Ed Asner

UP AND AWAY

 

Actor Ed Asner has died aged 91 to make Betty White the last actor standing from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Asner had an acting career so long and extensive there’s a decent chance he’s on TV now in something as you read this. The former President of the Screen Actors Guild made 280 appearances as Lou Grant in Tyler Moore’s Show and his own spin off series. However, his was a career that stretched from the 1950s on. He played a jail warden in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, a warrant officer in Ironside, and a detective in an episode of The Outer Limits, It Crawled out of the Woodwork, in which he is the only person actually putting any effort into the episode. But then that summed up Ed Asner, an actor who had his A game no matter what material he was handed to work with. 

Naturally better roles appeared, such as his conscience raked slave trader in Roots, a role added to the dramatization to get the story adapted at all, and for which Ed Asner won an Emmy.  He also appeared in Tender is the Night, JFK and famous animation film Up. As well as being one of the lead voice actors in Fish Police, a CBS and Hanna Barbera attempt to cash in on the popularity of The Simpsons. Once that got axed, Asner appeared in The Simpsons himself! As he grew older, he still made memorable TV appearances such as X-Files and Studio 60, and was a regular voice actor on childrens TV – stand up Thaddeus T Third, the fifth! Just last year he appeared in Cobra Kai, and he currently has 7 film appearances in post-production. 

When not acting, Ed Asner was heavily involved in politics, criticising US foreign policy, raising AIDS awareness, and campaigning for universal health care. Allegedly, these positions caused CBS to axe the Lou Grant series when it was one of the most popular in America.

He was picked by eleven teams, including Grim McGraw, Syndication Zombies, Zombie Dance Party and Weekend at Bernies. 

Ed Asner
15 November 1929 – 29 August 2021
11 teams