Ed Asner: An extraordinary life, from comedy to drama, and on screen to off
CNN
From "Mary Tyler Moore" and "Lou Grant" with his beloved friend and colleague Betty White to "Elf" and "Up," Ed Asner had an extraordinary acting career. His contributions to the Screen Actors Guild and other advocacy work are an equal part of his legacy.
Nominated for 17 Emmy awards, and the winner of seven, Asner -- who has died at the age of 91 -- achieved TV immortality as the cranky news director at a Minneapolis TV station in the 1970s comedy, who could recognize spunk in his new employee, Mary Richards, and famously hated it. In an all-but-unprecedented move, he then moved to become the editor of a metropolitan newspaper, shifting into a dramatic setting that addressed major issues not long after "All the President's Men" had romanticized newspaper work at the movies. Tough but kind-hearted underneath the gruff exterior, Grant was the role of a lifetime for an actor who hardly seemed destined for leading-man status, as Asner freely acknowledged in interviews. Before "Mary Tyler Moore" he primarily appeared on TV shows in an assortment of dramatic and tough-guy roles, even playing the villain opposite John Wayne and Robert Mitchum in the western "El Dorado."More Related News