Lois Braverman, President & CEO, Ackerman Institute for the Family, announced this week that actor Jimmy Smits will be honored with the Ackerman Leadership Award at the Moving Families Forward annual gala which will take place at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel at 301 Park Avenue on Monday, October 26th in New York City.
“We are delighted to honor Jimmy Smits with the Ackerman Leadership Award,” says Lois Braverman, President & CEO, Ackerman Institute for the Family. “A born and raised New Yorker, Jimmy understands the needs of his community and is an outstanding example of someone of major success giving back to the next generation. His advocacy of the importance of education and his dedication to providing opportunities and college scholarships for underrepresented Latinos through the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, alongside his work with organizations like the Red Cross, New York Cares, and Stand up to Cancer, is a fine example of being of service and making a difference for those most in need.”
Jimmy Smits continues to move effortlessly between film, TV and stage. His versatile acting has garnered him critical acclaim and 41 award nominations including wins for both Emmy and Golden Globe Awards.
Smits now joins Baz Luhrmann’s music-driven drama for Netflix, The Get Down, as Francisco Cruz, aka “Papa Fuerte”, a South Bronx political boss who delivers services the City fails to provide. New York City serves as the backdrop for what was the birth of hip-hop, punk and disco in the 70s as told through the lives and music of several South Bronx teenagers.
Most recently, Smits portrayed Neron “Nero” Padilla in the final three seasons of the much lauded FX show, Sons of Anarchy, introduced in Season 5 as an O.G. (original gangster) and self-proclaimed “companionator,” and an unconventional mentor of sorts for Jax (Charlie Hunnam).
In 2010, Smits starred in the NBC drama Outlaw, portraying Supreme Court Justice Cyrus Garza, a playboy and risk-taker who has always adhered to a strict interpretation of the law until he realized the system he believed in was flawed. Smits also served as an Executive Producer on the show. He also co-starred in Mother and Child, directed by Rodrigo Garcia and starring Annette Bening, Samuel L. Jackson and Naomi Watts.
Smits has enjoyed an exemplary television career. In 2009, he finished a Guest Starring stint in Season 3 of Showtime’s hit series Dexter, for which he was recognized with his 12th Emmy nomination. In 2008, Smits’ El Sendero Productions company co-executive produced the CBS series, Cane, in which he also starred. He also narrated the PBS documentary series, Latin Music USA. Coinciding with his West Wing Presidency, Smits was also seen in HBO’s multiple award-winning television movie Lackawanna Blues, George C. Wolfe’s colorful tale of boarding house life, love, and blues in 1950’s New York.
He received six consecutive Emmy nominations for his role as Victor Sifuentes on L.A. Law, winning the Emmy in 1990, and also five Emmy nominations for his role as Bobby Simone on the critically acclaimed, Emmy-winning drama NYPD Blue. Additionally, he received an ALMA Award and an Imagen Award for Best Actor in The West Wing, has four Golden Globe nominations — winning as an Actor in a Leading Role, Drama Series, in 1995 for his role in NYPD Blue — and four SAG Award nominations. His highly touted departure from NYPD Blue also won the Humanitas Award.
Smits’ filmography includes such early works as Peter Hyams’ Running Scared with Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal; John Schlesinger’s The Believers; Old Gringo with Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda; Blake Edwards’ comedy Switch; the critically acclaimed My Family/Mi Familia, directed by Gregory Nava, for which he received an IFP Spirit Award nomination; Carlos Ávila’s Price of Glory; Chuck Russell’s thriller Bless The Child; George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode II– Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III– Revenge of the Sith; Robin Swicord’s The Jane Austen Book Club and El Traspatio (Backyard), directed by Carlos Carrera.
Smits began his acting career in the New York theater and returns often. In December, 2012, he starred in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s hit play Motherf**ker With The Hat at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He most recently starred on Broadway in the critically acclaimed hit God of Carnage (2009). Prior to that he starred on Broadway in 2004 as the romantic new arrival in a Cuban-American cigar factory in Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Anna in the Tropics, preceded by the New York Public Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park presentations of Much Ado About Nothing (2004) and Twelfth Night (2002), just to name a few.
Smits has involved himself in various charitable organizations over the years and has consistently been a strong advocate for education. In 1997, he co-founded the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts (NHFA), along with actors Esai Morales and Sonia Braga and Washington attorney Felix Sanchez, to promote Hispanic talent in the performing arts. The organization offers graduate scholarships and cash grants at prominent colleges and universities in order to expand career opportunities and increase access for Hispanic artists and professionals while fostering the emergence of new Hispanic talent.
As previously announced, this year’s other Ackerman Award Honorees are:
Alice K. Netter, Ackerman Board Member:
· Ackerman Distinguished Service Award
William H. Donaldson, 27th Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:
· Ackerman Partner Award
Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award-winning Author:
· Moving Families Forward Award
Tamsen Fadal, seven-time Emmy-winning Pix 11 News Anchor, will return to host the evening for the second year running. The event benefits the vital programs and ongoing services for children and families at the Ackerman Institute for the Family. Moving Families Forward Gala Co-Chairs are Martha Fling and Deborah Werner. They are members of the Board of Directors of the Ackerman Institute for the Family, and staunch supporters of its work on behalf of the well-being of children and families of our communities.
