Asner, Edward, 1929-2021

Edward Asner (November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021) was an American actor and a president of the Screen Actors Guild. He is known for playing 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. He 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), where he won for Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Performance in a TV series, and Roots (1977), for which he won for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a TV series.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised across the river in suburban Kansas City, Kansas, he attended Wyandotte High School and the University of Chicago. From 1951 to 1953, Asner served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps and appeared in plays that toured Army camps in Europe. Upon demobilisation, Asner joined the Playwrights Theatre Company in Chicago but soon progressed to New York where he acted in both Broadway and off-Broadway plays. Eventually, Asner began to make inroads as a television actor, having made his TV debut in 1957 on Studio One. He made his film debut in 1962, in the Elvis Presley vehicle Kid Galahad.

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. Other television series starring Asner in regular roles include Thunder Alley, The Bronx Zoo, and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. 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.

Asner had an extensive voice acting career. In 1987, he played the eponymous character, George F. Babbitt, in the L.A. Classic Theatre Works' radio theatre production of Sinclair Lewis's novel, Babbitt. He also provided the voices for Joshua on Joshua and the Battle of Jericho (1986) for Hanna-Barbera, J. Jonah Jameson on the 1990s animated television series Spider-Man (1994–98); Hoggish Greedly on Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990–95); Hudson on Gargoyles (1994–96); Jabba the Hutt on the radio version of Star Wars; Master Vrook from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel; Roland Daggett on Batman: The Animated Series (1992–94); Cosgrove on Freakazoid!; Ed Wuncler on The Boondocks (2005–14); and Granny Goodness in various DC Comics animated series. Asner provided the voice of famed American orator Edward Everett in the 2017 documentary film The Gettysburg Address. He provided the voice of Carl Fredricksen in the Academy Award-winning 2009 Pixar film Up, receiving great critical praise for the role.

Between 1981 and 1985, Asner served twice as President of the Screen Actor's Guild. In 1996, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and in 2002 received the Screen Actors Guild's Life Achievement Award. He passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 91 on August 29, 2021.