We lost the great Ed Asner this year. He was a venerable comedic actor who won the most Prime Time Emmys for any male performer, ever. He had such a long career that, depending on your age, you may have known and loved him for more than one role. You may know him from The Mary Tyler Moore Show as Lou Grant, the character he played on four different shows. Or perhaps you know him as Santa Claus in Elf, or as the voice of the lovable grump Carl from the Pixar film Up. His presence on the big and small screens will certainly be missed.
In addition to his many live-action roles, Ed Asner also had an extensive career as a voice actor, which is where he’s most connected to comics. His voice roles range from Granny Goodness in the late ’90s Superman animated series, to J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and Master Vrook Lamar in several Star Wars video games.
My own favorite role of his was from my childhood obsession, The X-Files. I loved that show with every single bit of my heart and still do. Ed Asner and Lily Tomlin played lovable (but troublemaking) ghosts on the Christmas episode of season six, “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas.” The undead pranksters try to trap Mulder and Scully in their haunted house, but the duo manages to escape even though they think they’ve killed one another. Ed Asner plays the sort of grumpy but lovable man that seemed to typify many of his characters, from Lou Grant to Carl from Up.
In addition to acting, Ed Asner served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild in the 1980s, and was an outspoken critic of Republican policies. He served in the U.S. Army from 1951-1953.
Ed (Edward) Asner, 1929-2021
