Eddie Asner[1] (/ˈæznər/;November 15,1929 –August 29,2021) was an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild. He is best remembered for portraying Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s,on both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off series Lou Grant,making him one of the few television actors to portray the same character in both a comedy and a drama. Asner is the most honored male performer in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards,having won seven –five for portraying Lou Grant (three as Supporting Actor in a Comedy Television Series on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and two as Lead Actor in a Dramatic Television Series on spin-off Lou Grant). His other Emmys were for performances in two television miniseries:Rich Man,Poor Man (1976),for which he won the Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Performance in a television series award,and Roots (1977),for which he won the Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a television series award.[2]
Asner attended Wyandotte High School in Kansas City,Kansas,and the University of Chicago. He studied journalism in Chicago until a professor advised him there was little money to be made in the profession. He had been working in a steel mill,[10] but he quickly switched to drama,debuting as the martyred Thomas Becket in a campus production of T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral. He eventually dropped out of school,going to work as a taxi driver,worked on the assembly line for General Motors,and other odd jobs before being drafted in the military in 1951.[11]
Asner served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps from 1951 to 1953 and appeared in plays that toured Army bases in Europe.[12][7]
Following his military service, Asner helped found the Playwrights Theatre Company in Chicago, but left for New York City before members of that company regrouped as the Compass Players in the mid-1950s.[13] He later made frequent guest appearances with the successor to Compass, The Second City.[14] In New York City, Asner played Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum in the Off-Broadway revival of Threepenny Opera, scored his first Broadway role in Face of a Hero alongside Jack Lemmon in 1960, and began to make inroads as a television actor, having made his TV debut in 1957 on Studio One.[2] In two notable performances on television, Asner played Detective Sgt. Thomas Siroleo in the 1963 episode of The Outer Limits titled "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork" and the reprehensible ex-premier Brynov in the 1965 Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode "The Exile". He made his film debut in 1962, in the Elvis Presley vehicle Kid Galahad.[2]
Asner was best known for his character Lou Grant, who was first introduced on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970. In 1977, after Moore's series ended, Asner's character was given his own show, Lou Grant (1977–82). In contrast to the Mary Tyler Moore series, a thirty-minute award-winning comedy about television journalism, the Lou Grant series was an hour-long award-winning drama about newspaper journalism (for his role as Grant, Asner was one of only two actors to win an Emmy Award for a sitcom and a drama for the same role, with the second being Uzo Aduba). In addition he made appearances as Lou Grant on two other shows: Rhoda and Roseanne.[16] Other television series starring Asner in regular roles include Thunder Alley, The Bronx Zoo, and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. He also starred in one episode of the western series Dead Man's Gun (1997), as well as portraying art smuggler August March in an episode of the original Hawaii Five-O (1975) and reprised the role in the Hawaii Five-0 (2012) remake.[17] He also appeared as a veteran streetwise officer in an episode of the 1973 version of Police Story.[18]
Asner was acclaimed for his role in the ABC miniseries Roots, as Captain Davies, the morally conflicted captain of the Lord Ligonier, the slave ship that brought Kunta Kinte to America. The role earned Asner an Emmy Award,[19] as did the similarly dark role of Axel Jordache in the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man (1976). In contrast, he played a former pontiff in the lead role of Papa Giovanni: Ioannes XXIII (Pope John XXIII 2002), an Italian television film for RAI.[20]
Asner provided the voice of the main protagonist Carl Fredricksen in the Academy Award-winning Pixar film Up (2009). He received critical acclaim for the role, with one critic going so far as to suggest "They should create a new category for this year's Academy Award for Best Vocal Acting in an Animated Film and name Asner as the first recipient."[27] He appeared in the mid- to late-2000s decade in a recurring segment on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, entitled "Does This Impress Ed Asner?"[28][29] He was cast in a Country Music Television comedy pilot, Regular Joe.[30]
Asner won more Emmy Awards for performing than any other male actor (seven, including five for the role of Lou Grant). In 1996, he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.[32][33] In July 2010, Asner completed recording sessions for Shattered Hopes: The True Story of the Amityville Murders; a documentary on the 1974 DeFeo murders in Amityville, New York. Asner served as the narrator for the film, which covers a forensic analysis of the murders, the trial in which 23-year-old DeFeo son Ronald DeFeo Jr., was convicted of the killings, and the subsequent "haunting" story which is revealed to be a hoax.[34] Also in 2010, Asner played the title role in FDR, a stage production about the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt;[35] he subsequently continued to tour the play throughout the country. In January 2011, Asner took a supporting role on CMT's first original sitcom Working Class. He made an appearance in the independent comedy feature Not Another B Movie, and had a role as billionaire Warren Buffett in HBO's economic drama Too Big to Fail (2011).[36] In 2013, he guest starred as Mr. Finger in The Crazy Ones.[37]
Asner also provided voice-over narration for many documentaries and films about social activism, including Tiger by the Tail, a documentary film detailing the efforts of Eric Mann and the Campaign to keep General Motors' Van Nuys assembly plant running.[38] He also recorded for a public radio show and podcast, Playing On Air, appearing in Warren Leight's The Final Interrogation of Ceaucescu's Dog with Jesse Eisenberg, and Mike Reiss's New York Story.[39][40] Asner was the voice-over narrator for the 2016 documentary Behind the Fear: The Hidden Story of HIV, directed by Nicole Zwiren, a controversial study on the AIDS debate.[41]
A 2014 documentary titled My Friend Ed, directed by Sharon Baker, focused on the actor's life and career. It won Best Short Documentary at the New York City Independent Film Festival.[42]
During interviews for a 2019 book on the history of Chicago theater, Asner told the author he preferred to be credited for his work as "Edward" rather than "Ed" because he felt the longer name held the page or screen better.[43]
In 2018, Asner was cast in the Netflix dark comedy, Dead to Me, which premiered on May 3, 2019. The series also stars Christina Applegate, Linda Cardellini, and James Marsden. Asner also had a recurring guest role in the 2018–present series Cobra Kai, portraying Johnny Lawrence's step-father, Sid Weinberg, in seasons one and three.[44] In 2020 he guest starred in an episode of Modern Family and in 2021 played himself in a sketch on Let's Be Real.[45] The 2019 feature documentary Ed Asner: On Stage and Off premiered at the American Documentary Film Festival in Palm Springs, which Asner attended.[46][47] In 2013, he played Santa in Christmas on the Bayou.[48] Beginning in 2016, Asner took on the role of Holocaust survivor Milton Salesman in Jeff Cohen's acclaimed play The Soap Myth in a reading at Lincoln Center's Bruno Walter Theatre in New York City.[49] He subsequently toured for the next three years in "concert readings" of the play in more than a dozen cities across the United States.[50] In 2019, PBS flagship station WNET filmed the concert reading at New York's Center for Jewish History for their All Arts channel. The performance, which is available for free, world-wide live-streaming, co-stars Tovah Feldshuh, Ned Eisenberg, and Liba Vaynberg.[51]
In the week before his death, Asner told his frequent collaborators, Greg Palast and Leni Badpenny, that he soon would be doing three one-act plays.[10]
At the time of his death in August 2021, Asner had completed several roles in a number of TV series and films that were released posthumously, including three on the Disney+ streaming service, he reprised his voice role as Carl Fredricksen from the Pixar film Up in the Disney+ animated streaming miniseries of shorts Dug Days, which was the first to premiere, just three days after his death. Asner played a posthumous role as the Ghost of Claude in the Halloween special Muppets Haunted Mansion,[citation needed] and provided the voice of Grandpa Heffley in the 2022 Disney+ animated film adaptation Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, released over a year after his death. These were all dedicated to his memory. Asner's other projects on what would become his final roles are yet to be announced for a release, but still in post-production.
The sudden cancellation of Lou Grant in 1982 was the subject of much controversy. The show had high ratings, being in the ACNielsen top ten throughout its final month on the air. However, the CBS television network declined to renew it. Asner believed that his left-wing political views, as well as the publicity surrounding them, were the actual root causes for the show's cancellation.[52]
From 2011 to 2015, Asner worked with filmmaker Nicole Zwiren on the feature-length documentary Behind the Fear which addresses HIV/AIDS denialism. The film was released in 2016 with Asner as the narrator.[56]
Nonprofit organizations
Asner was on the Entertainment Board of Directors for The Survivor Mitzvah Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing direct emergency aid to elderly and impoverished Holocaust survivors in Eastern Europe.[57] Asner was a member of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a free speech organization that is dedicated to protecting comic book creators and retailers from prosecutions based on content. He served as an advisor to the Rosenberg Fund for Children, an organization founded by the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, which provides benefits for the children of political activists, and was a board member for the wildlife conservation organization Defenders of Wildlife. Asner also sat on the advisory board for Exceptional Minds, a non-profit school and a computer animation studio for young adults on the autism spectrum.[58]
Asner was a supporter of Humane Borders, an organization based in Tucson, Arizona, which maintains water stations in the Sonoran desert for use by undocumented migrants, with the goal of preventing deaths by dehydration and exposure. He was the master of ceremonies at that organization's volunteer dinner in fall 2017.[59]
In November 2017, The Ed Asner Family Center was founded by Asner's son, Matt, and daughter-in-law, Navah Paskowitz. The Center provides arts and vocational enrichments, counseling services, and support groups and camps to special needs individuals and their families.[60]
September 11 attacks
Asner voiced qualified support for the 9/11 truth movement. In 2004, he signed a statement released by the group 9/11 Truth that included a call for a new investigation into some elements of the September 11 attacks that he questioned.[61] Asner confirmed his support for the statement in 2009.[62] Asner also narrated the documentary film The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror.[63]
In April 2004, Asner wrote an open letter to "peace and justice leaders" encouraging them to demand "full 9–11 truth" through the organization 9-11 Visibility Project.[64] In 2011, Asner hosted the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth documentary on the collapse of 7 World Trade Center, which endorses the theory that the building was taken down by controlled demolition.[65][66]
Asner and Dennis Weaver picketing during an advertising agencies strike in Los Angeles, 1978
Opposition to SAG–AFTRA merger
On March 30, 2012, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) completed a merger of equals, forming a new union SAG-AFTRA. Asner was adamantly opposed to such a merger, arguing that the planned merger would destroy the SAG's health plan and disempower actors.[67] Asner and a group of fellow actors and voice-actors, including Martin Sheen and Ed Harris, filed (but later dropped) a lawsuit against SAG president Ken Howard and several SAG vice presidents, seeking to have the merger overturned, and the two unions separated to their pre-merger organizations.[68]
Local Theater/Community Development
In 2021, Asner traveled to Monte Rio, California to support the reopening, revitalization, and shifted focus of the local Monte Rio Theater.[69][70]
Personal life
Asner was married to Nancy Lou Sykes from 1959 to 1988. They had three children, twins Matthew and Liza, and Kate. In 1987, he had a son named Charles with Carol Jean Vogelman.[71][72] Asner was a parent and a grandparent to autistic children and was involved with the 501(c)(3)nonprofit organizationAutism Speaks.[73] He also served as a board member and adviser for Aspiritech, a nonprofit organization that trains high-functioning autistic persons to test software and perform quality-assurance services for companies.[74][75]
Asner became engaged to producer Cindy Gilmore in 1991. They married on August 2, 1998. Gilmore filed for legal separation on November 7, 2007.[76] Asner filed for divorce in 2015.[77]
Death
Asner died of natural causes at his home in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on the morning of August 29, 2021, at the age of 91.[7][78][79] He was buried at Sheffield Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri, on September 12.[80]
Mary Tyler Moore was an American actress, producer, and social advocate. She is best known for her roles on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977), which "helped define a new vision of American womanhood" and "appealed to an audience facing the new trials of modern-day existence". Moore won seven Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Ordinary People. Moore is also known for her supporting role in the musical film Thoroughly Modern Millie. Moore was an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism and diabetes prevention.
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Steven Vincent Buscemi is an American actor. He is known for his roles in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992), Robert Rodriguez's Desperado (1995), Simon West's Con Air (1997), Michael Bay's Armageddon (1998), the dark comedy Ghost World (2001), Tim Burton's drama Big Fish (2003), and Armando Iannucci's political satire The Death of Stalin (2017). Buscemi is also known for his many collaborations with the Coen brothers, having appeared in six of their films: Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), and Paris, je t'aime (2006).
Johnathan Southworth Ritter was an American actor. Ritter was a son of the singing cowboy star Tex Ritter and the father of actors Jason and Tyler Ritter. He is known for playing Jack Tripper on the ABC sitcom Three's Company (1977–1984), and received a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the role in 1984. Ritter briefly reprised the role on the spin-off Three's a Crowd, which aired for one season, producing 22 episodes before its cancellation in 1985.
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Edward Leonard O'Neill is an American actor and comedian. His roles include Al Bundy on the Fox Network sitcom Married... with Children, for which he was nominated for two Golden Globes, and Jay Pritchett on the award-winning ABC sitcom Modern Family, for which he was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards and won four Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has also appeared in the Wayne's World film series, Little Giants, Prefontaine, The Bone Collector, and Sun Dogs, and has done voice-work for the Wreck-It Ralph franchise and Finding Dory.
Anthony Russell Hale is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his role in the Fox comedy series Arrested Development as Buster Bluth. Hale played Gary Walsh on the HBO comedy Veep from 2012 until its conclusion in 2019, for which he won the 2013 and 2015 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
Héctor Elizondo is an American character actor. He is known for playing Phillip Watters in the television series Chicago Hope (1994–2000) and Ed Alzate in the television series Last Man Standing (2011–2021). His film roles include The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), American Gigolo (1980), Leviathan (1989), Pretty Woman (1990), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), Runaway Bride (1999), The Princess Diaries (2001), and Valentine's Day (2010).
Adam Arkin is an American actor and director. He is known for playing the role of Aaron Shutt on Chicago Hope. He has been nominated for numerous awards, including a Tony as well as three primetime Emmys, four SAG Awards, and a DGA Award. In 2002, Arkin won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Children's Special for My Louisiana Sky. He is also one of the three actors to portray Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck on Monk. Between 2007 and 2009, he starred in Life. Beginning in 1990, he had a recurring guest role on Northern Exposure playing the angry, paranoid Adam, for which he received an Emmy nomination. In 2009, he portrayed villain Ethan Zobelle, a white separatist gang leader, in Sons of Anarchy and as Principal Ed Gibb in 8 Simple Rules (2003–2005). His father Alan Arkin and brother Matthew are also actors.
Lou Grant is an American drama television series starring Ed Asner in the title role as a newspaper editor that aired on CBS from September 20, 1977, to September 13, 1982. The third spin-off of the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant was created by James L. Brooks, Allan Burns, and Gene Reynolds.
Bobby Cannavale is an American actor. A native of New Jersey, Cannavale gained a reputation after working in the industry for both his character actor roles and his leading man roles on stage and screen. His breakthrough came with the leading role as FDNY Paramedic Roberto "Bobby" Caffey in the NBC series Third Watch which he played from 1999 to 2001.
James Timothy Daly is an American actor. He is known for his role as Joe Hackett on the NBC sitcom Wings and his recurring role as the drug-addicted screenwriter J.T. Dolan on The Sopranos. He starred as Pete Wilder on the ABC medical drama Private Practice from 2007 to 2012. He is also known as his voice role as Clark Kent/Superman in Superman: The Animated Series. From 2014 until 2019, he portrayed Henry McCord, husband of the Secretary of State, on the CBS drama Madam Secretary.
Linda Jean Kelsey is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Billie Newman on the CBS drama television series Lou Grant (1977–1982), which earned her three Golden Globe Award nominations and five Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Tyler Gerald Burrell is an American actor and comedian. Burrell is best known for his role as Phil Dunphy on the ABC sitcom Modern Family, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2011 and 2014 and five Screen Actors Guild Awards: one for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series in 2013 and four consecutive awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, shared with the cast from 2011 to 2014.
Jack McBrayer is an American actor and comedian. He gained national exposure for his portrayal of characters on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and as Kenneth Parcell in 30 Rock. For his role in 30 Rock he was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards. He has also had many voice acting roles. During his time at The Walt Disney Company, he voiced the character Fix-It Felix in the 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph and later its 2018 sequel, as well as the title character Wander in Wander Over Yonder. McBrayer has recurring roles in Phineas and Ferb, Puppy Dog Pals, The Middle and in the Netflix series Big Mouth. He appeared in The Big Bang Theory on the Season 10 premiere episode as Penny’s older brother, Randall.
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor and activist. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969 and has appeared in many West End theatre productions, including the Shakespeare plays The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, and Richard II. In 1984, he made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, receiving the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.
The 1980 actors strike was a labor strike held in 1980 by the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, two labor unions representing actors in the American film industry. The strike was caused by a breakdown in labor contract negotiations between the two unions and representatives of film studios, television networks, and other independent producers. The primary point of contention regarded residuals from home media, such as videocassettes and pay television. Specifically, the union was seeking a form of profit sharing wherein they would receive a percentage of the revenue made from home media releases. Additionally, the unions wanted a 35 percent salary increase across the board for their members. By mid-July, the union and industry representatives were at an impasse, and the strike started on July 21. Several days later, the American Federation of Musicians also went on strike for similar reasons.
↑ "Jane Bucklin Petty". Obituaries. Deseret News. December 5, 2017 – via legacy.com. In 2006 at age 90, she appeared on the Jay Leno Show where she won the segment, 'Does This Impress Ed Asner?'
↑ Fischbach, Bob; Stickney, Dane (December 28, 2008). "Iowa man appears on 'Tonight Show'". Entertainment News & Notes. Omaha World-Herald. Archived from the original on March 8, 2009. Fett ... took part in the 'Does This Impress Ed Asner?' segment.
↑ "mickeynews.com". Archived from the original on July 20, 2006. Retrieved June 29, 2009., writing "James Denton ... applauded hosts of the organization's autism awareness public service announcements, including celebrity parents of children with autism, Ed Asner, Gary Cole, Joe Mantegna and John Schneider."
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