R.I.P. Mary Tyler Moore Show, Up actor Ed Asner
The actor was the most honored male performer in the history of the Emmys
Aux Features Ed Asner
As reported by Variety, legendary actor, political activist, and—primarily to a younger generation of movie fans—voice actor Ed Asner has died. Asner played Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its more dramatic spin-off Lou Grant, with those two shows getting him five of his seven Emmy awards (a total that made him the most-honored male performer in the history of the Emmys, with only Mary Tyler Moore herself, Cloris Leachman, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus getting more trophies). Also, though he played Santa in modern holiday classic Elf, Asner’s most iconic role arguably came even more recently, with him starring as bitter old grump Carl Fredricksen in Pixar’s Up. According to his publicist, who confirmed the news to Variety, the 91-year-old Asner died surrounded by his family.
Asner was born in Missouri in 1929, the child of Jewish immigrants, and didn’t start acting professionally until after he had finished serving with the U.S. Army Signal Corps during the war (with which he worked as part of a touring company that put on plays for U.S. military camps in Europe). Asner moved to New York after the war and started working as a theatrical actor, landing his first Broadway role in Face Of A Hero with Jack Lemmon in the early ‘60s.
He started working in television around that same time, making memorable appearances on The Outer Limits, Route 66, and The Untouchables. It wasn’t until 1970 when he joined the cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show that he got his first longterm, regular TV gig. As Lou Grant, he was a seemingly hard-drinking and hard-edged newspaperman who papered over his inner softness with a gruff exterior as part of his transition from print journalism to TV journalism. He played Lou Grant for seven years and over 150 episodes on The Mary Tyler Moore Show before resurrecting the character for the Lou Grant spin-off.
Lou Grant was a drama, not a comedy, making Asner one of two people (the other being Uzo Aduba) to win an Emmy for playing the same character in both a comedy and a drama, and though it was a critical and commercial success, the show was unexpectedly canceled by CBS after five seasons—potentially because of Asner’s vocal support for left-wing politics. A former president of the Screen Actors Guild, Asner fought to introduce single-payer health care to California, supported Barack Obama’s initial presidential run in 2008, and was a member of the Democratic Socialists Of America.
Outside of playing Lou Grant, Asner’s other major roles include playing Captain Thomas Davies on Roots and Axel Jordache on Rich Man, Poor Man, the two roles that won him his other two Emmys. Beyond playing Carl in Up, Asner also had a long career as a voice actor, playing Roland Dagget on Batman: The Animated Series, Hudson on Gargoyles, J. Jonah Jameson on the ’90s Spider-Man cartoon, Granny Goodness on various Superman-related shows, and even as Chief Abalone on the oddly memorable Fish Police.
Ed Asner’s family made a statement via his official Twitter account, saying: “We are sorry to say that our beloved patriarch passed away this morning peacefully. Words cannot express the sadness we feel. With a kiss on your head- Goodnight dad. We love you.”
In that same Twitter account just a few weeks ago, someone asked Asner if it bothered him that he now seemed to be better known for his voicework in projects like Up than for his TV series heyday. He responded: “Different people remember me for different things and that’s great. But, the one thing I hope I am remembered for is that I tried to make the world a better place.”
138 Comments
My dad looks a lot like Ed Asner, to a point where someone thought he was Ed Asner. His log in photo at work was Ed Asner. Needless to say we both liked his work. He was really underrated in Rich Man Poor Man. Couldn’t say what his best was, Up and Lou Grant is hard to top. Damn, farewell you lovely old man, I knew this day would come but I’m saddened all the same.
I’m not sure ‘underrated’ really applies here, he won an Emmy for the role.
Its relative. Its not what people think of first when you say Ed Asner.
近日，郭文贵在没有底线的四面八方攻击他的老战友吕德、王文根，威胁要在三秒钟内击倒吕德，打王文根昏迷不醒。吕德、王文根努力协助郭，但他们最终陷入了被攻击的局面，如此羞愧。郭文贵没有感性。他过河后烧了桥。家属会逐渐离开郭文贵，他终将孤军奋战。吕德和王文根不需要宽大，给他剪点松弛。
And he even managed to spell his name correctly, which is more than you guys did.
Per Asner’s instructions the casket was carried into the air by hundreds of helium balloons. Should you wish to pay respects it was last seen in the sky over Tempe, AZ.
Nah, I’m pretty sure he’s lying beneath a tombstone with the epitaph “Yes, this is Ted Baxter’s fault.”
I hope they remembered to lock the casket lid!
R.I.P. His body of work will be remembered through numerous generations.PS: Not to be that guy but a little correction might be needed-
Also, though he played Santa in modern holiday classic Elf, Eiser’s most iconic role arguably came even more recently, with him starring as bitter old grump Carl Fredricksen in Pixar’s .
Yes, thank you!
<3
Quit stealing my moves!
I don’t get it. And Asner’s most iconic role was on Freakazoid.
Holy shit, I some how forgot he was Cosgrove, probably because I knew Cosgrove before I knew who Ed Asner was. Freakazoid had a major impact in my household despite its short run (my mom would even get up to watch it with my brother and me), and the running gag with Cosgrove might have been the best joke in the show.
He was great on Cobra Kai as the mean rich dad to Johnny Lawrence.
Good pick!
Here’s hoping Betty White can fix the hole in the ozone layer now that she has all the power.
She’d better be quick-ening
On the ozone layer thing, Ed Asner was the voice of Hoggish Greedly on Captain Planet, and frankly, it’s how I know him best, because I was obsessed with that theme song as a kid.
Woah really?! I gotta rewatch that now. I remember his laugh. That show seemed a bit too unrealistic at the time of how eco-villains would act, but nowadays I think it probably wasn’t ridiculous enough. He also was in an episode of Angry Beavers as an old arbiter of dares
Doesn’t John Amos stand in her way? 13 episodes have to count for something.
A kiss from all of us at AV Club. Thanks for the memories.
I’m not going to lie, this one hurts. Ed Asner was politically and morally ahead of his time in so many ways, and he always a delight whenever he popped up in a movie or TV show. Plus he has arguably the definitive on-screen performance of Santa Claus (along with Edmund Glenn).Up until a few weeks ago he was hosting online poker games for charity.
This sucks. I love the Mary Tyler Moore show. Whenever I read Spider-Man comics, his voice is still who I hear for J Jonah Jameson.
He gave a delight turn as Granny Goodness in Superman: TAS and JL/JLU.
This was such a great bit of casting.
Inspired casting. Just loved that when I saw his name in the credits.
His Hephaestus was pretty cool on JLU; just the right amount of avuncular charm.
Absolutely. In a roundabout way, JK Simmon’s J.Jonah Jameson, couldn’t exist without Ed Asner’s iconic take as a reference point.
Whoops! Missed the notation. He was one of those guys who seemed older and wise well before he reached that age. Good actor. Rest Well sir.
Yes, he was the rare actor who looked and seemed older that he was. He was barely 40 when MTM debuted. Max Von Sydow is the ultimate example. He was so convincing as an 80 year old in the Excorcist that it seemed like he had to be 120 by the time he died. 417 credits on IMDB! And a lot of them from the last 10 years. RIP.
Ultimate?
Dude was a legend. Could go from drama to comedy at the drop of a hat and make both work amazingly. While he wasn’t a VA who could do many voices, he still brought gravitas to every role he did, even in something as silly as Freakazoid. He could do kind, strong, weary, lighthearted, or terrifying and make it look easy. And he had a voice that could never, ever be duplicated.Ed Asner quite literally made the world a better place.
RIP Ed Asner:
“Hey Freakazoid, wanna go see a bear ride a motorcycle?”Well, there goes my dreams of that show getting rebooted.
The Spackle Museum occupies far, far too much of my mindshare, and has for the twenty-odd years.
I’ve never actually seen all of Up, so the first thing I think of with latter day Asner’s voice work is great performance on The Boondocks as Ed Wuncler Sr. Just the way he said the family’s last name “Freeman” felt sinister and loaded with the weight of history. And yet he also sold that the character genuinely seemed to like Granddad/Robert, as much as someone who values money and power over people or relationships is capable of liking someone. Just fantastic work. Also his Roland Daggett was the best non-super villain on Batman: tAS. The Clayface 2-parter with Asner and Ron Perlman as Clayface is one of the high points of the series.
Ed Sr. and Robert Freeman were two older dudes who couldn’t understand the younger generation. That’s some good bonding material right there.
I love the moment in the Boondocks episode where it turns out that Wuncler is orchestrating a false flag terrorist attack to make a little more money, and the Jack Bauer character incredulously asks him, “Don’t you have enough money?”And there’s a long pause, and then Asner just offers the most beautiful, contemptuous, “Nooooooooooo.”
Carl & Ellie are together again.
Also big ups for this amazingly hilarious, weirdly heartbreaking bit of comedy.
Didn’t he also voice Stan’s grandpa in a cameo that was hilarious but so expletive-laden that half of it is bleeped? Or was that just a sound-a-like?
Assuming you’re talking about this episode, yes.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1640756/
Ed Asner and Lee Perry today.
I had the pleasure of speaking with him at a meet-and-greet and he was every bit as quick-witted and ornery as you could hope for.I told him how much I liked seeing him pistol-whip Jack Lemmon in JFK. Also his face lit up when I mentioned Granny Goodness, he said he loved that role, and voice acting in general. But the thing that stuck with me is I told him I admired how much he was a passionate advocate for progressive causes, and he replied “Well, what other causes are there?”
Having Asner voice Granny Goodness was a particularly inspired bit of casting. Did he mention how he landed that role?
Nah, but I presume they sought him out—Andrea Romano, the voice director had already worked with him on Batman:TAS and Freakazoid…
I’m going to go with, Andrea Romano is a genius, on that one.
I share this one often:
Remember when he was one of the ghosts who stole Christmas on “The X-Files”? A stand-out episode thanks to Asner and Lily Tomlin.
The only clip I can find has Finnish subtitles! RIP Ed Asner.
I came down to post that this is always the first thing I always remember him for, for some reason.
He was in a bunch of Christmas themed media over the years, despite not being Christian. In addition to this and his great bit in Elf, the Lou Grant episode “Christmas” had him at his curmudgeonly best as he browbeat Rossi into reporting on the most boring man in LA.I can’t say how he was in the animated Christmas Carol with Tim Curry and Whoopi Goldberg, Santa Stole Our Dog, The Christmas Star, or the remake of Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus with Charles Bronson (!) though.
He may have hated spunk, but he sure had a lot of it himself.Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to watch “Up” on repeat until I cry myself out.
For me, that’s one time.RIP sir.
He had four kids, so he didn’t hate it that much.
Ed Asner’s importance to labor cannot be underestimated.
He made a hell of an impact with not much screentime as Johnny’s emotionally abusive stepfather in Cobra Kai. Hopefully they got a last appearance from him in Season 4 to give some kind of closure.
Yea, that was the last thing I saw him in, I think. I thought that was such a huge get for Cobra Kai, and lended a lot of legitimacy to this experiment of a show on YouTube.
He was also in Dead to Me on Netflix, he was good in that too.
This flashes in my head whenever I visit my bank, where everyone—who are all good at their jobs, and I like and respect them all—has taken to jeans and golf shirts:
“you got spunk. i hate spunk.”
Funny enough, that exact line was used in the MTM Show porno parody.
I saw that, Mary Tyler Whore.
Starring Ed Assner, Bed Knight, Citloris Leachman, Valeri Humper,and so on
I LOVED Lou Grant (the show). I was a kid, but I really liked it a great deal.Lived into his 90s, that’s a hell of a run, but it still sucks that he died.
If you look at his IMDB, there’s a lot of projects listed as ‘announced’ or ‘pre-production’. Was just wondering about his health recently when I read about him being cast in something.
A true legend of the screen both large and small. RIP.
I enjoyed his work for all 47 years of my life. A legend that will be missed. RIP
Are you a ghost now?
A truly amazing actor. I probably most remember him as Granny Goodness, even if it’s nowhere near his most notable role (not that I didn’t absolutely love him in Mary Tyler Moore, Elf, and Up).
He had spunkRIP
This is so weird (and sad to hear) .My son randomly came up to me yesterday said he wanted to watch Up, I had never heard him even talk about the movie before, so we did..and today I read this.
So, what you are saying is that your son killed Ed Asner! If your son asks to see Raiders of the Lost Ark, for example, don’t do it!
Entirely possible, hopefully he requests to see a Trump speech sometime soon so I can confirm. It will be painful to sit thru, but worth it. I would say Home Alone 2, but 1.) He has seen that. 2.) I wish no ill will on anyone else that is in that movie. I’d hate to have Joe Pesci be a casualty of my offspring.
Kind of thought that Freakazoid would have gotten a mention.
His final words: ”You can’t put too much water in a nuclear reactor.”
That is a very deep pull. Bravo.
The guy was everywhere still, popping up on Cobra Kai, Grace & Frankie, Doom Patrol, etc in recent years (even weeks in some cases.) Never an actor who half-assed it. Was always out there delivering on his performances. What a absolute legend.
Des Uzo Aduba really get credited for “winning an Emmy for playing the same character in both a comedy and a drama” when it was the literally the same show just being moved from one category to another?
Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. It only happened because the academy stuck it in the wrong category to start.
For something that was definitely first marketed as a fish out of water comedy, OITNB took a pretty damn hard pivot.
Insanely Relatable. R.I.P., Ed. You were everyone’s grumpy Dad.
He will be sorely missed. I really enjoyed his grouchy demeanor as Lou Grant. RIP Mr. Ed Asner
Lou appeared grouchy, but he was a staunch supporter of his staff and advocate for them.
Lou was definitely someone you wanted on your side.
Let’s get more specific. Lou Grant was cancelled because Asner publicly called out the Reagan Administration for using the CIA to give money and military aid to Jose Napoleon Duarte and his nationionalist party and associated paramilitary death squads while they exterminated communist party members in El Salvador. An award winning show was cancelled because the lead said it was bad for the US government to pay for mass executions of political opponents in Central America.
I think it was around that timeframe that he hosted SNL and he got booed when he came out for the monologue. I didn’t really understand why they were booing him, still kind of don’t, but that was a great episode of SNL, I taped it, and watched it over and over again, maybe my favorite thing he was in. That, and a show called Brooklyn Zoo, where he was a principal of an inner city school, it only lasted one season, but I have fond memories of it.
(Bronx Zoo, not Brooklyn.)
Thanks, didn’t look it, was going off of memory.
Damn, TV was much more PC back then, I don’t care what people say. You could probably say that now but on one of the smaller channels.
I assume whoever the majority shareholder of CBS was at the time had financial ties to the Reagan administration or advertisers were just that afraid of anything that didn’t overtly vilify communism. It’s the only explanation because CBS’s claim that they they cancelled the show because the fifth season saw a 15% drop in the ratings was laughable. Top 50 shows didn’t get cancelled in the 5th season back then.
Whether drama or comedy, small screen, big screen or no screen, hero, villain or any stop on the line in-between, he always delivered. I remember his taking the small recurring role of Wilson White, the network president in Aaron Sorkin’s short-lived “Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip,” and he was just perfect. It was one of those roles where the character doesn’t have much screen time but the actor has to convey his authority and character efficiently – you have to believe that he’s in charge. And with Asner… you did.
While he seemed to be working right up to the end, I think he must have known time was limited. In his tribute to the late Gavin McLeod earlier this year he said “Tell the gang I’ll see them soon” and noted that Betty White would be the last of the MTM show principals.RIP to a great actor.
He did a voice on one of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons, in which Homer Simpson is a food critic. Funny stuff.
mumatoes!
“I wouldn’t want to be married to her…I mean, again.”
I read “R.I,P, Mary Tyler Moore” and I was like “Wait, wasn’t Mary Tyler Moore a fictional character?”
Uh, no. Mary Tyler Moore is an actress who played a fictional character named Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
But isn’t it a bit weird how that 1960s-1970s tradition goes? Mary Tyler Moore, Andy Griffith, Dick van Dyke, and Bob Newhart all had shows named after the actor rather than the character. I suppose you could call “Seinfeld” a (semi) modern example, but he was playing a fictional version of himself, so not really a different character.
What was the last show to do this, Everybody Loves Raymond/Hates Chris? Maybe Roseanne if that counts
Wait nevermind, you mean the actor’s full name! Apparently there was a Bill Engvall show in the late 00’s and his character wasn’t named Bill Engvall
He was a very good actor whose work I enjoyed, and who also did a lot of good as an activist. However, he was also heavily involved in supporting autism speaks, which I (and others in the disability rights movement) consider a hate group.Make of that information what you will.
Properly gutted. Interviewed him when Lou Grant arrived on DVD and the half hour morphed into 90 minutes once we got into the history of the American left. Smart, funny, decent, talented, warm and forgiving of his fellow man. All that light now gone out.
I wish I could remember, there was a sitcom at one time or another, maybe the early 80s, which had an episode where one of the characters was excitedly planning an Ed Asner film festival. Late in the episode, someone mentioned “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and the character got a shocked look on his face. “You mean, he did *television* too?”
He had spunk! R.I.P. Mr. Asner.
I not only met and worked with Ed Asner, but he fought for my rights! I was an extra in a movie he was in and when he saw the brown-bag lunch they were giving the background (specifically when he saw MY brown-bag lunch), he demanded we get the same hot lunch as everyone else. Just a casual thing, only took him a moment of roughing up one of the ADs, but it was glorious to watch. I’d always rated him highly and his stock climbed still further after that.
Awe, this is a bummer 🙁 I’m working my way through ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ right now (halfway through S5). Ed Asner was such a treasure.I also watched every episode of CNN’s new ‘History of Sitcom’ series that aired the past 6 weeks and it was sad because so many of the actors they interviewed for the series died in the past year — Gavin McLeod, Dawn Wells, Carl Reiner, and now Ed Asner.
Once you finish MTM, please watch ‘Lou Grant’ – it’s a bit dated, but holds up well. I especially point you to the episode where Peter Weller plays a young Neo-Nazi with a dark secret.
I will, thanks!
Loved Asner. Mary Tyler Moore was a bit before my time, but he’d been prolific enough that I got familiar with him pretty quick. Especially in cartoons growing up. Scanning my memory for the very first time I heard him, and I’ve got the deepest cut: It had to be those Bible videos my mom always brought home from the church store. He was Joshua in the battle of Jericho!
I actually found it!
No mention of him being Johnny Lawrences’s stepdad?
My Random Roles with him, followed by a post-script: https://www.avclub.com/ed-asner-on-crotchety-roles-from-lou-grant-to-up-1798232179
His balloon house finally reached Heaven
Great actor. Rest in peace.
You forgot one crucial voice-acting roll; Sgt. Mike Cosgrove. The one man to get the Warners to sit down and behave.
words to live by
Born in 1929 and served in WWII? He would have been 16 when the war ended. How young was he when he joined?
Aha, never mind. He was drafted in 1951 and served to 1953. Not “during the war.”
There was the Korean war in the 50’s.
Technically correct (the best kind, etc.) but when someone references “the war” it’s understood that they’re talking about one of the big ones, and usually WWII.
I realize Korea wasn’t exactly Granada, but it’s probably our least-considered larger conflict of the last 100+ years.
Well, during “a” war. He was drafted during the Korean War.
During the Korean War.
During “A” war! But yes I figured it had to be Korea.
It was during the Korean War, although he wasn’t stationed there.
Wait wasn’t he nominated for playing a nazi in CSI:NY? I swear that episode was nominated for an Emmy.
i guess he wont be coming up in may
So, back in Junior High Civics class, we had the unit on The Constitution, and we were watching a film about the First Amendment. A man standing on a street corner is doing a “soapbox speech” (I don’t remember what it was about, probably voicing something unpopular), and the crowd gets agitated. Then, a street cop shows up to break things up, and arrests the guy. And the cop is played by Ed Asner. The film must have been done in the late 50’s, early sixties. Apparently, this wasn’t just “a job”, but he was actively involved with the production company that made this film, which was a series about the Bill of Rights.
Thank You!www.realconnected.online
*heavy sigh* I guess that’s it for MTM Show. All the great ones are gone now.Say hello for me Dad.
Only Betty White is left
Yikes! How could I forget? Thanks Norm.
I think she was a later addition to the show when Rhoda and Phyllis left
Not really fair to compare Asner’s Emmy wins for playing Lou Grant in drama and comedy to Uzo’s. She did it because Emmys or the producers changes the category for OITNB. Asner actually went from a sitcom to a drama.
“Lou Grant” oughta be streaming somewhere. All these available places to put stuff and the stuff you want isn’t anywhere.
In 2002, I shared a car ride up and back to Santa Barbara (from L.A.) with Ed so he could address a large crowd we had organized to pitch a political issue he and I were both working on. He was gruff but loveable all at the same time… kind of like many of his characters.
RIP GRANNY GOODNESSS
Damn. Another great one gone.Asner perfected the “grumpy old man” role in his 40s and elevated it to new heights by the time he actually was an old man.RIP Lou Grant. You’re one of the reasons I wanted to be a journalist.