Alan Alda, David McCullough, Jane Pauley, Martin Sheen Receive 34th Annual Common Wealth Awards

WILMINGTON, Del., April 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Four renowned achievers will be honored for their lifetime accomplishments with the 34th Annual Common Wealth Awards of Distinguished Service. The awards recognize individuals who have enriched modern society in a range of human endeavors.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130422/NE98780 )

The 2013 Common Wealth Award winners are:

• Alan Alda, celebrated actor, director and screenwriter, for Dramatic Arts;
• David McCullough, preeminent author and historian, for Literature;
• Jane Pauley, leading broadcast journalist, Today Show contributor and author, for Mass Communications;
• Martin Sheen, film legend, social activist and humanitarian, for Public Service.

The honorees will be recognized tonight at the Common Wealth Awards ceremony hosted by The PNC Financial Services Group at the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington.

The Common Wealth Awards of Distinguished Service were first presented in 1979 by The Common Wealth Trust which was created under the will of Ralph Hayes, an influential business executive and philanthropist. The awards are now made by The Ralph Hayes Common Wealth Foundation, which is funded by the Common Wealth Trust. PNC serves as trustee and administrator of the Trust.

In the 34-year history of the Common Wealth Awards, $5.6 million has been awarded to 185 honorees. The 2013 honorees will receive a shared award of $300,000.

"The 2013 Common Wealth Award honorees are people of distinction who have produced work of substantial influence and enduring relevance," said PNC Regional President Nicholas M. Marsini, Jr. "We applaud these high achievers for their many accomplishments and look ahead with assurance to their continued contributions."

Ralph Hayes, creator of the Common Wealth Awards, served on the board of directors of PNC Delaware's predecessor banks from 1935 to 1965. Through the awards, he sought to recognize outstanding achievement in eight disciplines: dramatic arts, literature, science, invention, mass communications, public service, government, and sociology. The awards are also an incentive for individuals to make future contributions to the world community.

For three decades, the Common Wealth Awards have recognized heads of state, scientists and inventors, explorers, authors, performing artists and activists. Past winners include 11 Nobel laureates, among them, human rights leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu, statesman Henry Kissinger and authors Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Toni Morrison. Other high achievers on the Common Wealth Awards roster include former Secretary of State Colin Powell; H.M. Queen Noor of Jordan; dance legend Mikhail Baryshnikov; Hollywood icons Sidney Poitier and Meryl Streep; astronauts John Glenn and Buzz Aldrin; primatologist Jane Goodall; ocean explorer Robert Ballard; television journalists Christiane Amanpour and Wolf Blitzer; and World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee.

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. ("PNC") uses the service marks "PNC Wealth Management," "PNC Institutional Investments^" and "Hawthorn PNC Family Wealth" to provide investment and wealth management, fiduciary services, FDIC-insured banking products and services and lending of funds through its subsidiary, PNC Bank, National Association, which is a Member FDIC, and uses the service marks "PNC Wealth Management" and "Hawthorn PNC Family Wealth" to provide certain fiduciary and agency services through its subsidiary, PNC Delaware Trust Company. PNC does not provide legal, tax or accounting advice.

(HONOREE BIOGRAPHIES ARE INCLUDED WITH THIS RELEASE)

Investments: Not FDIC Insured. No Bank Guarantee. May Lose Value.

ALAN ALDA

Alan Alda, celebrated actor, writer and director receives the 2013 Common Wealth Award for Dramatic Arts.

Throughout his 40-year career, Alda has won seven Emmys, six Golden Globes, and three Directors Guild of America Awards.

Ranked by TV Guide as one of the 50 Greatest Television Stars of All Time, Alda is best known for portraying Hawkeye Pierce on the television series M*A*S*H, which earned him five Emmys for acting, writing and directing. The show was a critical and commercial smash, appearing on TV for 11 years. The show's finale in 1983 was the most watched single TV episode in U.S. history as 125 million people tuned in to say goodbye.

Alda has written and directed several films in which he also starred, including The Four Seasons. He was nominated for a British Academy Award in the Oscar-nominated Crimes and Misdemeanors, beginning a three-film collaboration with Woody Allen. His film work also includes Everyone Says I Love You, Flirting With Disaster, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Same Time, Next Year, California Suite and The Seduction of Joe Tynan, which he wrote. In 2011 – 2012, his film appearances included Tower Heist and Wanderlust.

Alda has the distinction of being nominated for an Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy all in 2005. His Emmy nomination was for his role on The West Wing. His Tony nomination was for his role in the Broadway revival of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross. In addition to receiving an Academy Award nomination for his appearance in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator that year, he was also nominated for a British Academy Award.

On Broadway, he has appeared as the physicist Richard Feynman in the play QED. He starred in the first American production of the international hit play Art. In addition to his nomination for Glengarry, he was also nominated for the Tony Award for his performances in Neil Simon's Jake's Women and the musical The Apple Tree. Other Broadway appearances include The Owl and the Pussycat, Purlie Victorious and Fair Game for Lovers for which he received a Theatre World Award.

From 1993 to 2005, Alda hosted PBS's Scientific American Frontiers, which put the actor up close with cutting edge advancements in the fields of chemistry, technology, biology, and physics. He hosted the 2010 PBS mini-series The Human Spark and wrote Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie, a play about the personal life of the great scientist who discovered radium, which made its debut at the Geffen Playhouse.

A recipient of the National Science Board's Public Service Award, Alda is a visiting professor at and founding member of Stony Brook University's Center for Communicating Science, where he is helping to develop innovative programs that enable scientists to communicate more effectively with the public.

Alda published his New York Times bestselling memoir, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed, and Other Things I've Learned, in 2005. His second book, Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, was released in 2007 and became a New York Times bestseller as well. His 33 Emmy nominations include performances in 2009 for NBC's 30 Rock, The West Wing (his sixth win) and ER.

DAVID MCCULLOUGH

David McCullough, preeminent author and historian, receives the 2013 Common Wealth Award for Literature.

McCullough has been widely acclaimed as a "master of the art of narrative history," "a matchless writer." He is twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, twice winner of the National Book Award, and has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award.

McCullough's most recent book, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, the number one New York Times best seller, has been called "dazzling," "an epic of ideas ... history to be savored." His previous work, 1776, has been acclaimed "a classic," while John Adams, published in 2001, remains one of the most praised and widely read American biographies of all time. More than three million copies are in print and it is presently in its 82^nd printing.

In the words of the citation accompanying his honorary degree from Yale, "As an historian, he paints with words, giving us pictures of the American people that live, breathe, and above all, confront the fundamental issues of courage, achievement, and moral character."

McCullough's other books include The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, The Path between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, Brave Companions, and Truman. His work has been translated and published in 15 countries around the world, and more than 10 million copies are in print. As may be said of few writers, none of his books has ever been out of print.

David McCullough is twice winner of the prestigious Francis Parkman Prize, and for his work overall he has been honored by the National Book Foundation Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award and the National Humanities Medal. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has received 48 honorary degrees.

In a crowded, productive career, he has been an editor, essayist, teacher, lecturer and familiar presence on public television -- as host of Smithsonian World, The American Experience, and narrator of numerous documentaries including Ken Burns's The Civil War. His is also the narrator's voice in the movie Seabiscuit.

John Adams, the seven-part mini-series on HBO, produced by Tom Hanks and starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney, was one of the most acclaimed and talked about television events of recent years.

A gifted speaker, McCullough has lectured in all parts of the country and abroad, as well as at the White House. He is also one of the few private citizens to speak before a joint session of Congress.

Born in Pittsburgh in 1933, McCullough was educated there and at Yale, where he was graduated with honors in English literature. He is an avid reader, traveler, and has enjoyed a lifelong interest in art and architecture. He is as well a devoted painter. McCullough and his wife Rosalee Barnes McCullough have five children and 19 grandchildren.

JANE PAULEY

Jane Pauley, leading broadcast journalist, receives the 2013 Common Wealth Award for Mass Communications.

For over 30 years, Pauley's career has spanned morning, prime time and daytime television, making her one of the most recognizable personalities in America.

Pauley's network television career began as co-host of NBC's Today Show; she was founding co-anchor of Dateline NBC, and host of The Jane Pauley Show. Partnering with AARP, Pauley is currently contributing to NBC's Today Show in a series, "Your Life Calling," which features people who have reinvented the way they work or live.

She is the author of New York Times bestseller, Skywriting: A Life Out of the Blue, a memoir of self-reflection and wellness in which Pauley revealed how medical treatment for hives triggered bipolar depression at the age to 50.

A member of the Broadcast and Cable Hall of Fame, Pauley has been honored with multiple Emmys and other awards, including the prestigious Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism; the Edward R. Murrow Award for outstanding achievement; the Radio and Television News Directors Association's Paul White Award for lifetime contributions to electronic journalism; the Gracie Allen Award Outstanding Achievement by American Women in Radio and Television; and the first international Matrix Award from the Association for Women in Communication.

Pauley is a member of the board of directors of The Children's Health Fund and The Mind Trust. She serves on the Leadership Board of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT and is co-chair of the Ambassadors Council of Freedom from Hunger.

Pauley is a highly regarded advocate for mental health, children's health and education issues.

She is married to Doonesbury cartoonist, Garry Trudeau. They have three grown children.

MARTIN SHEEN

Martin Sheen, acclaimed actor, social activist and humanitarian, receives the 2013 Common Wealth Award for Public Service.

Endeared to audiences nationwide for his seven-year run as President Josiah Bartlet on NBC's award-winning series The West Wing, Sheen uses his dynamic presence and celebrity status to lend an inspired voice to peace and social justice issues such as nuclear weapons, the treatment of immigrants, the alleviation of poverty and homelessness, and the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, where he gives voice to those he feels need it most.

Sheen is Special Envoy to Front Line International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. A fervent promoter of the principles of Catholic social thought in word and in action, Sheen's passion for activism and its necessary place in today's political, humanitarian and social arenas has inspired generations. For over four decades, he has been an ardent supporter of causes that advocate peace and encourage justice throughout the world.

Born Ramon Estevez to immigrant parents, Sheen left his Dayton, Ohio home for the bright lights of New York City, apprenticing at Judith Malina and Julian Beck's Living Theater. He grabbed attention in Frank Gilroy's The Subject Was Roses (1964) with a Tony-nominated turn as a returning war veteran opposite Jack Albertson, later reprising his role in the 1968 film version. Sheen's feature debut came as a delinquent terrorizing the occupants of a subway car in The Incident (1967), but his real breakthrough came as the alienated, amoral yet charismatic killer on the run with Sissy Spacek in Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973).

In the 1970s, Sheen embarked on a series of critically acclaimed projects for the small screen, earning an Emmy nomination for his sensitive portrayal of the deserter in The Execution of Private Slovik (1974). Also, that same year was the powerful The Missiles of October which saw him slip into the skin of Attorney General Robert Kennedy, his first of many fictional forays into political life. Sheen's turn as the military assassin sent to terminate the command of a crazed Marlon Brando in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) remains one of his signature roles.

Despite the time devoted to social justice, Sheen's amazing output of film and TV roles has never slowed. He donated his salary for his work on Gandhi (1982) to various charities. He portrayed a union official father at odds with the insider trading world of his financier son (Charlie Sheen) in Oliver Stone's absorbing Wall Street (1987). He executive produced and starred in two 1988 features, playing Barnard Hughes' son in DA and a trial judge in Leo Penn's Judgment in Berlin. He also executive produced and starred in the TNT movie Nightbreaker (1989), in which son Emilio Estevez essayed his character at an earlier stage.

Throughout his career, Sheen has played over 100 roles, including such films as Catch Me If You Can, The Departed, Bobby and The Way, a film written and directed by son Emilio. Their father/son memoir "Along the Way" was published in May 2012. Recent films include Stella Days, an independent Irish film, and The Amazing Spiderman.

Sheen and his wife Janet have been married for 51 years, and they have four children: Emilio, Ramon, Renee and Charlie.

CONTACT:
Nicole Berger
(410) 237- 5112
[email protected] 

SOURCE The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.