Legendary sitcom creator Norman Lear dead at 101
Norman Lear, the legendary creator of sitcoms including “All in the Family,” died Tuesday. He was 101.
A spokeswoman for the family, Lara Bergthold, confirmed the news to the New York Times Wednesday, sharing that Lear died at his home in Los Angeles.
“Thank you for the moving outpouring of love and support in honor of our wonderful husband, father and grandfather,” the family said in a statement.
“Norman lived a life of creativity, tenacity and empathy. He deeply loved our country and spent a lifetime helping to preserve its founding ideals of justice and equality for all. Knowing and loving him has been the greatest of gifts. We ask for your understanding as we mourn privately in celebration of this remarkable human being.”
His cause of death was not immediately known.
Lear was already an Oscar nominee for 1967’s “Divorce American Style” when he devised an idea for a sitcom about a bigoted, conservative man living with his family in Queens, New York.
“All in the Family” was an immediate hit with viewers across the political spectrum and was among the first shows to address cultural and social issues like racism, abortion, homosexuality and the Vietnam War.
“You looked around television in [the mid-to-late 1960s] and the biggest problem any family faced was ‘Mother dented the car, and how do you keep Dad from finding out’; ‘the boss is coming to dinner, and the roast’s ruined,’” Lear said in a 2012 New York Times interview. “The message that was sending out was that we didn’t have any problems.”
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“All in the Family,” which received four Emmys in the 1970s along with a Peabody Award for Lear “for giving us comedy with a social conscience,” spawned seven spinoffs including “Maude.”
He was later honored with a place in the Television Academy’s Hall of Fame and received a lifetime achievement award from the Producers Guild of America.
The TV legend was also the recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 1999 and was celebrated at the 2017 Kennedy Center Honors, which he threatened to boycott over then-President Donald Trump’s policies.
In addition to “All in the Family,” Lear is credited with creating a slate of iconic TV shows including “Sanford and Son,” “One Day at a Time,” “The Jeffersons” and “Good Times.”
He was married to his first wife, Charlotte, from 1943 to 1956 before tying the knot with his second wife, Frances, in 1956.
The couple were married for almost 30 years and infamously reached a divorce settlement in 1986 estimated at more than $100 million.
He wed his third wife, Lyn, in 1987, and the pair remained together until his death.
Lear is survived Lyn and his six children — Ellen, Kate, Maggie, Benjamin, Brianna and Madeline — along with his grandchildren Daniel, Noah, Griffin and Zoe.
