Dustin Hoffman, David Letterman, Blues player Buddy Guy, and ballerina Natalia Makarova will be among those awarded by the Kennedy Center, the center announced Wednesday. The Kennedy Center honors are awarded to people who have influenced cultural through the arts. The ceremony will include dinner with Hillary Clinton and a speech made by President Obama in early December, which will then be telecasted December 26th on CBS. Hoffman, who is 75, recently directed his first film with Maggie Smith starring in the led role.
The chairman of the Kennedy Center called Hoffman “one of the most versatile and iconoclastic actors of his generation.” Blues singer Buddy Guy took to music at an early age. “I just felt like if I could learn to play guitar, like a sore thumb, I would stand out,” Guy said. He started the use of distortion while playing the guitar, which changed the way rock was played from the Elvis rock of the 50s to the Beatles and other British rock bands use of distortion. Makarova commented that it was “a remarkable twist of fate that I chose to leave my homeland and came to America to start a new life,” she said. “I feel very privileged that through me Kennedy Center honors classical ballet.”
