Norman Lear, the writer behind iconic comedies like All in the Family and One Day at a Time, has died. He was 101.
Lear’s death was confirmed by his publicist to Variety, who told the publication that the screenwriter died of natural causes at home in Los Angeles.
“Thank you for the moving outpouring of love and support in honor of our wonderful husband, father, and grandfather,” a statement from his family reads, per Variety. “Norman lived a life of creativity, tenacity, and empathy. He deeply loved our country and spent a lifetime helping to preserve its founding ideals of justice and equality for all. Knowing and loving him has been the greatest of gifts. We ask for your understanding as we mourn privately in celebration of this remarkable human being.”
Lear, who was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1922 and briefly attended Emerson College in Boston before enlisting in the Air Force, began his career in television in the ’50s writing for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis on The Colgate Comedy Hour.
He continued writing and producing in the ’60s and hit big with All in the Family, which first premiered in 1971 as the first sitcom in the U.S. to film in front of a live studio audience, per Variety. All in the Family spawned multiple spin-offs, including Maude and The Jeffersons, as well as Archie Bunker’s Place, and earned award four Emmys and a Peabody Award for Lear’s work in “giving us comedy with a social conscience.”
Lear was also known for creating other progressive shows like One Day at a Time and Diff’rent Strokes that went where sitcoms hadn’t gone before. Lear never shied away from his liberal politics and founded People for the American Way in 1981, an advocacy group to go up against the Moral Majority. When he was chosen to be honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2017, Lear said he would boycott because of then President Donald Trump.
While he was best known for his pioneering television career, Lear was also involved in plenty of high profile films, including Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, and Fried Green Tomatoes.
Lear recently celebrated his 101st birthday in July, posting a sweet video to Instagram to mark the occasion.
“Norman Lear here, dribbling a bit because he’s entering his second childhood,” he quipped. “I have just turned 101, and that is, they tell me, my second childhood. It feels like that, in terms of the care I am getting. I get the kind of care at this age that I see children getting.”
He added, “I am thinking about two little words that we don’t think about often enough: over and next. When something is over, it’s over, and we have the joy and privilege of getting on to the next [thing]. And if there were a hammock in between those two words, it would be the best way I know of identifying living in the moment.”
Lear ended his video by telling his fans, “I am living in that moment now, with all of you. Bless all of you, and our America.”
Lear is survived by his third wife Lyn Davis, as well as his six children and four grandchildren.