Seven-time Emmy Award-winning actor, Ed Asner, popularly known for portraying the gruff newsman, Lou Grant, on two iconic television shows is dead.
According to NBC news, he died on Sunday, his family and a representative announced.
He was aged 91.
Asner, who also greatly loved by fans after playing a grumpy Santa in the 2003 movie "Elf" and was the voice of the grieving widower in the animated 2009 movie "Up," was with his family when he died.
"We are sorry to say that our beloved patriarch passed away this morning peacefully," his family said on Twitter.
"Words cannot express the sadness we feel. With a kiss on your head — Goodnight dad. We love you."
Asner's representative, Charles Sherman, told NBC News in a statement Sunday that he "passed away today peacefully surrounded by family."
Inducted into the Emmys Hall of Fame in 1996, Asner took home seven statues in his long acting career — five for portraying Grant.
He won consecutive Emmys for best supporting actor in a comedy series in 1971 and 1972, playing Grant on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
Balding and burly, Grant was a journeyman character actor before he was paired up with Mary Tyler Moore, who played the perpetually earnest lead character, Mary Richards, at the fictional Minneapolis TV newsroom where they worked.
