RIP, Ed Asner (Lou Grant)

[shotzette]

https://tvline.com/2021/08/29/ed-asn...how-lou-grant/

[Chocolate Moose]

oh noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[TVShowAddict]

91 years old is a good run! Rest in peace!

[AMackII]

First Cloris, Then Gavin & Now Ed

[Zoneboy]

I tried for over 30 minutes to post this.

Ed.

[SarahBellum]

I hope Mary doesn't start laughing at his funeral.

[jayman75]

Certainly a legend in many ways…

https://twitter.com/theonlyedasner/s...384000007?s=21

[MrCleveland]

(I think) Betty White is the only surviving member of MTM Show.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by MrCleveland

(I think) Betty White is the only surviving member of MTM Show.

I thought that too but was advised on General Sitcoms that John Amos (81) and Joyce Bulifant (83) are still with us.

[TVShowAddict]

Originally Posted by stevea

I thought that too but was advised on General Sitcoms that John Amos (81) and Joyce Bulifant (83) are still with us.

Yeah but they are not the main cast though, Betty is the only main cast member left

[Cbalducc]

Did you know Ed Asner and Clovis Leachman co-starred on an ABC TV movie?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnJC9Qjk0Qo&t=3319s

[Yong Fang]

Betty White unfortunately is the last adult survivor of the show. Ed and Gavin tried. Both made it to their 90’s.

[Old School]

Dave Sundstrom Video Description: Ed Asner died on August 29, 2021. The actor, who starred as Lou Grant on the classic TV shows, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Lou Grant", was just 91 years old at the time of his passing. Here are my memories of this wonderful actor. Rest in Peace, Ed Asner!




Retro Ontario Video: RIP Edward. In addition to everything else he did, Asner was the spokesperson for Granada TV Rentals. What an alien concept in 2021 eh?




Retro Ontario Video: RIP Edward. Here's Ed Asner in a spot for the Will Rogers Institute.




Saturday Morning Rewind Video: The many Voices of Ed Asner (UP / Granny Goodness / Spider-Man / Freakazoid & MORE!)


Variety https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/ed-...re-1235051373/



Seven-time Emmy-winning actor Ed Asner, who starred as Lou Grant on both sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and hourlong drama “Lou Grant” before a late-career rejuvenation through his poignant voicework in 2009 animated film “Up,” has died. He was 91.

His publicist confirmed the news to Variety, writing that he died on Sunday surrounded by family. Asner’s official Twitter account posted a message from his family, saying “Goodnight dad. We love you.”

Embedded Tweet

Asner had worked for many years as a character actor in series television and movies before hitting paydirt and stardom as the tough-talking TV newsroom head Lou Grant on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which brought him three supporting actor Emmys. When the sitcom called it quits, he returned as the same character in a harder-hitting hourlong series, which earned him two leading actor Emmys and a total of five noms. The actor picked up two additional Emmys for his work on the miniseries “Rich Man, Poor Man” and “Roots,” and won a total of seven.

More recently he appeared on “Grace & Frankie,” “Cobra Kai” and provided voices for “American Dad!”

Within the industry he was respected for his activism on liberal causes that were close to his heart and for his service as Screen Actors Guild president from 1981 to 1985. In recent years he had been vocal in his opposition to the current SAG-AFTRA leadership regime. In December Asner was one of 10 actors who filed a class-action lawsuit against the union over changes made to its health care plan.

“There have been few actors of Ed Asner’s prominence who risked their status to fight for social causes the way Ed did,” said SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris. “He fought passionately for his fellow actors, both before, during and after his SAG presidency. But his concern did not stop with performers. He fought for victims of poverty, violence, war, and legal and social injustice, both in the United States and around the globe.”

During his time in office at SAG, Asner was criticized for making political statements about U.S. involvement in El Salvador. His outspokenness may have cost him his $60,000-per-episode salary on newspaper-centered series “Lou Grant,” which CBS controversially cancelled after five seasons, as well as other lucrative offers. He nonetheless continued to criticize the industry’s labor standards and fight for unionism.

Asner also fought a tempestuous battle for the commingling of SAG and the Screen Extras Guild to which there was opposition from within the ranks, most loudly vocalized by actor Charlton Heston, which brought the two thesps to the brink of libel action.

Asner had rarely been active in politics or union activities, but he was vocal during the crippling 1980 SAG strike, the results of which prompted him to run for the office, which he won the next year. His battles included improving the employment and compensation conditions for actors as well as uniting SAG and SEG, which eventually came to pass; he also championed a SAG-AFTRA merger, but changed his view by 2012, when members approved the combination after Asner and other union activists failed to persuade a judge to grant a court order preventing the vote.

But he drew fire with his public pronouncements against U.S. involvement in El Salvador, which many saw as an abuse of his SAG office. While he was president an award to a former SAG president, Ronald Reagan, was rescinded because of the now U.S. president’s dissolution of the air traffic controllers’ union — although Asner himself did not vote on it. He also protested South Africa’s apartheid policies while in office.

Such controversies drew fire from Heston, an avid Reaganite, and a duel began that almost wound up in court. Asner was elected to another two-year term in 1983, winning by a landslide, after which he stepped down in 1985, throwing his support to Patty Duke. He continued to defend his political activism, calling it not a “luxury, but a necessity,” throughout his life.

He remained active in TV movies and miniseries beginning in the mid-’70s, winning Emmys for such blockbusters as “Rich Man, Poor Man” and “Roots.” He also starred in such praised telepics as “A Small Killing,” and “A Case of Libel.” He also made the occasional movie during the ’70s and ’80s such as “Skin Game,” “Fort Apache the Bronx,” “Daniel” and, later, “JFK.”

His 1987 series on ABC, “Bronx Zoo,” was short lived and, at the time, Asner gave voice to concerns that his left-leaning politics were out of favor and possibly costing him work, telling Variety that he knew of a couple of cases in which he’d lost work “but I’m sure that was the tip of the iceberg.” He noted that ABC tested another Asner series, “Off the Rack,” by asking viewers, “What do you know of Ed Asner’s politics and how would it affect your liking the show?” Almost unanimously respondents said they knew nothing of Asner’s beliefs nor did they care.

Asner worked steadily on the bigscreen during the 1990s and 2000s with credits including “Academy Boyz,” “Hard Rain,” “The Bachelor,” “Above Suspicion,” “Elf” and Enchanted Cottage.”

During the same period he regularly popped up on TV. For CBS he recurred on “Hearts Afire” and short-lived series “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill” (drawing a supporting actor Emmy nomination for the latter), was a regular on brief Tom Selleck sitcom “The Closer” in 1998 and appeared as Pop in a 1993 production of “Gypsy” that starred Bette Midler. He also starred in a short-lived ABC sitcom, “Thunder Alley,” reprised the role of Lou Grant in an uncredited role on “Roseanne” and guested on “Dharma and Greg,” “Mad About You,” “The X-Files” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

He also recurred as a judge on “The Practice” and as the chairman of the network’s parent company on “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and had a story arc on “ER” as a curmudgeonly old doctor who runs a storefront clinic.

In 2002 he starred as the pontiff in a movie for Italian television, “Pope John XXIII.”

He received an Emmy nom for supporting actor in a miniseries or movie in 2007 for Hallmark telepic “The Christmas Card” and an Emmy nom for guest actor in a drama series in 2009 for a spot on “CSI: NY.”

In 2011, the actor played Warren Buffett in the HBO telepic “Too Big Too Fail” and recurred on the CMT sitcom “Working Class.”

Asner also spent a great deal of time doing voice work for animated series including “Fish Police,” “Batman,” “Captain Planet and the Planeteers” (he drew a Daytime Emmy nomination), “Gargoyles,” “Freakazoid,” “Spider-Man” (another Daytime Emmy nom), “WordGirl” (a third Daytime Emmy nom) and “The Boondocks” — preparation, perhaps, for his fine voice work on 2009’s “Up,” which won two Oscars, including for best animated feature.

The success of that film spurred interest in Asner, who was a very busy actor in the succeeding years, with roles on “Law & Order: SVU,” “The Middle,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “The Sarah Silverman Program,” “Hot in Cleveland” and “Royal Pains,” to name a few. He also recurred on the brief 2011 CMT laffer “Working Class” and on A&E’s “The Glades” and did voice work on “The Cleveland Show.”

The actor appeared on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” in a recurring segment entitled “Does This Impress Ed Asner?”

The youngest of five children, Edward Asner was born in Kansas City. At Wyandotte High School he was all-city tackle and an editor of the school paper.

He spent two years at the U. of Chicago, followed by a stint in the Army. When he returned to Chicago he joined Paul Sills in the Playwrights Theater Group, which became the Compass Players and the Second City Group. He acted in 26 plays with the group over the next two years.

Asner left the troupe in 1955 to move to New York, where he played Peachum in “The Threepenny Opera” at the Theatre de Lys for three years at $65 a week while keeping himself solvent doing odd jobs. He made his Broadway debut in the short-lived “Face of a Hero,” starring Jack Lemmon, and continued to work onstage at the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford and the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Central Park productions before striking out for L.A.

He moved in 1961 to Los Angeles, where he worked on TV series such as “Naked City,” “Slattery’s People,” “The Fugitive” and “Ironside,” settling in to life as a character actor. His film work was also character driven in such films as “Kid Galahad,” “The Satan Bug,” “The Slender Thread,” “El Dorado,” “Gunn” and “Change of Habit” in the 1960s.


A 1970 pilot, “Doug Selby D.A.,” didn’t go anywhere but brought him to the attention of Grant Tinker, who cast him as Lou Grant on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” one of his first attempts at comedy. The program ran for seven high-rated seasons and ran in syndication for decades.

Asner received SAG’s Life Achievement Award in 2002, two years after winning the guild’s Ralph Morgan Award. In 2003, he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.

In 2013, Asner again took on a prominent role on a SAG-AFTRA controversy, serving as the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit alleging extensive mishandling of $130 million in unpaid residuals and foreign royalties. The suit was dismissed in early 2014 but the federal judge in the case indicated that the plaintiffs might be able to file again.

Asner was twice married, the second time to producer Cindy Gilmore, and twice divorced. He is survived by four children, Matthew, Liza, Kate and Charles.

[TMC]

James L. Brooks pays tribute to Ed Asner: "He was exactly the man you imagined"

Brooks, who co-created The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Lou Grant, tweeted of Asner, who died Sunday at age 91: "Let me tell you about Ed Asner...he was exactly the man you imagined - as open hearted a good guy as I've ever known. He simply loved people. Bless his gorgeous soul." In a separate interview with Variety, Brooks said: “He was a beautiful actor. He was an able team player. He was just as deeply a good guy as everybody sensed he was.” He added Asner had a naturally endearing sheepishness to him that writers wrote in to the Lou Grant character: "When Lou said ‘Mary come in to my office,’ we were never on more solid ground," said Brooks.

ALSO:

• Ed Asner submitted to his final interview two weeks ago today: On Aug. 16, The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg interviewed Asner via Zoom for a profile that was published three days before his death. "We had a great conversation during which I was tremendously impressed with not only Ed’s recall, but also his stamina (we spoke for over an hour), his humor (he was quick to joke about anything and everything, most frequently in a self-deprecating manner) and kindness ('I’ve never been asked that question before,” he said at one point, and “I like your style,' he added at another)," says Feinberg. Photographer Michael Buckner, who visited Asner days before the interview, added: "I don’t usually direct someone as legendary as Ed, since he has probably heard it all before, but I did ask him to look around the room while I clicked the shutter. Ed would look left and grumble under his breath, then look right. He was speaking to himself, channeling the gruff but soft characters of his past."
• Cobra Kai cast and crew remember Asner: Asner recurred as the stepfather of William Zabka's character Johnny Lawrence. "Devastated to hear this news," tweeted Zabka. "What a legend. What a beautiful human and special friend. I learned so much from him. My love and deepest condolences to the Asner family." Ralph Macchio added: "Endless respect for his body of work on so many levels. Ed had graced the Cobra Kai series and am grateful to have had a moment or two to meet and connect with him. An absolute privilege."
• The Brady Bunch's Maureen McCormick says Asner was important to her career: "It’s because of Ed that I even wanted to get into this business — seeing him and everyone on The Mary Tyler Moore Show."

Ed Asner's lawsuit against SAG-AFTRA health plan can proceed following his death

U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder indicated at a hearing that she would deny a motion to dismiss the lawsuit after the actor, who died Sunday at age 91, joined nine other actors in suing the health plan last December over its decision to exclude nearly 12,000 union members from health coverage.

[AB]

Rest in peace.