honor him,’ he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
Does Steve have his own star? If not, I hope someone’s working on it. (My good friend Rodney Bingenheimer got his not so long ago.)
It would be extremely difficult to justify a star for Steve. He wasn’t a film director, nor an actor, singer, dancer, or in any other film- or entertainment-related role. All he technically was at Pixar was CEO, which does not merit a star on a Hollywood walk of fame. He did get an Oscar (as Apple CEO) some ten years ago, for FireWire.
Uhm, Hollywood honors producers and heads of studios. Steve as CEO of Pixar was essentially the head of the studio. Now whether Steve would care about such an honor, I’m a bit doubtful.
steve was credited as producer on several toy story movies, as i recall.
I can’t think of anyone more deserving. His films are beloved. Congratulations John.
Several years back, I remember reading in HR (Hollywood Reporter) that, at the time, he was No. 1 on the HR’s annual list of Hollywood’s most influential people (right in front of Steven Spielberg). And this is a guy who doesn’t even live in southern California, but in the geek kingdom of Silicon Valley!