TV Icon, Elf & Up Star Ed Asner Passes Away

Ed Asner, who created a host of unforgettable characters in both film and television including The Mary Tyler Moore Show’s Lou Grant, has passed away. Asner’s family issued a statement on his Twitter account that the seven-time Emmy winner, who also starred in films like Up and Elf, had passed. He was 91 years old.

Asner may be best known to modern audiences for his roles in films like Up and Elf, as well as his guest role in Cobra Kai. But to generations he was Lou, the gruff but high-minded head of newsroom WJM on The Mary Tyler Moore show and the successful spinoff series Lou Grant. Asner created a cultural touchstone as Lou and one five Emmy Awards for the role, three for supporting actor on Mary Tyler Moore and then two more as lead actor in the spinoff. He also had two more Emmy wins in the miniseries category, for playing Axel Jordache in Rich Man, Poor Man and Capt. Thomas Davies in Roots.

Ed Asner began his acting career in college at the University of Chicago, which he dropped out of and began working odd jobs until he was drafted for the Korean War. Returning home, he dove back into acting and co-founded the Playwrights Theatre Company in the early 1950s. He moved to New York and began to perform on the stage there, landing his first Broadway gig opposite Jack Lemmon in 1960’s Face of a Hero. He began to delve more into television around that time, with guest spots in shows like The Naked City, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Untouchables, The Defenders, and Dr. Kildare.

More roles followed in the mid- to late ’60s, with spots on Gunsmoke and The FBI, among many others. He would also appear in films around this time, such as 1966’s The Venetian Affair and 1967’s El Dorado. It was 1970 when he landed the role of Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Ironically, he had largely avoided doing comedy work at this time because, as he once said, “in those days you got discovered by doing the drama shows as a guest star.” He agreed to the role of Lou because of how much he liked the character, and it catapulted him into stardom and acclaim.

Wrestling fans here at 411 may also remember that Asner starred as the Verne Gagne-like promoter Frank Bass in 1974’s The Wrestler, which also starred Gagne himself and Billy Robinson, and had cameos from a host of wrestling stars including Vince McMahon, “The Crippler” Ray Stevens, Larry Hennig, Wahoo McDaniel, Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, and many more.

The 1980s saw Lou Grant come to an end, which is believed to be in large part a result of Asner becoming politically active. He served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild and garnered criticism for making statements protesting American involvement in El Salvador, which drew considerable criticism. CBS’s decision to cancel the show was viewed as a response to Asner’s comments and the publicity they caused, though the network denied than and cited falling ratings. Asner would stay heavily involved in activism through his life, working with groups like The Survivor Mitzvah Project, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and Defenders of Wildlife.

The 1990s saw Asner get heavier into voice acting, work that he had previously dabbled in with the likes of The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible. He voiced the role of Hoggish Greedly in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Roland Daggett in Batman: The Animated Series, Hudson in Gargoyles, J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: The Animated Series and many others.

His live-action work kept him busy as well; he appeared as Guy Banister in Oliver Stone’s JFK and starred as retired race car driver Gil Jones in the sitcom Thunder Alley. He stayed working through the 2000s and onward through films like Elf, Hard Rain, and Up while appearing on the small screen on The Practice, ER, The X-Files, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hawaii Five-0, and more.

Ed Asner had some posthumous work that has yet to be released, reprising the role of Carl Fredricksen for Pixar’s Dug Days as well as the films Awaken and The Gettysburg Address.

On behalf of 411, our condolences to the family, friends, and legions of fans of Mr. Asner’s. He will be missed.