We’re sad to report that legendary television and film actor Ed Asner has passed away.
While Asner had a diverse and storied career spanning the past eight decades, comic fans will recognize him as the voice of quite a few characters. On the DC front, he voiced industrialist Roland Daggett on Batman: The Animated Series, and perhaps even more notably had a pitch-perfect portrayal of Granny Goodness on Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, and Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. For Marvel, he was also pitch perfect as J. Jonah Jameson on the Nineties Spider-Man cartoon, with his gravelly voice giving life to Peter Parker’s boss and Spider-Man’s constant foil. Other notable voice work included Hudson on Disney’s Gargoyles, Carl Fredricksen in the now-classic Pixar film Up, and roles on Animaniacs, Freakazoid!, multiple Spider-Man series, Young Justice, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Teen Titans Go!, and more.
Before becoming a celebrated voice actor, Asner worked in television and film throughout the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies before finding fame as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. His character proved so popular that he would later star in a spin-off series based on the titular newspaper editor. Keeping steady with work until the end of his life, Asner also portrayed Santa in the perennial holiday favorite Elf.
He was 91.
