ABC Newsnotes that Lear attributed his long life and legendary career to consistent laughter.
“And I love it.
It’s enhanced my life.
Every minute of it.”
Other groundbreaking series followed, including “All in the Family” and “Good Times.”
He remained an active member even in old age.
“I’m a bleeding-heart conservative,” he proudly (if sardonically) toldSmithsonian Magazinein 2016.
“Really believing in the Constitution and its equal protection laws is a conservative position.
I totally trust in those instruments and my heart bleeds for those who don’t get equal opportunity.
In apromofor the special, comedian Jimmy Kimmel said, “Mr. Norman Lear he changed television.
He changed this country.”
Kimmel also gushed, “You raised me more than my parents did.”
Lear and his first wife, Charlotte Rosen, had one daughter, Ellen.
He shared two daughters, Kate and Maggie, with his second wife, Frances Loeb.
In 1987 he married Lyn Davis, and the pair remained married until his death.
They had three children, including a son, Ben, and twin daughters, Madeline and Brianna.
