{"id":11832,"date":"2025-10-22T22:51:56","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T22:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/11832\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T22:51:56","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T22:51:56","slug":"michael-keaton-declares-love-for-immigrant-cities-at-pittsburgh-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/11832\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Keaton Declares Love for Immigrant Cities at Pittsburgh Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThere\u2019s no doubt that Michael Keaton<\/a> has had some great days in his 74 years. But the veteran star and hometown hero returned to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday for the official unveiling of his star on the city\u2019s new Walk of Fame, and he described it as \u201cone of the greatest days of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is ridiculously nice,\u201d Keaton said as he stepped to the podium outside The Terminal, a shopping, dining and entertainment venue, where he offered brief comments in front of hundreds of city officials, fellow inductees, guests and members of his family. \u201cI want to thank you, honestly, from the bottom of my heart for even showing up for this. This is just so nice. This is true, what everyone says about these people. It is. I was just in New York City, and I was in a car driving with a cab driver, I think, or someone was taking me somewhere. He said, \u2018Everyone I know from Pittsburgh loves being from Pittsburgh,\u2019 and it\u2019s true. Such a great place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe actor, whose career stretches back to the mid-1970s and covers such high-profile films as Batman<\/a>, Beetlejuice, Mr. Mom, Spotlight, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Spider-Man: Homecoming and many more, then got political \u2014 if only for a moment.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHonestly, this is one of the greatest days of my life. I love places like this but I especially love this, my hometown. I love these immigrant cities. The entire country is a country of immigrants and my own family looks like the [United Nations] and I\u2019m so proud of it,\u201d Keaton said as President Donald Trump\u2019s administration continues its immigration crackdown, relying on increased enforcement like arrests and deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. <\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued: \u201cThere\u2019s nothing like being recognized by your hometown because it\u2019s a place that actually makes you who you are, these places. To be honored here \u2014\u00a0and boy, to included among this inaugural group of honorees, people who have not just shaped Pittsburgh but literally shaped the world \u2014 this is almost embarrassing \u2026 almost. When I listened to these accomplishments of these people, you know it, but then when you hear it right in front of you, it makes me even more proud to be part of this group; it\u2019s just extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe group Keaton was referring to included 10 inaugural inductees: Keaton; jazz guitarist, singer and songwriter George Benson; journalist Nellie Bly; industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie; environmentalist and writer Rachel Carson; baseball legend Roberto Clemente; children\u2019s TV host and producer Fred Rogers; medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk; artist Andy Warhol; and playwright August Wilson. The ceremony was followed by a private lunch with board members, honorees and their friends and family. At the event, Keaton was joined by his son, grandkids, siblings and loved ones.<\/p>\n

\n\tKeaton closed his speech by paying tribute to the city that shaped him.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI left here, even though you never really leave here, I left here with a very rough idea, kind of a rough draft of what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd the thing is, it leaves with so many memories and so many experiences and so many characters that I knew over the years that I\u2019ve created characters based upon those people. But as I said, this city, these experiences, they shape you. At least they shaped who I am and you kind of carry it with you. So this star, I hope when you mostly kids, when you walk through here and look down at this star of mine and the star of all these people, I hope they look up and they just wonder what\u2019s possible. This means the world to me. Peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA funny thing happened when people walked by and looked down at his star following the ceremony: Passersby realized that Keaton\u2019s name was misspelled. Per CBS<\/a>, Pittsburgh Walk of Fame executive director Nancy Polinsky Johnson confirmed that officials are working on a new plaque to replace the one that appears there now with his first name misspelled as Micheal rather than Michael.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKeaton speaks during the Walk of Fame ceremony. \u201cMy brother Robert came all the way from Florida. My brother Paul came all the way from California. George came from the Rocks,\u201d he said, referring to the destination just \u201cdown the river,\u201d McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Courtesy of Fisher Foto Studios<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKeaton (center) smiles during the ceremony. All 10 inductees now have their names on large bronze stars embedded in the sidewalk at the Strip District Terminal, located on Smallman Street from 16th Street to 21st Street.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Courtesy of Fisher Foto Studios<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKeaton (center) smiles during the ceremony.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Courtesy of Fisher Foto Studios<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKeaton with Nancy Polinsky Johnson, founder and executive director of the Pittsburgh Walk of Fame. Inductees were chosen through public nomination. A curated list of nominees was then sent to a committee made up of of more than 100 leaders from colleges and universities, cultural institutions, news outlets, historical societies, chambers of commerce, community development associations and visitors bureaus from the 10-county southwestern Pennsylvania area. Committee members voted and based on their numbers, the Pittsburgh Walk of Fame board made a final call.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Courtesy of Fisher Foto Studios<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s no doubt that Michael Keaton has had some great days in his 74 years. But the veteran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9338,7492,73,75,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-11832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-batman","9":"tag-michael-keaton","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","12":"tag-pittsburgh-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}