Ed Asner

Edward David "Ed" Asner (born November 15, 1929) is a voice actor for Regular Show. On Regular Show, he provided the voice of Santa Claus in "The Christmas Special."

Early life
Asner was born Edward David Asner in Kansas City, Missouri on November 15, 1929 to his Orthodox Jewish immigrant parents, Elizabeth (née Seliger) (1885-1967), a homemaker, and Morris David Asner (1877-1957), who ran a second-hand shop and was Lithuanian. Asner was the youngest of five children, having had four siblings, Benjamin (1915-1986), who was a record shop owner, Esther, Labe and Eva. Benjamin died from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1986. Asner's father was also unable to read or write in English, though he could speak in Yiddish and read in Hebrew.

Asner would be enrolled in a Hebrew school at a local synagogue. He later moved to Kansas to attend high school at Wyandotte High School, where he played on a championship football team, served as the school's sports announcer for their radio station and wrote for the school's newspaper. He then moved to Illinois to attend college at the University of Chicago, where he was a student from 1947 through 1949 before dropping out. After college he worked at a Ford auto plant before serving in the United States Army's Signal Corps from 1951 through 1953. After the war he moved to New York in an attempt to act on Broadway. He also worked as an assembly worker at a plant for General Motors at one point, as well as driving taxis, selling encyclopedias and working at a steel mill.

Career
Asner made his acting debut in 1953 on Broadway. He is known for providing the voice of Carl Fredricksen in the Pixar movie Up and for portraying Lou Grant on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, for which he earned three Emmy awards and two Golden Globe awards. He also earned an Emmy and Golden Globe each for acting in Rich Man, Poor Man. He then won two Emmys and two Golden Globes for acting in the Mary Tyler spinoff of the character he played, entitled Lou Grant.

Asner has also ventured into the world of voice acting, having provided the voices of Santa Claus in a variety of Christmas specials, both animated and live action, Granny Goodness in the Superman animated series, and has also guest starred on King of the Hill and The Simpsons. His voice acting agency is VOX, Inc. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy award for providing the voice of Kid Potato in WordGirl, in the category of "Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program." For his contributions to acting, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Other awards he has received include the 1981 Fund for Higher Education Flame of Truth award, the Eugene Debs award, the Worker's Rights Committee award, the Organized Labor Publications Humanitarian award, the National Emergency Civil Liberties award and the 2002 Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement award.

Outside of acting he has also ventured into politics, having served as the Screen Actors Guild President from 1981 for two terms before resigning in 1985.

Voice credits
This section may be incomplete

Season 4

 * "The Christmas Special" - Santa Claus

Personal life
Asner has been married twice. He first married Nancy Lou Sykes on March 23, 1959, and together the couple had three children: twins Matthew, a director and Liza, an executive and Kathryn, nicknamed "Kate", who is an actress. Matthew has directed the film The Bible Code II: Apocalypse and Beyond, Liza serves as an executive for the Cascade Blues Association, and Kathryn has acted in the film Wedding Bell Blues. They later divorced in 1988. After this marriage ended he became engaged to producer Cindy Gilmore (born in 1940) in 1991, and the couple eventually married on August 2, 1998. Gilmore has produced such films as Sister Act. Asner then adopted Gilmore's son, Robin, as his own. However, the couple later divorced in 2007. He also has a son named Charles, born in 1987, from a previous relationship with Carol Jean Vogelman. Asner is also Jewish. Asner's political affiliation is democratic. He resides in Los Angeles, California.