HOLLYWOOD—Television producer and writer Norman Lear, known for TV hits from the 1970s that include “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons,” “Maude” and “Sanford and Son” died at the age of 101 at his Los Angeles home on Tuesday, December 5. Lear died from natural causes. The writer and producer was born in New Haven, Connecticut.
He attended Emerson College in Boston, but later dropped out to join the United States Army Air Forces. He was discharged from the Army in 1945, where he started working in public relations. He created his first TV series in 1959 titled, “The Deputy.”
Lear’s CBS series “All in the Family” in 1971 became a critical hit winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. The series ran from 1971-1979. He followed “All in the Family” with the series “Sanford and Son” which focused on an African American family that was a critical success as well, which ran from 1972-1977.
He parlayed the success of those shows with “The Jeffersons” starring Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford. The CBS comedy remains one of the longest comedy series running 11 seasons from 1975 to 1985. Other series developed by Lear included “One Day at a Time,” and “Good Times.”
Lear earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for “Divorce American Style” in 1967. He was a recipient of the Kennedy Centers Honors in 2017. He received two Peabody Awards in 1977 and 2017 for Lifetime Achievement.
He earned six Primetime Emmy Awards during his career and was a member of the Television Academy Hall of Fame. He was married three times to Charlotte Rosen, Frances Loeb and Lyn Davis. During his life he had a total of 6 children and 4 grandchildren.
