@Fishtroller 02
he was! thank you; that made me cry, amiga. i'd been trying to find something close to this (further blockaded from teevee), but this will need to suffice:

Ed Asner Remembered For His Contributions Beyond Acting – Reactions’, aug. 29, 2021, deadline.com, featuring many tweets

Asner was remembered for his liberal crusading and kindness toward those whose credentials were far less than his own, all captured in online postings by the famous and not-so-famous. They uniformly recalled a man who was unafraid to take on difficult tasks and speak truth to power. Moreso, he got results from his actions.

That’s not to slight his career accomplishments. He was also the male actor with the most Emmy wins, an iconic figure who was a working presence in the entertainment world well into his 90s.

“There have been few actors of Ed Asner’s prominence who risked their status to fight for social causes the way Ed did,” said 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.”

Asner was also highly critical of the United States’ involvement in Central America, and of President Ronald Reagan in particular. In 1982, while he was Guild president, but acting as a private citizen, he and several other prominent activists held a press conference on the steps of the US State Department to present a $25,000 check for medical aid to the Communist guerillas in El Salvador. When CBS canceled the highly popular Lou Grant later that year, Asner claimed it was in retaliation for his political views.”

i'm sure the 28 min interview is very worthy, but my apologies for not being able to watch.

Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Both groups honored Ed Asner in emails today.

https://freethoughtnow.org/goodbye-and-thank-you-ed-asner/ The video of his interview at age 90 with the founders of FFRF is linked in this blog.

From Mikey Weinstein founder of MRFF...

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) deeply mourns the passing of our dear friend and longtime MRFF supporter, Ed Asner.

Ed, himself a military veteran, was an American icon as BOTH a superb and celebrated actor, as well as a tenacious, never-say-die, civil rights activist.

I first met Ed many years ago in Hollywood at a fundraiser for MRFF organized by another late Hollywood and civil rights icon, Stanley Scheinbaum.

From the very first moment he heard what we were doing, Ed was never too busy to enthusiastically pitch in and help.

And help he did!

Ed personally appeared in MRFF media pieces and attended MRFF fundraisers in the L.A. area. His broad, selfless, and determined support for MRFF resulted in Ed’s winning of the MRFF 2010 ‘Thomas Jefferson Award’, which is our highest honor.

Ed and I spoke many times over the passage of the years concerning the endless challenges of MRFF’s mission to support Constitutionally-mandated church/state separation in our American armed forces. I will miss his sage counsel, magnificent sense of humor and wit, and his constantly supportive statements and actions. Whenever I might get low from this often brutal MRFF fight, Ed was always there to personally exhort me to dive back into the arena and continue this civil rights struggle.

There is a hole in MRFF’s heart today with the passing of this genuine Giant of a caring human being.

We will miss you, Ed! We will stay IN this fight and never forget your irreplaceable contributions to MRFF, my brother.

Our most profound empathy and sympathy to the entire Asner family.

MRFF also has videos of Ed Asner receiving their 2010 Jefferson award.

@phillybluesfan

michael moore; thank you, amigo.

"i hate spunk!" was indeed the best pregnant pause ever on our televisions!

a peach of a humanitarian, and an accidental subversive rabble-rouser he was. (i confess i've never seen 'roger and me', though.)

When I was making my first film, “Roger & Me”, I was broke, really broke, so I, a nobody from Flint, wrote to some famous people to ask them for help with my movie.

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.”

Ed also eventually became a union president (SAG), the star of one of the best TV dramas ever (“Lou Grant”) and one of the best animated films — no, correction, one of the best MOVIES — of all time (“Up”). He always showed up: for a picket, a rally, getting arrested, participating in nonviolent civil disobedience, testifying at congressional hearings, supporting progressive/left movements all across the country. He took on Reagan and Charlton Heston and fought against the American support of right-wing Latin American dictators. Companies like Kimberly-Clark (Kleenex) and Vidal Sassoon, sponsors of his CBS drama, told the network that if they couldn’t get Ed to shut up and end his political activism, they’d pull their ads from his “Lou Grant” show. CBS told Ed to tamp it down. He wouldn’t, so the sponsors pulled their ads and the award-winning “Lou Grant”, starring the man who still holds the record for the most (male) Emmys ever, came to an end. He once told me, “Look, it’s never been easy in this country to speak out against the status quo. I’m not going to stop now.” He never did and I loved him for it.

It still isn’t easy, Ed, and we will miss you. You, as Lou Grant, once told Mary Tyler Moore on her show, “Mary, you know what? You’ve got spunk!” After the best pregnant pause in TV history, you finished your thought: “I HATE spunk!”

Hahaha! The funniest thing about that line was that YOU were nothing BUT spunk!

R.I.P. Ed Asner.
Solidarity forever.

Your friend,
Michael Moore