Norman Lear

Norman Lear (born July 27, 1922, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.—died December 5, 2023, Los Angeles, California) was an American producer, writer, and director known especially for his work on such seminal television series as All in the Family (1971–79), Sanford and Son (1972–77), and The Jeffersons (1975–85).

After a brief stint at Emerson College in Boston, Lear enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, serving as a radio operator and gunner (1942–45). Following the end of World War II, he first worked in public relations and later in television as a comedy writer and director (1950–59). He then turned to writing and producing movies such as Come Blow Your Horn (1963); Divorce American Style (1967), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for best screenplay; Cold Turkey (1971), which he also directed; and the television film The Little Rascals (1977).

Lear returned to television to create and produce the series All in the Family, inspired by the British series Till Death Us Do Part (1965–75). Despite initial concerns about the show’s content—the main character, Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor), was a bigot who often used racial slurs—All in the Family was an immediate hit. The comic exchanges between Bunker and his liberal son-in-law Michael (“Meathead”) Stivic (Rob Reiner) explored many of the most-loaded topics of the day, from civil rights to the Vietnam War. Lear received four Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award for the series. Other notable shows that he created were Maude (1972–78) and One Day at a Time (1975–84); the latter series returned—with various changes—in 2017. Sanford and Son, Good Times (1974–79), and The Jeffersons, a spin-off of All in the Family, were significant in their depictions of African American family life. Lear also produced such films as The Princess Bride (1987), a wry fantasy directed by Reiner that became a cult classic, Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), the documentary Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (2007), and El Superstar: The Unlikely Rise of Juan Frances (2008).

Long devoted to liberal political and social causes, in 1981 Lear cofounded the progressive activist group People for the American Way. He published a memoir, Even This I Get to Experience, in 2014. His influence on television, particularly his barrier-breaking insertion of racial issues into the sitcom medium, was chronicled in the documentary Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (2016). His various honours included a National Medal of Arts (1999) and a Kennedy Center Honor (2017). In 2021 he received the Carol Burnett Award (a Golden Globe honouring excellence in television).