Portrait of Ed Asner

Birthday profile

Ed Asner

Ed Asner, American actor, singer, and producer (died 2021)

Born
November 15, 1929
Died
August 29, 2021
Zodiac sign
Scorpio
Birth year
1929

About Ed Asner

Eddie Asner (; November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021) was an American actor. He is most notable for portraying Lou Grant on the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977) and drama Lou Grant (1977–1982), making him one of the few television actors to portray the same character in both a comedy and a drama. Asner won seven Primetime Emmy Awards, the most of any male performer. Five were for portraying Lou Grant: three as Supporting Actor in a Comedy Television Series on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and two as Lead Actor in a Dramatic Television Series on the spin-off Lou Grant. The other two were for performances in the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) and Roots (1977). Asner acted in the films El Dorado (1966), They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970), Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981), JFK (1991), and Too Big to Fail (2011). He also played Santa Claus in several films and voiced Carl Fredricksen in the Pixar animated film Up (2009). Asner starred in the ABC sitcom Thunder Alley (1994–1995), and Michael: Every Day (2011–2017). He also acted extensively in numerous television series such as The Practice, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Good Wife, Cobra Kai, Briarpatch, Working Class, and Dead to Me. He also voiced J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994–1998), Hudson in Gargoyles (1994–1997), and Ed Wuncler Sr. in The Boondocks (2005–2014). Asner scored his first Broadway role in Face of a Hero alongside Jack Lemmon in 1960, and began to make inroads as a television actor, having made his TV debut in 1957 on Studio One. Asner was best known for his character Lou Grant, who was first introduced on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970. Asner won one Audie Award and was nominated for two Grammy Awards and an additional Audie for his audiobook work.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Ed Asner timeline

  1. Asner scored his first Broadway role in Face of a Hero alongside Jack Lemmon in 1960, and began to make inroads as a television actor, having made his TV debut in 1957 on Studio One.
  2. Asner was best known for his character Lou Grant, who was first introduced on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970.

The world when Ed Asner was born

Ed Asner was born in 1929. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1929

  • #1 song"Singin' in the Rain"
  • Top movieThe Broadway Melody (first Best Picture winner)
  • Best-selling bookA Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst baseball All-Star Game proposed
  • Top headlineStock market crashes on Black Tuesday
  • Technology milestoneFirst Academy Awards ceremony held
  • Defining fadYo-yos
  • Notable inventionCar radio
  • World population2.10 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHerbert Hoover
  • Sports championPhiladelphia Athletics (World Series)
  • U.S. population121.8M

1929 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Ed Asner's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19292026
Gas$0.21$3.45/gal
Average home$6,300$435,000
Average income$3,850$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population121.8M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb, MusicBrainz, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.