Ed
Asner, Emmy-Winning ‘Lou Grant’ Star, Dies at 91
Variety
By
Carmel Dagan, Richad Natale
August
29, 2021
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.”
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!”
The avuncular but hard-nosed Asner also served as a controversial president
of the Screen Actors Guild. During his time in office, which started in 1981,
he 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.
ASNER,
Ed
Born: 11/15/1929, Kansas
City, Missouri, U.S.A.
Died: 8/29/2021, Los
Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Ed
Asner’s westerns - actor
Outlaws
(TV) – 1962 (Keef)
The
Virginian (TV) – 1963 (George Johnson)
Gunsmoke
(TV) – 1964, 1966 (Sergeant Wilkes, Redmond)
A
Man Called Shenandoah (TV) – 1965 (Sam Chance)
El
Dorado – 1966 (Bart Jason)
Iron
Horse (TV) – 1967 (Ned Morley)
The
Wild Wild West (TV) – 1968 (Furman Crotty)
Here
Come the Brides (TV) – 1969 (Matt Balter)
Stoney
Burke (TV) – 1963 (Kapp)
Skin
Game – 1971 (Plunkett)
Cade’s
County (TV) – 1972 (Nick Grainger)
Tall
Tales and Legends (TV) – 1986 (Lucky Jake)
Dead
Man’s Gun (TV) – 1997 (Jebusi McKinney)
Zorro
(TV) – 1997-1998 [voice]
Miracle
in the Valley – 2016 (Judge Mordecai Price)
Powder
Burns: An Original Western Audio Drama (TV) – 2017 (Lester Bell)
