Son of a Junkman: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood

by Ed Asner, Samuel Warren Joseph (Contribution by), Matthew Seymour (Contribution by)

Overview

Emmy Award-winning actor, Ed Asner, recounts tales from his amazing life in this charming and hilarious memoir. From his colorful childhood as the son of a junkman growing up in the West Bottoms of Kansas City all the way through his spectacular acting career during the golden age of film and television, Ed recounts warm memories that are anything but ordinary. Son of a Junkman makes the reader feel as if they've pulled up a chair in Ed's home just in time to catch the loveable Hollywood grump tell a story or two. Foreward by Paul Rudd.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780960087112
Publisher:	Quincessential, Inc.
Publication date:	12/03/2019
Pages:	158
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.37(d)

About the Author

One of the most honored actors in the history of television, Edward Asner has been the recipient of eight Emmy Awards and 16 nominations, as well as five Golden Globe Awards. He also served as National President of the Screen Actors Guild for two terms. He was inducted into the TV Academy Hall of Fame in 1996, and he was honored by the Screen Actors Guild as the 38th recipient of the prestigious Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. Asner is best known for his comedic and dramatic talent as the gruff but soft-hearted journalist Lou Grant, the role he originated on the landmark TV newsroom comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which continued in the newspaper-set drama Lou Grant, which earned him five Emmys and three Golden Globe Awards for the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man and Roots. In addition to his long and celebrate television career, Asner has also appeared in motion pictures, including The Slender Thread, El Dorado, They Call Me Mister Tibbs, Fort Apache the Bronx, JFK, Elf (as Santa Claus), and he was the voice of Carl Fredricksen in the celebrated Academy Award-winning Best Animated film Up in 2009. On the small screen, he continues to work, including co-starring in the Netflix comedy series Dead to Me opposite James Marsden, Linda Cardellini, and Christina Applegate, and some of his guest star appearances include Cobra Kai, Bones, Criminal Minds, The Good Wife, Law & Order S.V.U., Hawaii Five-O, and Royal Pains. His voice is also featured on such prominent animated series as: American Dad!, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Cleveland Show, Spider-Man, Family Guy, and many more. Asner most recently starred in the Broadway show Grace opposite Paul Rudd and Michael Shannon and more recently toured in the one-man show, FDR, as well as God Help Us and A Man and His Prostate. A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Asner was also a U.S. Army veteran of World War II.

Samuel Warren Joseph has been a professional writer for more than 40 years. His credits include the feature films Off Your Rocker and Window of Opportunity. His animation credits include shows like Duck Tales, Dennis the Menace, and Batman: The Animated Series. His produced stage plays include Moral Imperative and Two Times Two, and two musicals: Campaign and Psychosexual: A Love Story. Most recently he co-wrote God Help Us!- which stars Ed Asner as God moderating a political debate and is playing around the country. Sam is also an adjunct professor of English and lives in southern California with his beautiful wife, Sandra.

Matthew Seymour is a writer and practicing attorney from Turlock, California. He obtained his law degree from Santa Clara University School of Law and his bachelor's degree in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Mr. Seymour has contributed to numerous articles featured in national media outlets including The Huffington Post and Law360. He previously collaborated with Mr. Asner on his book The Grouchy Historian. Mr. Seymour and his wife currently reside in Orange County, California.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Paul Rudd

Introduction

1. Jews in The Bottoms

2. Movin’ on Up

3. To Play or Not to Play

4. Goodbye College, Hello Real World

5. The French Connection

6. A Bunch of Commies

7. Pursuing the Truth

8. Hollywood Hustle

9. Oh, Mr. Grant

10. Can Ed Asner Do Drama?

11. “The Jane Fonda of Latin America”

12. Rock Bottom

13. Picking Myself Up

14. Ode to the Junkman

Afterward by Samuel Warren Joseph

Additional Interviews

Acknowledgments

Notes

Editorial Reviews

"I was blessed to work with Ed for seven consecutive years. That was the beginning of his recognition as an outstanding and gifted actor. To me, the greatest achievement of his awesome life is giving the world his wonderful, creative, and devoted children. He may seem like a rascal to many, but Ed has a heart of gold! After all, he is the SON OF A JUNKMAN."

-Gavin MacLeod, The Mary Tyler Moore Show

"Ed Asner is a greatly versatile actor and a man of solid moral and political convictions."

-Marion Ross, Happy Days

"It is rare in my industry that an individual's work both on and off screen have equal greatness, but such is Ed Asner. He is as consummate and lauded an actor as one can be. He is also as dedicated activist with a legacy of putting his time, talent, and energy toward the service of his community and his country. This is a life worth examining and is done so magnificently in this terrific read. Ed, you've got spunk and we LOVE spunk."

-Jason Alexander, Seinfeld

"Ed is a smart, passionate, and seriously funny man. I'd buy this book! But, I don't have to. I know him personally. Lucky me!"

-Sharon Gless, Cagney & Lacey

"While the lovably grouchy Lou Grant may have hated 'spunk', call it plunk, spirit, toughness or determination and it defines the life and career of the man who created him. For one of the few Jews in the Kansas City Bottom the road to the heights of show business success and fame was a tough, rocky, perilous, sometimes unforgiving one, but for this SON OF A JUNKMAN, the willingness to learn, the courage to be true to himself, the 'spunk' pulled him through."

-Mike Farrell, M*A*S*H

From the Publisher