SAG Foundation’s 30-year celebration/benefit will be a star-packed event

There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of the SAG Foundation.

But for the last 30 years, actors in need have turned to the nonprofit group for emergency funds to pay for food, rent and medical needs.

For every Tom Cruise or Sandra Bullock, there are thousands of working actors who struggle to make ends meet. The SAG Foundation was born, executive director Cyd Wilson said, because the Screen Actors Guild realized that the “life of a working actor can be very fulfilling and can be financially beneficial, but that is not the reality a lot of times.”

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To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the foundation will host its first major benefit for the cause on Thursday in Beverly Hills.

Wilson knows firsthand how difficult it is to be a working actress. She did commercials in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s before she turned to entertainment marketing for Time Inc.

“I had two children,” she said. “I chose to leave the business because I didn’t feel I could really support my family the way I needed.”

Actors, she said, are often too proud to ask for assistance.

“The more union members came to know about the foundation, the easier it was to feel like this is privacy, this is family,” she said. “Privacy rights are really important. We have emergency assistance for day-to-day expenses. We have catastrophic health policies, and we also provide scholarships that are available to actors and their dependents.”

In the last three decades, the SAG Foundation has granted more than $17 million in financial and medical assistance.

But that is just part of what the foundation does. The organization also conducts casting access workshops, business panels, voice-over workshops and various classes. The literacy program BookPALS (Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools) sends actors out to read to about 60,000 children monthly in public schools, hospitals and social service agencies, and the Storyline Online website streams videos featuring actors such as Kevin Costner and Annette Bening reading children’s books.

“It’s a wonderful way for actors to give back and for kids to hear actors who know how to bring words to life,” said actress JoBeth Williams, president of the foundation’s board of directors.

Despite the organization’s 30-year legacy, Williams said a lot of actors and the public still don’t know about it. She didn’t.

“So when I was asked to join the board I said yes,” she said. “And one of my missions was to try and help us gain visibility, particularly among our own members.”

The foundation has been funded from grants and donations. “No dues money is used,” Williams said. “We are separate from the guild, from the union. We help our union members, but it exists entirely on donations. That’s important.” (Union members can donate when they receive their dues invoice.)

The foundation is widening its fundraising net with its event Thursday night at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Presenters include James Corden, Mark Ruffalo and Patrick Stewart. Darren Criss, Cheyenne Jackson, Abigail Spencer and others are providing the entertainment.

Four-time Oscar acting nominee and philanthropist Leonardo DiCaprio is set to receive the Foundation’s Actors Inspiration Award, and Lee Daniels, Megan Ellison and Rob Marshall will receive Patron of the Artists Awards.

Wilson, who recently celebrated her first anniversary as executive director, said that when she came on board she thought it was important for the foundation to put itself out into the community it serves.

“We are asking the studios, the networks, the agencies and the management companies to participate in this fundraising event,” she said. “We hope it will become an annual event.”

susan.king@latimes.com