Ed Asner

Eddie Asner was born November 15, 1929, and spent decades building a career that spanned westerns, procedurals, and voice booths before landing the role that defined him: Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970. When that sitcom ended in 1977, the character migrated to his own hour-long drama, Lou Grant, where Asner won two more Emmys as a lead after winning three as a supporting player on the original show. He added two more statuettes for Rich Man, Poor Man in 1976 and Roots in 1977, cementing a record no male actor has matched. His film work ranged from El Dorado and JFK to voicing the cranky widower Carl Fredricksen in Pixar's Up, and he became a go-to Santa Claus in holiday fare. He kept working into his eighties, turning up in everything from The Good Wife to Cobra Kai, and died August 29, 2021.