KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Hollywood Actor Edward Asner passed away Sunday, August 29 at the age of 91.
Asner was born in Kansas City, Missouri on November 15, 1929 but was raised in Kansas City, Kansas where he played football and graduated at Wyandotte High School.
He then went on to attend the University of Chicago where he graduated in 1948.
Asner became a beloved addition to millions of households through his character, Lou Grant. First on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” and then as the star of the spinoff “Lou Grant Show.”
He is the only actor to have won an Emmy in both drama and comedy for the same character. He in fact, earned six Emmys, more than any other actors, and five Golden Globes.
Younger generations will recognize him as the voice of Carl Frederickson in the 2009 Disney Pixar animation “UP,” which was the first animated and 3D film to open the famed Cannes Film Festival 2009 and won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2010.
He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1981 until 1985 and was an outspoken advocate for many causes, often championing the disenfranchised.
Asner’s father Morris Asner ran a junkyard in KCK named Asner Iron & Metal, which first opened in 1903 and continues to operate today.
His brother Benjamin Asner owned and operated a record store in the Kansas City area called Capers Corner, off Mission Road.
Asner was married twice, first to Nancy Sykes from 1959 to 1988. They have three children.
He then married Cindy Gilmore in 1998. Gilmore filed for legal separation in 2007. Asner filed for divorce in 2015.
