SAG Awards: Morgan Freeman to Receive Life Achievement Honor

The actor will be recognized during the annual ceremony in January.

Morgan Freeman will receive the SAG Life Achievement Award, SAG-AFTRA announced Tuesday.

The Oscar-winning actor will be honored during the 24th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, which is set to air on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

The award, the guild's highest honor, is given to an actor who fosters the "finest ideals of the acting profession." In addition to his Oscar, Freeman's accolades include a SAG Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Kennedy Center Honor.

“I am thrilled to announce Morgan Freeman as this year’s recipient of the SAG Life Achievement Award. Some actors spend their entire careers waiting for the perfect role. Morgan showed us that true perfection is what a performer brings to the part,” SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris said in a statement. “He is innovative, fearless and completely unbound by expectations. As a chauffeur, convicted murderer, boxing gym attendant, pimp or president, Morgan fully realized every character, baring their souls and showcasing their humanity. It has been a privilege to see his genius at work.”

Freeman was most recently seen in the Zach Braff-directed big-screen remake of Going in Style. His other credits include Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, Glory, Unforgiven, The Shawshank Redemption, Outbreak, Se7en, Kiss the Girls, Deep Impact, Bruce Almighty, Million Dollar Baby, Invictus, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, The Bucket List, RED, the Now You See Me franchise, Olympus Has Fallen and its sequel London Has Fallen.

Freeman is set to reprise his role as Allan Trumbull in the third Fallen film, Angel Has Fallen. Other upcoming films include Broad Green's Villa Capri and Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.

On the small screen, Freeman serves as an executive producer on CBS' Madam Secretary and the host of National Geographic's Story of God and narrator of Science Channel's Through the Wormhole.

Freeman first received national attention through his role on the Children's Television Workshop show The Electric Company. He even presented fellow castmember Rita Moreno with her SAG Life Achievement Award.

Freeman has received four SAG Award nominations over the course of his career. Past SAG Life Achievement award winners include Lily Tomlin, Carol Burnett, Debbie Reynolds, Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore.