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Daily News
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SAG Salutes Ed Asner
The Screen Actors Guild honors Ed Asner with its 38th annual Lifetime Achievement Award.
Thursday, November 15, 2001
By Liz Jeffries
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Actor and activist Edward Asner has been named the 38th recipient of Screen
Actors Guild's most prestigious honor-the Life Achievement Award for career
achievement and humanitarian accomplishment, presented annually to an actor
who fosters the highest ideals of the profession. The 2001 Life Achievement
Award will be presented to Asner at the 8th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards,
which will premiere on Turner Network Television (TNT) on Sunday March 10, 2002
at 8 p.m. (ET/PT).
In making today's announcement, SAG president William Daniels said, "Edward
Asner's prolific and much-honored acting career demonstrates a consummate ability
to transcend the line between comedy and drama. His passion for social and political
causes has been consistently underscored by deeds as well as words. His service
and commitment to the rights of the working performer is unparalleled. We commend
his lifelong accomplishments as a superbly versatile actor and a dedicated advocate
for human rights, world peace, environmental preservation and political freedom.
Screen Actors Guild is honored by his acceptance of this Award."
One of the most honored actors in the history of television, with seven Emmy
Awards and sixteen nominations, Asner is perhaps best known for his comedic
and dramatic crossover as the gruff but soft-hearted journalist Lou Grant. The
role he originated on the landmark TV-newsroom comedy The Mary Tyler Moore
Show (1970-77) and continued in the newspaper-set drama Lou Grant
(1977-82), earned Asner five Emmy and three Golden Globe Awards. Asner received
two more Emmy and Golden Globe Awards for the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man
(1976) and Roots (1977). He was inducted into the Academy of Television
Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1996.
Asner served as president of Screen Actors Guild for two consecutive terms
(1981-85) and was honored in 2000 with the actors union's prestigious Ralph
Morgan Award, presented periodically for distinguished service to the Guild's
Hollywood membership. While he was first drafted into service as a SAG spokesman
during the three-month television and theatrical strike of 1980, Asner's tenure
as SAG president was marked by an absence of work stoppages and steady improvements
in SAG's contracts. He has never ceased to be a frontline activist for the working
actor.
| The youngest of five children, Asner was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but
raised in Kansas City, Kansas. He attended Wyandotte High School, where he edited
the school newspaper, acted in several plays and was voted All-City tackle.
At the University of Chicago he made his college stage debut as Thomas Becket
in Murder in the Cathedral. As a member of the campus dramatic group,
"Tonight at Eight-Thirty," he was directed by a young Mike Nichols and appeared
in works by Shaw and Yeats.
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After serving two years in France in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Asner returned
to Chicago where he appeared with the Playwrights Theater and trained with the
Second City. In 1955 he moved to New York, where he made his Broadway debut
with Jack Lemmon in Face of A Hero, performed with the American and New
York Shakespeare Festivals and appeared in numerous off-Broadway roles including
Mr. Peachum in a legendary revival of The Threepenny Opera.
| In 1961, Asner moved to Hollywood and began an acclaimed career in television
and film. In addition to his memorable portrayal of Lou Grant, his more than
100 television credits include headlining the series Off the Rack (1984),
The Bronx Zoo (1987-88) and Thunder Alley (1994-95), supporting
roles in The Trials of Rosie O'Neill (1991-92) and Hearts Afire
(1992-93) and numerous series guest appearances including recent roles in Touched
By an Angel, Arli$$, Dharma & Greg and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
In 1997 he reunited with Mary Tyler Moore for the television movie Payback,
which he executive produced. In 2000 he starred in the television film Common
Ground. His many previous television movies include The Gathering
(1977) and A Case of Libel (1984). His dozens of motion pictures include
They Call Me Mr. Tibbs (1970), Fort Apache, the Bronx (1980),
Daniel (1983), JFK (1991) and The Bachelor (1999). He next
will next be seen in Missing Brendan. His voice can be heard on five
Carl Hiassen audio books, as well as the audio book version of Neil Donald Walsch's
Conversations with God, in which he shares the title role with Ellen
Burstyn.
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A passionate and informed spokesperson for the causes he supports, Asner is
a frequent speaker on labor issues and a particular ally for the acting industry's
older artists. Among the political and charitable causes to which he currently
lends his name and energy are Defenders of Wildlife, Peace Now, The Heifer Project,
the ACLU, Food First, Death Penalty Focus, the Disarm Education Fund, the Office
of the Americas, Democratic Socialists of America and Amnesty International.
He was honored with the Anne Frank Human Rights Award in 1986, the Eugene V.
Debs Award in 1987, the Organized Labor Publications Humanitarian Award in 1990,
the American Civil Liberties Union's Worker's Right's Committee Golden Lunchbox
Award in 1991, the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal in 1992 and the National
Emergency Civil Liberties Award.
| The Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award was established in 1962. For
38 years the annual presentation of this award has celebrated the achievements
of a highly accomplished Guild member in improving the image of the acting profession
and in public service and humanitarian endeavors. Recent recipients were Ossie
Davis and Ruby Dee in 2000, Sidney Poitier in 1999, Kirk Douglas in 1998 and
Elizabeth Taylor in 1997.
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