Ed Asner

American screen and stage actor who had a number of lean years before becoming a star with the character Lou Grant on the TV series Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977) that segued into his own series, Lou Grant (1977-1982). This made him one of the few television actors to portray the same character in both a comedy and a drama.

He is the most honoured male performer in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards, having won seven – five 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 spin-off Lou Grant). His other Emmys were for performances in two television miniseries: Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), where he won for Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Performance in a TV series, and Roots (1977), for which he won for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a TV series.

Asner got his start in stage roles at the University of Chicago, and after Army service, joined the Playwrights Theatre in Chicago, eventually moving to New York to play on and off Broadway. He considered himself a solid character actor and was happy with that, knowing that when he grew a paunch and got bald, it did not mean an end to his career. His major popularity began when he was past 40, indeed with a paunch and a comfortable gruffness.

President of the Screen Actors Guild in the '80s, Asner was very liberal and very outspoken on issues and politics.

Married to Nancy Lou Sykes 1959-1988, he had three children including twins born in 1964. They divorced after 28 years of marriage. He had a fourth child, Charles Edward Vogelman, on 5 August 1987 with his girlfriend, Carol Vogelman, for whom he paid $2,100 a month in child support. On 2 August 1998, he married retired movie producer Cindy Gilmore, 58, in Los Angeles, California. She filed for legal separation on 7 November 2007. He filed for divorce in 2015.