Hollywood reacts to Ed Asner's death

Alan Alda, Mary Tyler Moore and Ed Asner at the Television Critics Circle Awards

Aug. 29, 2021 3:24 PM PT

News of Hollywood legend Ed Asner’s death on Sunday was met with an outpouring of condolences and remembrances on social media from former costars and collaborators as well as people he impacted throughout his more than six-decade career.

Asner, also an activist and philanthropist, died at 91. He was best known for playing Lou Grant on the 1970s sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and later its Emmy Award-winning spin-off “Lou Grant.”

From 1981 to 1985, Asner led the Screen Actors Guild as its president. The union posted a statement on its web site: “There have been few actors of Ed Asner’s prominence who risked their status to fight for social causes the way Ed did,” said current SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris. “He fought passionately for his fellow actors, both before, during and after his SAG presidency. But his concern did not stop with performers. He fought for victims of poverty, violence, war, and legal and social injustice, both in the United States and around the globe.”

Pixar, for whom Asner starred in the Academy Award-winning animated film “Up,” posted on Twitter that “Ed was our real life Carl Fredricksen: a veneer of grouch over an incredibly loving and kind human being. Russell, Dug, and all of us at Pixar will miss him terribly.”

Filmmaker Michael Moore wrote on Twitter, “Making my 1st film, Roger & Me, I was broke so I wrote to some famous people to ask for help. Only one responded: Ed Asner. ‘I don’t know you, kid, but here’s 500 bucks’ said the note attached to the check. ‘Sounds like it’ll be a great film. I was an autoworker once.’ R.I.P. Ed.”