Ed Asner
Ed Asner
Yitzhak Edward "Ed" Asneris an American film, television, stage, and voice actor, and a former president of the Screen Actors Guild. He is primarily known for his role as Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s, on both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off series Lou Grant, making him one of the few television actors to portray the same leading character in both a comedy and a drama. He is also known for portraying Santa Claus in...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth15 November 1929
CityKansas City, KS
CountryUnited States of America
My first job was with an auto plant, Kansas City - they treated you like slaves. From there I went back to Chicago, worked in steel mills, drove a cab, stuff like that.
I got some news for you. One, there is no Jesus. Two, there is no God. Three, mind your own business and everything works out.
I was a newspaper editor in high school, and I truly thought of journalism as a career. I loved it.
I also think that there is a strong streak of racism, and whenever we engage in foreign adventures. Our whole history in regime change has been of people of different color.
I can do lovers. I can do Sir Galahad types. I'm not going to limit myself in voice-overs to irascible old men.
Where the work goes, I go. Wherever adulation occurs, that's where you'll find me.
It's like an athlete. He has a string of hot years, and then he fades into nothingness. The actor doesn't necessarily fade into nothingness. After his hot years, he fades into a different category.
I'm not sought after. I never get enough work. It's the history of my career. There just isn't anything to turn down, let me put it that way.
Some of my earliest political feelings were based on the anti-Japanese bubblegum cards I got. There were also Spanish Civil War bubblegum cards. Awful.
They say making laws is like making sausages. You shouldn't watch. It's the same for acting, especially for the actor who works unconsciously.
The older I've gotten, the more the need to exert comedy no matter how tragic a character I may be portraying because they are essentials for presenting truth.
(on making the transition from the comedy "Mary Tyler Moore" (1970) to its dramatic spin-off series "Lou Grant" (1977) We were really worried about changing over from a three-camera half-hour comedy to a one-camera full-hour drama. The audience wasn't ready for the switch - even CBS billed us in their promos as a comedy. In fact, the whole thing was impossible. But we didn't know that.
The free access to information is not a privilege, but a necessity for any free society. One of my favorite things to do as a young man was wander through the stacks of my hometown library. I'd just browse until I found something interesting. Libraries have definitely changed my life.
I regard myself as a beautiful musical instrument, and my role is to contribute that instrument to scripts worthy of it.