Jennifer Grey Tears Up as She Presents Tony Lifetime Achievement Award to Dad, 'Cabaret' Star Joel Grey
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The Tony Awards are airing live on CBS and Paramount+
Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
Jennifer Grey had a special honor at the 2023 Tony Awards.
On Sunday, the actress presented her dad Joel Grey with the Tony Lifetime Achievement Award during the Tony Awards: Act One, Live Pre-Show.
Related: Tony Awards 2023: See the Complete List of Winners
"It’s ultimately the people, the community… all of you… who have made this ride more outstanding than I could have imagined," expressed the actor, 91, while receiving the award from his daughter, 63, as she teared up onstage next to her dad.
Joel most recently served as a director for the Yiddish Off-Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof and is highly regarded for his performance in the 1972 film version of Cabaret, which earned him an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award. He is also one of only nine actors to have won both the Tony and Academy Award for playing the Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret.
This doesn't mark the first time Jennifer has presented her dad with a prestigious honor: in 2015 she was on hand to honor Joel with the Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award at the 33rd Annual Fred & Adele Astaire Awards in New York City.
“I didn’t expect to feel like that,” Jennifer, choking up, told the audience at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at the time. “I feel like Liza [Minnelli], all gaspy and stuff!”
Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
She began to speak but immediately had to pause. “Just give me a moment, sorry about that,” she said, as the crowd broke out in applause.
“I’m so inspired by my dad. By the sheer breadth of his work, his love of life,” she said, adding, “As someone who has clung to his every move my entire life his incredible career only pales in comparison to the accomplishment of how he lives his life, his gigantic heart. This world is just markedly better for him being here.”
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Fellow Broadway legend, composer John Kander, was also awarded with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Tony Awards on Sunday. Kander is best known as one-half of the Broadway duo of Kander and Ebb, a collaboration behind iconic musicals like Chicago and Kiss of the Spider Woman.
The Tony Awards are airing live on CBS and Paramount+.
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