Norman LearBirth Place: New Haven, Connecticut, USA Date of Birth: July 27, 1922 Heritage: American Contact Norman Lear | 
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All in the Family Background: Emmy Award winning and Oscar nominated American writer, producer and director Norman Lear is most famous as the creator of the popular situation comedy “All in the Family” (CBS, 1971-1979), from which he nabbed four Emmy Awards and a 1978 Peabody Award. He continued to gain success with hit sitcoms like “Sanford and Son” (NBC, 1972-1977), “Maude” (CBS, 1972-1978), “Good Times” (CBS, 1974-1979), “The Jeffersons” (CBS, 1975-1985) and “One Day at a Time” (1975-1984). The veteran of World War II received his Academy Award nomination for his writing job on the 1967 film “Divorce American Style,” which was directed by his long time producing partner Bud Yorkin. Lear won a Writers Guild of America Award for “I Love Liberty” (1982), an all star TV variety special saluting America, and a Retirement Research Foundation Award for producing the film “Fried Green Tomatoes” (1991). The New Haven, Connecticut, native made his feature film directing debut with “Cold Turkey” (1971), which he also wrote and produced. Lear was an inductee on the Hollywood of Walk fame thanks to his work on television. In 1978, he was awarded the Valentine Davies Award from the Writers Guild of America Awards. He later picked up the Laurel Award for TV Writing Achievement at the 1993 WGA Awards. Lear has also received Career Achievement Awards from the American Comedy Awards and the Television Critics Association Awards and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Casting Society of America and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Television from the PGA Awards. He won a Lucy Award from the 1999 Women in Film Lucy Awards and the Michael Landon Award at the 1984 Young Artist Awards. As for his personal life, Lear has five children and has been married three times. He is the godfather of actress Katey Sagal.
Childhood and Family: Norman Milton Lear was born on July 27, 1922 in New Haven, Connecticut, to Herman Lear, a salesman, and Jeannette Lear. He was raised in a Jewish household and educated at Weaver High School in Hartford, Connecticut. He later attended Emerson College in Boston on a full scholarship after winning first prize in the American Legion Oratorical Contest. However, he quit college in 1942 to join the United States Army Air Forces and worked as a gunner and radio operator aboard a B-17 Flying Fortes. He was discharged from the military in 1945 and received a medal for flying over 50 fight missions during his service. After leaving the military, Norman relocated to New York City to begin a career in public relations. He then brought his family to Los Angeles to pursue a career in entertainment. Norman has been married three times. He and first wife Charlotte Rosen welcomed a daughter named Ellen Lear in 1947 but their relationship ended in divorce. He married Frances Lear on December 7, 1956. After having been together for 30 years, the couple divorced in 1986 and he gave $112 million to his wife in the divorce settlement. The marriage produced two daughters, Kate (born in 1958) and Maggie (born in 1959). Norman married Lyn Davis on September 5, 1987. They welcomed a son they named Benjamin Davis Lear in 1988. Their twin girls, Brianna Elizabeth Lear and Madelaine Rose Lear, were born through a surrogate in November 1994.
Career: After failed attempts as a publicity agent in New York City, Norman Lear joined forces with his cousin Ed Simmons to form a comedy writing team in Los Angeles, California. His television writing debut was with the variety comedy show “Ford Star Revue” in 1951. Two years later, he wrote episodes of the NBC comedy series “Colgate Comedy Hour.” Also that year, he made his screenwriting debut with the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis vehicle “Scared Stiff,” a remake of the 1940 film “The Ghost Breakers,” which starred Bob Hope. Both films were directed by George Marshall. In 1955, Lear made his producing debut with the short lived comedy show “The Martha Raye Show” (NBC, 1955-1956), starring Martha Raye. He also wrote episodes and had his first taste of television directing with the show. The short lived series marked his last partnership with Simmons. Without Simmons, Lear wrote episodes for the Emmy nominated show “The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show” during 1957 to 1958 and “The George Gobel Show” in 1958. He emerged as a television series creator when he co-created (with Roland Kibbee) a half hour western series for NBC titled “The Deputy,” which starred Henry Fonda and Allen Case. The show ran from September 1959 to July 1961. Meanwhile, in 1959, Lear also teamed up with director Bud Yorkin to establish the production company Tandem Productions, which would produce television series and feature films. Lear wrote “Bobby Darin and Friends” in 1961, a television special that was a pilot for a potential series, but it was not picked up. He also produced the episode “Love Is a Lion's Roar” of the popular CBS anthology series “General Electric Theater” that same year. In 1962, he wrote and produced the TV special “The Andy Williams Special” and went on to serve as an executive producer for the subsequent TV variety series “The Andy Williams Show,” which ran from 1962 to 1969. He made his feature film producing debut with the 1963 comedy “Come Blow Your Horn,” in which he also wrote the screen adaptation based on the play of the same name by Neil Simon. The film, which was directed by Bud Yorkin, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color and four Golden Globe Awards. He also had a role as a party guest in the film. After producing the based on play “Never Too Late” (1965), Lear gained recognition in the late 1960s with his writing gig on the satirical comedy film “Divorce American Style” (1967), based on a story by Robert Kaufman. He was handed an Academy nomination for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen and a Writers Guild of America nomination for Best Written American Comedy for his efforts. He also produced the film, which was directed by Yorkin and starred Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds. He followed it up by producing the William Friedkin directed musical comedy “The Night They Raided Minsky's” (1968), which he also co-scripted based on a book by Rowland Barber. Lear enjoyed a huge television breakthrough when he created the situation comedy series “All in the Family,” which was an adaptation of the British television comedy series “Till Death Us Do Part.” Starring Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker, the show premiered on CBS on January 12, 1971. Despite its slow start, the series achieved the top spot in the Nielson ratings in 1971 and remained there until 1976. It ended its run on CBS in April 1979. Lear, who also served as executive producer/producer and writer, collected four Emmy awards and a Personal Award from the 1978 Peabody Awards for his contribution to the series. “All in the Family” was renewed in September 1979 and given a new title, “Archie Bunker's Place,” which would enjoy another four year run on CBS until 1983. Lear ventured into film directing with the 1971 comedy “Cold Turkey,” which he also co-wrote and produced. Adapted from the novel “I'm Giving Them Up for Good” by Margaret and Neil Rau, the film starred a number of comedic actors, including Dick Van Dyke, Bob Newhart, Paul Benedict, Helen Page Camp and Bob Elliott. After “All in the Family,” Lear teamed up with Bud Yorkin to create and executive produce the comedy series “Sanford and Son,” which was based on the BBC sitcom “Steptoe and Son” that was created by Alan Simpson and Ray Galton. During its run on NBC from January 1972 to March 1977, the show, which starred Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson, garnered seven Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe Award for Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy (Foxx in 1973). In 1972, Lear created the TV sitcom “Maude,” a spin off of “All in the Family” which starred Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay. The show ran on CBS from September 1972 to April 1978. Lear also served as an executive producer on the “Maude” spin off “Good Times,” which ran on CBS from February 1974 to August 1979. Lear parted ways with Yorkin in the mid 1970s and founded TAT Communications with talent agent Jerry Perenchio. Under TAT Communications, he developed the sitcom “The Jeffersons,” the second spin off show from “All in the Family,” which starred Isabel Sanford and Sherman Hemsley. The show ran on CBS from January 1975 to June 1985 and is considered the longest running comedy in the history of American TV with a predominantly African American cast. Following a string of successes, Lear suffered a disappointment with the situation comedy “Hot L Baltimore,” which was based on a hit off-Broadway play by Lanford Wilson. Executive produced by Lear, the ABC show lasted from January 1975 to April 1975. He quickly bounced back with the CBS popular sitcom “One Day at a Time,” which starred Bonnie Franklin, Mackenzie Phillips, Valerie Bertinelli and Pat Harrington. Created by Whitney Blake and Allan Manings and executive produced by Lear, the show ran from December 1975 to May 1984. 1976 saw Lear executive produce the syndicated “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” and receive an Emmy nomination for Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement for his work on the show. The same year, he also produced the short comedy series “The Dumplings” (NBC) and “The Nancy Walker Show” (ABC) and created the CBS sitcom “All's Fair,” which ran from September 1976 to April 1977. In 1977, he created the comedy “Fernwood 2 Night,” which was a spin off of “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” The show starred Martin Mull, Fred Willard, Frank De Vol and Tommy Tedesco. During the remaining of the decade, Lear produced the television shows “All That Glitters” (1977), “A Year at the Top” (1977), “The Baxters” (1979), “Hanging In” (1979) and the TV film “The Little Rascals” (1978), which he also wrote. He also created the short lived comedy show “Apple Pie” (1978) and wrote the 1979 TV film “McGurk.” In 1980, Lear teamed up with Alex Haley to create the drama series “Palmerstown, U.S.A.,” but the show only had a short life. Two years later, he was reunited with longtime partner Bud Yorkin to executive produce the ABC variety special “I Love Liberty,” which he also co-wrote. The special brought Lear a 1982 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program and a WGA award. The same year, he joined forces with Jerry Perenchio to buy Embassy Films. He then changed TAT Communications to Embassy Television. Embassy Films was renamed Embassy Films Associates in 1984, a year before Lear sold the company to the Coca Cole Company. He later established Act III Communications with Tom McGrath in 1986. Still in 1984, Lear executive produced the short lived ABC situation comedy series “a.k.a. Pablo,” which starred Paul Rodriguez, and produced and wrote the NBC film “P.O.P.,” which was directed by Yorkin. His producing credits also included the TV films “Good Evening, He Lied” and “Heartsounds,” from which he earned a 1985 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special (both 1984), and the motion picture “The Princess Bride” (1987), directed by Rob Reiner. In 1991, Lear shared an Emmy nomination in the category of Outstanding Informational Special as an executive producer of the “All in the Family: 20th Anniversary Special” (1991), which was co-written and directed by David Jackson. The same year, he returned to TV series as the creator and executive producer of the CBS short lived comedy “Sunday Dinner,” starring Robert Loggia and Teri Hatcher. He next created and produced the 1992 series “The Powers That Be” (NBC) and the 1994 sitcom “704 Hauser” (CBS). He also executive produced the 1997 morning animated TV show “Channel Umptee-3” (The WB). On the movie front, Lear executive produced the Jon Avnet dramatic comedy “Fried Green Tomatoes” (1991) and the independent mystery “The Thing in Bob's Garage” (1998), which was directed by Penelope Spheeris. Entering the new millennium, Lear served as executive producer of the independent film “Way Past Cool” (2000), based on the Jess Mowry novel, and the TV series “Maggie Bloom” (2000), which he also directed. His more recent producing credits include the documentary film “Pete Seeger: The Power of Song” (2007), helmed by Jim Brown, and the comedy film “Juan Frances: Live” (2008). In 2003, Lear provided the voice of Benjamin Franklin in an episode of “South Park” called “I'm a Little Bit Country.” Two years later, he played Future Peter Benedict in the “Jack & Bobby” episode “Legacy.”
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