Kennedy Center Honors

La cerimonia si tiene dal 1978 a Washington, presso il Kennedy Center. I premi sono assegnati dal direttivo del Kennedy Center.

I premi sono stati ideati dal produttore cinematografico George Stevens Jr.

Dal 1981 al 2002 e poi nel 2004 la cerimonia è stata condotta da Walter Cronkite. Nel 2003 e nel periodo 2005-2012 è stata invece condotta da Caroline Kennedy.

Anni 1970

• 1978: Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Richard Rodgers e Arthur Rubinstein
• 1979: Aaron Copland, Ella Fitzgerald, Henry Fonda, Martha Graham e Tennessee Williams

Anni 1980

• 1980: Leonard Bernstein, James Cagney, Agnes de Mille, Lynn Fontanne e Leontyne Price
• 1981: Count Basie, Cary Grant, Helen Hayes, Jerome Robbins e Rudolf Serkin
• 1982: George Abbott, Lillian Gish, Benny Goodman, Gene Kelly e Eugene Ormandy
• 1983: Katherine Dunham, Elia Kazan, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart e Virgil Thomson
• 1984: Lena Horne, Danny Kaye, Gian Carlo Menotti, Arthur Miller e Isaac Stern
• 1985: Merce Cunningham, Irene Dunne, Bob Hope, Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe e Beverly Sills
• 1986: Lucille Ball, Ray Charles, Hume Cronyn & Jessica Tandy, Yehudi Menuhin e Antony Tudor
• 1987: Perry Como, Bette Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Nathan Milstein e Alwin Nikolais
• 1988: Alvin Ailey, George Burns, Myrna Loy, Alexander Schneider e Roger L. Stevens
• 1989: Harry Belafonte, Claudette Colbert, Alexandra Danilova, Mary Martin e William Schuman

Anni 1990

• 1990: Dizzy Gillespie, Katharine Hepburn, Risë Stevens, Jule Styne e Billy Wilder
• 1991: Roy Acuff, Betty Comden & Adolph Green, Fayard & Harold Nicholas, Gregory Peck e Robert Shaw
• 1992: Lionel Hampton, Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward, Ginger Rogers, Mstislav Rostropovich e Paul Taylor
• 1993: Johnny Carson, Arthur Mitchell, Georg Solti, Stephen Sondheim e Marion Williams
• 1994: Kirk Douglas, Aretha Franklin, Morton Gould, Harold Prince e Pete Seeger
• 1995: Jacques d'Amboise, Marilyn Horne, B.B. King, Sidney Poitier e Neil Simon
• 1996: Edward Albee, Benny Carter, Johnny Cash, Jack Lemmon e Maria Tallchief
• 1997: Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, Charlton Heston, Jessye Norman e Edward Villella
• 1998: Bill Cosby, Fred Ebb & John Kander, Willie Nelson, André Previn e Shirley Temple Black
• 1999: Victor Borge, Sean Connery, Judith Jamison, Jason Robards e Stevie Wonder

Anni 2000

• 2000: Michail Baryšnikov, Chuck Berry, Plácido Domingo, Clint Eastwood e Angela Lansbury
• 2001: Julie Andrews, Van Cliburn, Quincy Jones, Jack Nicholson e Luciano Pavarotti
• 2002: James Earl Jones, James Levine, Chita Rivera, Paul Simon e Elizabeth Taylor
• 2003: James Brown, Carol Burnett, Loretta Lynn, Mike Nichols e Itzhak Perlman
• 2004: Warren Beatty, Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee, Elton John, Joan Sutherland e John Williams
• 2005: Tony Bennett, Suzanne Farrell, Julie Harris, Robert Redford e Tina Turner
• 2006: Zubin Mehta, Dolly Parton, Smokey Robinson, Steven Spielberg e Andrew Lloyd Webber
• 2007: Leon Fleisher, Steve Martin, Diana Ross, Martin Scorsese e Brian Wilson
• 2008: Morgan Freeman, George Jones, Barbra Streisand, Twyla Tharp e The Who (Pete Townshend & Roger Daltrey)
• 2009: Mel Brooks, Dave Brubeck, Grace Bumbry, Robert De Niro e Bruce Springsteen

Anni 2010

• 2010: Merle Haggard, Jerry Herman, Bill T. Jones, Paul McCartney e Oprah Winfrey
• 2011: Barbara Cook, Neil Diamond, Yo-Yo Ma, Sonny Rollins e Meryl Streep^[1]
• 2012: Buddy Guy, Dustin Hoffman, Led Zeppelin (John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page e Robert Plant), David Letterman e Natalija Makarova^[2]
• 2013: Martina Arroyo, Herbie Hancock, Billy Joel, Shirley MacLaine e Carlos Santana^[3]
• 2014: Al Green, Tom Hanks, Patricia McBride, Sting e Lily Tomlin^[4]
• 2015: Carole King, George Lucas, Rita Moreno, Seiji Ozawa, Cicely Tyson
• 2016: Martha Argerich, Eagles (Don Henley, Timothy B. Schmit, Joe Walsh e Glenn Frey), Al Pacino, Mavis Staples, James Taylor
• 2017: Carmen de Lavallade, Gloria Estefan, LL Cool J, Norman Lear, Lionel Richie
• 2018: Cher, Philip Glass, Reba McEntire, Wayne Shorter, e i creatori di Hamilton: An American Musical (Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, Alex Lacamoire, e Andy Blankenbuehler)
• 2019: Earth, Wind & Fire, Sally Field, Linda Ronstadt, Sesame Street e Michael Tilson Thomas

Anni 2020

• 2020: Dick Van Dyke, Debbie Allen, Joan Baez, Garth Brooks, Midori
• 2021: Justino Díaz, Berry Gordy, Lorne Michaels, Bette Midler, Joni Mitchell^[5]
• 2022 – George Clooney, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, Tania León, e U2 (Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton e Larry Mullen Jr.)
• 2023 - Billy Crystal, Renée Fleming, Barry Gibb, Queen Latifah e Dionne Warwick
• 2024 - Liza Minelli

• Wikimedia Commons contiene immagini o altri file su Kennedy Center Honors

• (EN) Sito web ufficiale, su kennedy-center.org.