Eddie Asner, popularly known as Ed Asner, was an American actor,
voice artist, and president of the Screen Actors Guild. Ashner died at his
home on Sunday at the age of 91.

Asner was best known for his role as Lou Grant during the
1970s and early 1980s, on both ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ and its later
spin-off ‘Lou Grant’. The role made him one of the few television actors to
portray the same character in both a comedy and a drama. He was the most decorated
male performer in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards, having won seven –
five for portraying Lou Grant (three as Supporting Actor in a Comedy Television
Series and two as Lead Actor in a Dramatic Television Series). His other Emmys
were for performances in two of the most significant television miniseries of
the 1970s: ‘Rich Man, Poor Man’ (1976), where he won for Outstanding Lead Actor
for a Single Performance in a TV series, and ‘Roots’ (1977), for which he won
for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a TV series.

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Born on November 15, 1929 in Kansas City, Missouri, Asner
attended Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kansas, and then went to
University of Chicago. He started working on the assembly line for General
Motors.  He also served with the US Army
Signal Corps, where he appeared in plays that toured Army camps in Europe.

Asner helped found the Playwrights Theatre Company in
Chicago after his military service ended but then left for New York City before
members of that company regrouped as the Compass Players in the mid-1950s.

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Sharon Baker directed a documentary in 2014 that focused on
the actor’s life and career. The documentary, titled ‘My Friend Ed’, won Best
Short Documentary at the New York City Independent Film Festival.

In 2018, Asner was cast in the Netflix dark comedy, ‘Dead to
Me’, which premiered on May 3, 2019. The series also stars Christina Applegate,
Linda Cardellini and James Marsden. Also in 2018, Asner portrayed Johnny
Lawrence’s step-father, Sid Weinberg, in a guest role on the Cobra Kai series.