Hollywood's largest union representing about 160,000 actors and workers in television and film announced a strike on Thursday, leading to the first industrywide shutdown of the U.S. entertainment industry in more than six decades.

The national board of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted unanimously to go on strike, said the union at a news conference.

The strike is set to go into effect on Thursday at midnight and picketing will start on Friday morning, according to the union.

The SAG-AFTRA strike came two months after the start of an ongoing strike of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and its 11,500 members in May, which has brought Hollywood production on many new projects to a halt.

It's the first time that Hollywood witnessed two industry-wide strikes at the same time since 1960 and is also the first actors strike since 1980.

Both SAG-AFTRA and WGA are demanding increases in base pay and residuals in the streaming TV era plus assurances that their work will not be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).

"It came with great sadness that we came to this crossroads, but we have no choice," said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, noting that members of the union "are being victimized by a very greedy entity."

The union said it has instructed "all SAG-AFTRA members to cease rendering all services and performing all work covered by the TV/Theatrical Contracts."

"After more than four weeks of negotiations, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) – the entity that represents major studios and streamers, including Amazon, Apple, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, and Warner Bros Discovery – remains unwilling to offer a fair deal on the key issues that you told us are important to you," said Drescher and the union's chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland earlier Thursday morning.

"Though we've engaged in negotiations in good faith and remained eager to reach a deal that sufficiently addressed performer concerns, the AMPTP's responses to our proposals have not been adequate," they noted.

The AMPTP said it was "deeply disappointed that SAG-AFTRA has decided to walk away from negotiations," adding that it had offered the highest percentage increases in minimum pay levels in 35 years, "substantial increases" in pension and healthcare contribution caps, and a 76 percent increase in foreign residuals paid from big-budget streaming shows, among other benefits.

The studios also put forward "a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors' digital likenesses," the AMPTP said. Actors are worried that their digital images will be used without their permission or proper compensation.

"Rather than continuing to negotiate, SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods," the AMPTP said.

The strike by roughly 11,500 writers has sent late-night television talk shows into endless reruns, disrupted most production for the fall TV season and halted work on big-budget movies.

The WGA's work stoppage has rippled throughout California and beyond, hitting caterers, prop suppliers and others who rely on Hollywood productions for business. The economic damage is expected to spread after actors join the picket lines on Friday.

The walkout by SAG-AFTRA, which represents actors from bit-part players to Hollywood's biggest movie stars, will effectively shutter the studios' remaining U.S.-based productions of film and scripted television.

It will also hamper many overseas shoots involving SAG-AFTRA talent, such as Paramount Pictures' sequel to "Gladiator," which director Ridley Scott has been shooting in Morocco and Malta.

(With input from agencies)