I met Ed Asner yesterday, and, as an afterthought, wished I’d taken more time to chat with him about his long career in film and television.
He had quite the paparazzi around him; with folks shooting video and snapping pictures so wildly, I thought I was at a fireworks display due to the bright lights! Santa-like is a good description, and “old school” is another. Mr. Asner got his start in Hollywood as Dave Keller in The Murder Men in 1961. He did several films, but became exceptionally famous for his role as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Later in the spinoff, Lou Grant, which ran from 1977-1982, that role won him five Emmys. Asner has won more Emmy Awards for performing than any other male actor (eight total). In 2003, he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.
Asner is a member of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a free speech organization that is dedicated to protecting comic book creators and retailers from prosecutions based on content. He serves as an advisor to the Rosenberg Fund for Children, an organization founded by the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, which provides benefits for the children of political activists, and as a board member for the wildlife conservation organization Defenders of Wildlife.
Ed Asner’s always been an activist, and he has always speculated that due to his political views at the time, his successful TV series, Lou Grant, was cancelled due to the wide publicity of his position on issues.
He is originally from Kansas City, Missouri, and following his military service as a young man, Asner joined the Playwrights Theatre Company in Chicago, but left for New York, where to further pursue his acting career.
Recently, he’s been portraying President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a one-man play entitled FDR, which is why he’s in Alaska. There are two shows today; and then later this year, he will star in a feature film ‘The Doppelganger Principle’, a courtroom drama, where he’ll portray a defense attorney. ’Doppelganger’ will film in Anchorage using mainly an Alaskan crew and cast. Ed got ahold of the script, and immediately found himself at home with the intriguing story.
In 2009, he starred as the voice of Carl Fredricksen in Pixar‘s award-winning animated film, Up. In July 2010, Asner completed recording sessions for Shattered Hopes: The True Story of the Amityville Murders which is a forthcoming documentary on the 1974 DeFeo murders in Amityville, New York. Asner serves as the narrator for the film, which covers a forensic analysis of the murders, the trial in which 23-year old DeFeo son Ronald DeFeo Jr., was convicted of the killings, and the subsequent “haunting” story which is revealed to be a hoax. Earlier this year, Asner has been part of the sitcom Working Class on CMT, as butcher Hank Greziak. At the age of 81 he is a Hollywood living legend.
