Kennedy Center To Honor Five High-Wattage Cultural Lights

Looking back, she said, "All of the plays are my favorites. But I'll start with 'Member of the Wedding,' and 'The Lark,' with Boris Karloff, 'The Last of Mrs. Lincoln,' and my work with Charles Nelson Reilly and Charles Durning," she says. "I am blessed in every way."

Redford, 68, brought his golden looks and a theater-honed talent to film, with a breakthrough performance in "Barefoot in the Park" in 1967. Two years later, he made "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and his legend started to build. Subsequent successes included "The Way We Were," "The Sting," "All the President's Men," "The Natural," "The Horse Whisperer," "Downhill Racer," "The Candidate," "Quiz Show" and "Three Days of the Condor." Redford won an Oscar in 1980 for his direction of "Ordinary People," the story of a family trying to hold things together after a suicide.

The center is also recognizing Redford for his commitment to independent film for more than 25 years through the Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival. Since 1981 more than 1,000 artists have gone through its workshops and the festival has helped long-shot films take flight. Success stories include "sex, lies, and videotape," "Hoop Dreams" and "Boys Don't Cry."

In a statement, Redford said: "I have been blessed with a love for and ability in art, and it is a gift which I have attempted to make the most out of. It is an honor to be recognized for this."

No one in this honors class has had more ups and downs than Turner, now 65. Her raw, bluesy voice was the mainstay of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue in the 1960s. Their songs -- "River Deep, Mountain High" and "Proud Mary" -- were explosive and a departure from the softer, more soulful sounds of the period. When their abusive marriage broke up in 1976, Tina retreated. But she found another musical family with rockers Rod Stewart and Mick Jagger and forged a new identity. Her comeback in the early 1980s -- still featuring her heavenly legs -- brought the classics "What's Love Got to Do With It?" and "The Best." She sold out stadiums around the world and won six more Grammys for a total of seven. Her stadium tour in 2000 was the highest-grossing tour of the year, according to Pollstar.

She has also done some movie work, mostly notably "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" in 1985 and a cameo at the end of the Oscar-nominated film of her life "What's Love Got to Do With It" in 1993. "I am truly humbled by this honor and look forward to a wonderful evening," Turner said, in a statement.

In an interview earlier this year, Oprah Winfrey asked Turner if she saw herself as a legend. Turner replied, "I finally accepted that, and it is incredible. I never had as many records as Whitney Houston or Aretha Franklin. But after years and years of work, people finally came to see me in my sixties. I said, 'Why are these people still coming? What is it? I dance and I sing and I make the people feel good. So what?'"

Farrell, 60, is tied forever to another legend, Balanchine. She auditioned for him on her 15th birthday, was selected for the School of American Ballet, and a year later was promoted to the corps of the New York City Ballet. Balanchine, the company's founder, went on to create ballets for her, including the full-length "Don Quixote" and "Meditation." Her repertory included 100 ballets, and she danced more than 2,000 performances with the New York ballet.

After her retirement in 1989 Farrell worked to preserve Balanchine's legacy and teach his work to a new generation of dancers.

In 1993 she began an association with the Kennedy Center. From master classes the effort has grown into a full-fledged company, supported by a $2 million annual budget from the center. "That is one of the wonderful things about dance. You do it to pass it on to someone else. It is a short career, and it is longer when I can teach," said Farrell.

The recipients are chosen by a national artists committee of the center and approved by the board and George Stevens Jr., the producer of the Honors show since 1978.