Ed Asner — star of ‘Mary Tyler Moore Show’ and ‘Lou Grant’ — dead at 91
Veteran actor Ed Asner — who starred as the hard-driving but loveable TV newsman Lou Grant on TV’s classic sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and then in his own more serious “Lou Grant” spinoff — has died, his family said. He was 91.
“We are sorry to say that our beloved patriarch passed away this morning peacefully,” Asner’s official account tweeted Sunday afternoon. “Words cannot express the sadness we feel. With a kiss on your head- Goodnight dad. We love you.”
The longtime actor died of natural causes at home in Tarzana, his publicist said, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Asner won five Emmy Awards for his role as Grant, along with two more for his work in “Rich Man, Poor Man” and “Roots” — more than any other male actor in history.
His orneriness as “Mr. Grant” while acting opposite Mary Tyler Moore’s namesake character on the hit 1970s sitcoms was legendary.
“You’ve got spunk — I hate spunk!” Asner’s character famously told the then-wide-eyed journalist upon meeting her.
The actor went on to star as the city editor of a newspaper in Los Angeles in “Lou Grant” starting in the late ’70s, toiling under a publisher played by Nancy Marchand.
Younger viewers are more likely to remember Asner for his later voiceover roles — including as curmudgeonly widower Carl Fredricksen in Pixar’s Academy Award-winning 2009 film “Up.”
The Kansas City native was a staunch advocate for left-wing causes and member of the Democratic Socialists of America. He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1981 to 1985, using his post to speak out in support of such groups as Salvadoran guerillas.
Before his election as union leader, Asner was a prominent voice during a 13-week actor’s strike in 1980. He then led a group of dissidents who opposed the contract agreed upon by the union’s leadership.
“I always felt I was fighting for justice and equality. If I’m not doing that, I should be put out to pasture” he told The Post in 1989.
The twice-married father of four “never expected” to be famous, he told Chicago Daily News columnist Frank Swertlow at the peak of his success in 1977.
“I just wanted to make enough money to send my kids to college,” he said. “I guess that’s what all of us ever hope for. We call that our stake, our birthright.”
