Editing Ed Asner (section)

== Early life and education ==
Asner was born November 15, 1929,<ref>{{Cite tweet |number=1062941419927523328 |user=TheOnlyEdAsner |title=Hi. Tomorrow 11/15 is my 89th birthday. |date= November 15, 2018}}</ref> in [[Kansas City, Missouri]], and grew up in [[Kansas City, Kansas]].<ref name="birthplace">{{cite web| url= https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/edward-asner|title=Edward Asner|date=October 22, 2017|website=Television Academy Interviews|access-date= May 22, 2019}}</ref> His [[Ashkenazi Jewish]] immigrant parents, Lizzie (''[[née]]'' Seliger; 1885–1967, from [[Odessa]], [[Ukraine]]), a housewife, and Morris David Asner (1879–1957, from Lithuania ([[Vilna Governorate]] or [[Grodno Governorate]])),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://enewsreference.com/actors/ed_asner.html |title=Ed Asner |website=eNewsReference |access-date=March 7, 2018 |archive-date=December 10, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071210050404/http://enewsreference.com/actors/ed_asner.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> ran a [[second-hand shop]] and junkyard.<ref name="birthplace"/> His four older siblings were Ben J. Asner (1915–1986), Eve Asner (1916–2014), Esther Edelman (1919–2014) and Labe Asner (1923–2017).<ref name="NYT">{{Cite news|last=Gates|first=Anita|title=Ed Asner, Emmy-Winning Star of 'Lou Grant' and 'Up', Dies at 91|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/arts/television/ed-asner-dead.html|access-date=February 11, 2022|issn=0362-4331|date=August 29, 2021}}</ref> He was raised in an [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jewish]] family and given the [[Hebrew name]] Yitzhak.<ref name="Asner">{{cite news |last=Zager |first=Norma |title=Outspoken Asner's Activism Is No Act |work=[[The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles]] |date=August 5, 2005 |url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/arts/article/outspoken_asners_activism_is_no_act_20050805/ |access-date = December 13, 2006 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081225122020/http://www.jewishjournal.com/arts/article/outspoken_asners_activism_is_no_act_20050805/ |archive-date= December 25, 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Horwitz|first=Simi|title=Ed Asner's Still Crusty After All These Years| url= http://forward.com/articles/163396/ed-asners-still-crusty-after-all-these-years/?p=all| work = [[The Forward]]| date= September 27, 2012}}</ref>

Asner attended [[Wyandotte High School]] in Kansas City, Kansas, and the [[University of Chicago]]. He studied journalism in Chicago until a professor advised him there was little money to be made in the profession. He had been working in a steel mill,<ref name="Palast">{{cite web |url=https://www.gregpalast.com/ed-asner-1929-2021/ |title=Ed Asner (1929–2021): A Lion in Underpants |website=GregPalast.com |publisher=[[Greg Palast]] |date=August 29, 2021 |access-date=August 30, 2021 }}</ref> but he quickly switched to drama, debuting as the martyred [[Thomas Becket]] in a campus production of [[T. S. Eliot]]'s ''[[Murder in the Cathedral]]''. He eventually dropped out of school, going to work as a taxi driver, worked on the assembly line for [[General Motors]], and other odd jobs before being drafted in the military in 1951.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.vulture.com/2012/09/ed-asner-stars-in-grace-on-broadway.html| title= Late-Night Lox, Vodka, and Banana Cream Pie With Ed Asner|date=October 1, 2012| website= Vulture.com |access-date=November 24, 2017}}</ref>

Asner served with the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] [[United States Army Signal Corps|Signal Corps]] from 1951 to 1953 during the [[Korean War]] and appeared in plays that toured Army bases in Europe.<ref>{{cite web|title=Edward Asner|url=http://www.walkoffame.com/edward-asner|website=Hollywood Walk of Fame|access-date=August 27, 2016}}</ref><ref name="NYT"/>