The Abraham
Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation honored award-winning filmmaker Steven
Spielberg with the prestigious Lincoln
Leadership Prize at a dinner ceremony Wednesday at the Hilton Chicago. The
award was presented by actress Sally Field, who starred as Mary Todd Lincoln in
Spielberg’s Academy Award winning film, Lincoln
(2012).
The Lincoln
Leadership Prize is awarded to extraordinary individuals for a lifetime of
service. It is given to one who encompasses “great strength of character,
individual conscience, and an unwavering commitment to the defining principles
of democracy,” according to the foundation’s website.
“Anyone who
actually thinks he’s deserving of the Lincoln Leadership Prize is kidding
himself,” joked Spielberg, who humbly accepted the award before an audience
that included U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn and local
business and philanthropic leaders. The program included video tributes to
Spielberg from actors Whoopi Goldberg and Tom Cruise, composer John Williams, Holocaust
survivor Sam Harris and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, among others.
“We are pleased to present this year’s Lincoln
Leadership Prize to Steven Spielberg, who brings socially relevant issues to
the forefront of our minds through the medium of film,” said Wayne W.
Whalen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential
Library Foundation.
Chaz Ebert,
president of Ebert Digital and a member of the foundation’s board, spoke
briefly about first meeting Spielberg on the Universal Studios lot. She said
her husband Roger once remarked that Spielberg “finds the heart” in film.
“It
is especially poignant to award the Lincoln Prize to Steven Spielberg because
my husband Roger always singled out Spielberg as a filmmaker whose storytelling
transcended movies, showing us his humanity as well as his brilliantly creative
mind. From his filmmaking to his philanthropy, Spielberg is a worthy recipient
of this award,” Ebert said.
Past recipients of
the Lincoln Leadership Prize include President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, U.S. astronaut Capt. James A. Lovell Jr.,
journalist Tim Russert, Poland’s former president Lech Walesa and Archbishop
Desmond Tutu.
