Edward Asner

His stellar role was that of the journalist who starred in the Lou Grant series , but throughout his long career of more than 50 years he has participated in close to three hundred productions, almost all of them for television, several of which are among the most remembered of the small screen

Eddie Asner was born on November 15, 1929 in Kansas City, in the US state of Missouri. He was the son of a family of Orthodox Jews of Russian descent. He studied at the University of Chicago and while doing military service, he participated in various plays that were staged in camps in Europe. Back, it seems that he was clear about the job he wanted to do, because he joined a Chicago theater company and went to New York to try his luck. After his success on Broadway with “Threepenny Opera”, he decided to make the leap to television, a medium that he never abandoned and that brought him his greatest successes.

Since 1957 he began to appear regularly in individual episodes of series. She debuted in three episodes of Studio One and continued to participate in series such as Naked City (1961), Route 66 or Dr. Kildare . Almost all the series in which he appeared at that time did not have much of an impact, but he also worked on others that did stand out, such as in a chapter of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1962), several in The Untouchables (1962-1963) or in The Virginian (series) in 1963. His debut in a proper film took place in the telefilm Fanfare for death Scene (1964), along with Burgess Meredith. But his thing was series and during that decade he continued to work non-stop on them: Los defensores (series) , El congresista , or in some episodes of the most famous Gunsmoke , which had started its journey in 1955, El fugitivo ( 1963) or The invaders (series) . And in cinema he had a brilliant supporting appearance in the memorable western El Dorado (1967) , by the great Howard Hawks . And the following year he landed a major role at the hands of director Blake Edwards in the thriller Gunn .. In 1959 he married Nancy Sykes, but they divorced in 1988, after almost thirty years of marriage. After Asner has had several more relationships.

His golden age began in the 1970s, first in films such as Now They Call Me Mr. Tibbs (1970), a drama with Sidney Poitier , the western The Globetrotters (1971), together with James Garner , the comedy The girl most similar to… ( 1973), with Stockard Channing , the familiar Gus (1976), from the Disney factory, or the Apache District police officer (1981). As far as the small screen is concerned, his appearances are already big words, as we enjoy him in Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) or Raíces(1977). That same year, the character of television reporter Lou Grant made his appearance in the series La chica de la tele , a serial that was on the air for no more and no less than seven years. And the character of Lou Grant was so attractive that it gave rise to his own “spin off”. Edward Asner became the owner of the role in the series of the same name, from 1977 to 1982. Grant was in this case the editor-in-chief of the local section of a major newspaper, the Los Angeles Tribune, and the character reported to him Asner two Emmy Awards for Best Actor. In total, Asner has won a total of 7 Emmys throughout his television career, an incredible figure within the reach of very few.

During the 1980s, Asner intensified another facet of his life: his political activism. He was twice president of the Screen Actors Guild (the union of film actors) and is known for his Democratic ideas and his involvement in various educational and charitable tasks. In 1983 he worked on the interesting film Daniel , a drama based on a novel by EL Doctorow , but in general Asner’s appearances took place in telefilms that went largely unnoticed by the general public. He stood out, however, in 1991 with a small role in Oliver Stone ‘s JFK . He had more minutes in the expendable thriller Hard Rain , as well as the romantic comedy The Bachelor (1999) .. In recent times he has stood out as Santa Claus in Elf or voicing old Fredricksen from the wonderful Up , as well as in many other lesser films. However, the role that he made close to the spectators again was that of Angelo Roncalli in the film John XXIII. The Pope of Peace (2002), a careful and beautiful biopic of one of the most emblematic Popes of the 20th century.

In 2021 he still voiced his emblematic character Up in the Pixar animated series for Disney+ Dug and Carl , centered on the dog from the original film. When communicating the sad news of his death on social networks, the family did so by saying: “We are sorry to say that our beloved patriarch passed away this week with great peace. Words are unable to express the sadness that overwhelms us. With a kiss on our forehead, good night, dad. We love you.”