Norman Milton Lear (July 27, 1922 – December 5, 2023)[1][2] was an American television writer and producer. He produced 1970s sitcoms including All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and Maude.
Lear won many awards, including six Primetime Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 1999, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2017, and an honorary Golden Globe Award in 2021. He was a member of the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Lear was known for his political activism and supporting liberal and progressive causes and politicians. In 1980, he founded the organization People for the American Way to push against the influence of the Christian right in politics.
In 2001, Lear and his wife, Lyn, purchased one of the first published copies of the United States Declaration of Independence for $8.1 million.[3] Lear said he went on a tour with the document around the United States so that the country could experience its "birth certificate" firsthand.[4][5]
Lear was born on July 27, 1922 in New Haven, Connecticut to a Jewish family.[6] He studied at Emerson College. Lear was married to Charlotte Rosen until they divorced. Then he was married to Frances Loeb from 1956 until they divorced in 1986. He was married to Lyn Davis from 1987 until his death.
In 2014, Lear published a memoir titled Even This I Get to Experience.[7]
Lear died in his Los Angeles, California home on December 5, 2023, aged 101.[8][9][10] The cause of death was cardiac arrest caused by heart failure.[11]