STAGE TUBE: Bebe Neuwirth Accepts Actors Fund Medal of Honor

The Actors Fund's annual gala on May 23, 2011 at the New York Marriott Marquis honored Tony and Emmy Award winning actress and current star of "The Addams Family," Bebe Neuwirth ("Chicago," "Sweet Charity," "Cheers," "Frasier"); Tony, Emmy and Academy Award winning actor Al Pacino ("The Godfather: Parts I, II and III," "Scent of a Woman," HBO's "Angels in America" and "You Don't Know Jack," "The Merchant of Venice"), and Vice President, Market General Manager for New York City's Marriott & Renaissance Hotels Michael J. Stengel. Check out Neuwirth's acceptance speech by clicking below!

Neuwirth was honored for her 12 years of services as a trustee of The Actors Fund, and the founder of The Dancers' Resource-a program of The Fund aimed at relieving the particular emotional and physical challenges faced by dancers. Both Neuwirth and Stengel received The Actors Fund Medal of Honor, and Pacino received the Lee Strasberg Artistic Achievement Award.

Co-chairs to date for the starry evening included Emmy Award winning actor Alec Baldwin ("The Cooler," "30 Rock," "It's Complicated"), Jim Casey, Anita Jaffe, President and Chief Operating Officer of Wakefern Food Corporation Dean Janeway, Chairman of Flemington Car and Truck Country and the Somerset Patriots Steve Kalafer, Marriott International COO David Marriott, Managing Director-Investments at UBS Michael Paesano, Chairman of The Shubert Organization Philip J. Smith and Lizzie and Jon Tisch.

The Actors Fund is a national human services organization that helps everyone - performers and those behind the scenes - who works in performing arts and entertainment, helping more than 12,000 people directly each year, and hundreds of thousands online. Serving professionals in film, theatre, television, music, opera, radio and dance, The Fund's programs include social services and emergency assistance, health care and insurance, housing, and employment and training services. With offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, The Actors Fund has - for nearly 130 years - been a safety net for those in need, crisis or transition. Visit www.actorsfund.org for more information.