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IMDbPro

Edward Asner(1929-2021)

  • Actor
  • Producer
  • Additional Crew
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,000202
Edward Asner at an event for The 6th Annual TV Land Awards (2008)
We celebrate the life and legacy of Edward Asner, the Emmy-winning actor best known for 'Up,' "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and "Lou Grant."
Play clip1:40
Remembering Edward Asner | In Memoriam
84 Videos
99+ Photos
Edward Asner was born of Russian Jewish parentage in Kansas City, to Morris David Asner (founder and owner of the Kansas City-based Asner Iron & Metal Company) and his wife Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Seliger). After attending college, Ed worked various jobs, including in a steel mill, as a door-to-door salesman and on an assembly line for General Motors. Between 1947 and 1949, he attended the University of Chicago. The onset of the Korean War saw him drafted into the U.S. Army Signals Corps and posted to France where he was primarily assigned clerical tasks. Upon demobilization, Asner joined the Playwrights Theatre Company in Chicago but soon progressed to New York. In 1955, he appeared off-Broadway in the leading role of the beggar king Jonathan Peachum in Brecht's Threepenny Opera. Five years later, he made his debut on the Great White Way in the courtroom drama Face of a Hero, co-starring alongside Jack Lemmon. He also began regular TV work in anthology drama.

From the early '60s, Asner, now based in California, earned his living as a busy supporting actor. His many noted guest appearances included turns in Route 66 (1960), The Untouchables (1959), The Fugitive (1963), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964) (sinister dictator-in-exile Brynov), The Invaders (1967) (twice -- as aliens) and How the Ghosts Stole Christmas (1998) (one of a couple of ghostly residents in a haunted mansion). Heavy-set and distinctively gravelly-voiced, Asner established his reputation as tough, robust and uncompromising (though, on occasion, good-hearted) authority figures. Excellent at conveying menace, he was memorably cast as the brutish patriarch Axel Jordache in Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) and as the slave ship's morally conflicted master, Captain Thomas Davies, in Roots (1977), which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award in 1977. The immensely prolific Asner (417 IMDB screen credits!) would receive seven Emmys in total (from 21 nominations), all Primetime, and become the only actor to win in both the comedy and drama category for the same role. That was also the part which made Asner a household name: the gruff, snarky newspaper editor Lou Grant (1977). Grant began as a mainstay on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970), a 30-minute sitcom.

When the character was promoted to West Coast editor of The Los Angeles Tribune, Asner went on to star in his own much acclaimed drama series. Despite consistently high ratings, the show was axed after five seasons amid rumours of disharmony between the star and producers, possibly due to the former's outspoken political views. Indeed, Asner has been a controversial figure as an activist and campaigner, engaged in a variety of humanitarian and political issues. A self-proclaimed liberal Democrat, he published a book in 2017, amusingly titled "The Grouchy Historian: An Old-Time Lefty Defends Our Constitution Against Right-Wing Hypocrites and Nutjobs."

Between 1981 and 1985, Asner served twice as President of the Screen Actors Guild, during which time he was critical of former SAG President Ronald Reagan -- then the president of a greater concern -- for his Central American policy. In 1996, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and in 2002 received the Screen Actors Guild's Life Achievement Award. In addition to appearing on screen and stage, he performed extensive work for radio, video games and animated TV series. He voiced the lead character Carl Fredricksen in Pixar's Oscar-winning production of Up (2009), starred as Santa in Elf (2003), and played Nicholas Drago in The Games Maker (2014). Ed passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 91 on August 29, 2021.
BornNovember 15, 1929
DiedAugust 29, 2021(91)
BornNovember 15, 1929
DiedAugust 29, 2021(91)
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,000202
  • Won 7 Primetime Emmys

Remembering Ed Asner (1929-2021)

Remembering Ed Asner (1929-2021)

Looking back on the incredible career of Ed Asner, known for his iconic roles in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Lou Grant," Elf and more.
See more photos
View image
Photos

Photos230

Edward Asner in Television (1988)
Edward Asner in TCM Remembers 2021 (2021)
Edward Asner and Paul Newlan in The Slender Thread (1965)
Edward Asner in The Slender Thread (1965)
Edward Asner and Daryl Anderson in Lou Grant (1977)
Penelope Ann Miller, Edward Asner, Jeff Joseph, and Bruce Norris in The Popcorn Kid (1987)
Edward Asner, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Mary Tyler Moore, Ted Knight, and Gavin MacLeod in The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970)
Edward Asner in The Christmas Star (1986)
Edward Asner in The Christmas Star (1986)
Edward Asner in Papa Giovanni - Ioannes XXIII (2002)
Edward Asner and Linda Cardellini in Dead to Me (2019)
Edward Asner in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006)

Known for

Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, John Ratzenberger, Laraine Newman, and Jordan Nagai in Up (2009)
Up
8.3
  • Carl Fredricksen(voice, as Ed Asner)
  • 2009
Edward Asner, Valerie Harper, and Mary Tyler Moore in The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970)
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
8.2
TV Series
  • Lou Grant
Will Ferrell in Elf (2003)
Elf
7.1
  • Santa
  • 2003
Robert Mitchum, John Wayne, and James Caan in El Dorado (1966)
El Dorado
7.5
  • Bart Jason
  • 1966

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

  • Deadly Draw
    • Post-production
  • A Fargo Christmas Story
    • Post-production
  • Everbrook
    • (as Ed Asner)
    • In Development
  • Unplugged
    • (voice, as Ed Asner)
    • In Production
  • The Gettysburg Address
    • (voice)
    • Post-production
  • Confessions of a Union Buster: A Call to Action (2023)
    Confessions of a Union Buster: A Call to Action
  • The Triumph of William Henry Harrison (2022)
    The Triumph of William Henry Harrison
    • (voice)
  • Awaken
  • Edward Asner, Chris Diamantopoulos, Erica Cerra, Brady Noon, and Hunter Dillon in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2022)
    Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
    • (voice)
  • Central Park (2020)
    Central Park
    • (voice)
  • Captain Daddy (2021)
    Captain Daddy
  • Scarlett (2021)
    Scarlett
  • Edward Asner, Jason Kravits, Nicole Ansari-Cox, Drew Bell, Ross Benjamin, Rachelle Carson-Begley, Kim Delgado, Neil Dickson, Lianne X. Hu, Brent Huff, Loren Lester, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Patty McCormack, Fred Melamed, Mauricio Mendoza, Rick Podell, Michele Scarabelli, Pete Sepenuk, Micke Spreitz, Mary Stavin, Michael Swan, Kate Vernon, Lou Wagner, Zoi Kottas, and Chloe Wu in Barking Mad (2021)
    Barking Mad
  • Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Matt Vogel, and Eric Jacobson in Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021)
    Muppets Haunted Mansion
  • Back Home Again (2021)
    Back Home Again
    • (voice)
  • The Premise (2021)
    The Premise
  • Bob Peterson in Dug Days (2021)
    Dug Days
    • (voice)
  • Grace and Frankie (2015)
    Grace and Frankie
  • Jamie Lee Curtis, Edward Asner, Marion Ross, Mark Rydell, James Handy, Helen Reddy, Charles Robinson, Dahlia Waingort Guigui, David A. Lockhart, Ian Fisher, Brian Connors, Phillip Giannikas, Sitara Attaie, and Kathrine Kohl in Senior Entourage (2021)
    Senior Entourage
  • Thomas Ian Griffith, Ralph Macchio, Yuji Okumoto, William Zabka, Courtney Henggeler, Oona O'Brien, Mary Mouser, Peyton List, Alicia Hannah-Kim, Jacob Bertrand, Vanessa Rubio, Tanner Buchanan, Gianni DeCenzo, Xolo Maridueña, and Dallas Dupree Young in Cobra Kai (2018)
    Cobra Kai

Producer

  • Tupamaro: Urban Guerrillas (2019)
    Tupamaro: Urban Guerrillas
  • Dancing with Sancho Panza (2018)
    Dancing with Sancho Panza
  • Bennie's (2016)
    Bennie's
  • The Bully (2003)
    The Bully
  • Eight Characters in Search of a Sitcom
  • She Turned the World on with Her Smile: The Making of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show'
  • A Vision of Murder: The Story of Donielle (2000)
    A Vision of Murder: The Story of Donielle
  • Payback (1997)
    Payback
  • Hanged on a Twisted Cross (1996)
    Hanged on a Twisted Cross
    • (as Ed Asner)

Additional Crew

  • Fear & Favor in the Newsroom
  • American Dream (1990)
    American Dream
    • (as Ed Asner)
  • Roger & Me (1989)
    Roger & Me
    • (as Ed Asner)
  • Witness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements (1985)
    Witness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements
  • In-development projects at IMDbPro

Videos86

Remembering Edward Asner | In Memoriam
Clip 1:40
Remembering Edward Asner | In Memoriam
Up -- "The Pursuit"
Clip 1:36
Up -- "The Pursuit"
UP – “Tepui Landing”
Clip 2:11
UP – “Tepui Landing”
Up -- "Met Dug"
Clip 1:32
Up -- "Met Dug"
Up: Upisode #2 -- "First Aid"
Clip 1:03
Up: Upisode #2 -- "First Aid"
Up: 3D BD
Clip 1:05
Up: 3D BD
Up: 3D BD
Clip 1:42
Up: 3D BD
Up: 3D BD
Clip 1:05
Up: 3D BD
Up: 3D BD
Clip 1:24
Up: 3D BD
Up: 3D BD
Clip 1:27
Up: 3D BD
Up: 3D BD
Clip 1:19
Up: 3D BD
El Dorado
Clip 0:28
El Dorado

Personal details

Edit
    • November 15, 1929
    • Kansas City, Missouri, USA
    • August 29, 2021
    • Tarzana, California, USA(natural causes)
    • Cindy GilmoreAugust 2, 1998 - 2015 (filed for divorce)
    • Matthew Asner
    • Mark Seliger(Niece or Nephew)
  • Other works
    (2/7/79) Hosted TV special "The Great American Values Test", with co-host Sandy Hill formerly of Good Morning America (1975).
  • Publicity listings
    • 4 Interviews
    • 8 Articles
    • 1 Pictorial
    • 3 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Parent of a child with autism and the grandparent of a child with autism.
  • Quotes
    [on making the transition from the comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) to its dramatic spin-off series Lou Grant (1977)] We were really worried about changing over from a three-camera, half-hour comedy to a one-camera, full-hour drama. The audience wasn't ready for the switch--even CBS billed us in their promos as a comedy. In fact, the whole thing was impossible. But we didn't know that.
    • Distinctive gravelly voice

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