Norman Lear, Legendary Sitcom Producer and All In the Family Creator, Dead at 101

Charlie Mason
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Legendary television writer/producer Norman Lear died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 101 years old.

“It is with profound sadness and love that we announce the passing of Norman Lear, our beloved husband, father, and grandfather,” his family posted to his official Instagram page. “Norman passed away peacefully on December 5, 2023, surrounded by his family as we told stories and sang songs until the very end.

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“Norman lived a life in awe of the world around him. He marveled at his cup of coffee every morning, the shape of the tree outside his window, and the sounds of beautiful music. But it was people — those he just met and those he knew for decades — who kept his mind and heart forever young. As we celebrate his legacy and reflect on the next chapter of life without him, we would like to thank everyone for all the love and support.”

Update: According to a Los Angeles County death certificate filed Monday, Dec. 18, Lear’s official cause of death was cardiac arrest, with congestive heart failure being an underlying cause.

A four-time Emmy Award winner for the 1970s juggernaut All in the Family, the New Haven, Conn., native also produced the hit comedy’s spinoffs, Maude and The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and the Maude offshoot Good Times. Lear was nominated for an Academy Award for writing 1967’s Divorce American Style, was a producer on, among other features, Rob Reiner’s classics Stand by Me and The Princess Bride, was among the first seven inductees into the Television Hall of Fame, and was the subject of the documentary Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You.

Lear in the past several years has been almost as prolific, exec-producing a reimagining of One Day at a Time (featuring a Latino family) for Netflix/Pop TV, as well as ABC’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience franchise of sitcom episode reenactments (which to date has taken on All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life).

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Reflecting on his vast career in a December 2021 interview with TVLine, Lear said he was always vested in “tackling the day’s problems — the problems of a family, of relationships, and political as well.”

Doing so across several series “came naturally,” he said, “because we were dealing with the problems that American families were facing every day around the country. It’s very pleasant to see that people cared about that, and are bringing it back so appreciatively” by way of the Live in Front of a Studio Audience specials.

A political activist as well as a TV icon, Lear founded the advocacy organization People For the American Way in 1981 and, for time and again tackling social issues in his series, was given the National Medal of Arts in 1999. In presenting the award, then-President Bill Clinton said that Lear “has held up a mirror to American society and changed the way we look at it.”

All in the Family star Rob Reiner paid tribute to Lear on social media early Wednesday, writing, “I loved Norman with all my heart. He was my second father.” (With additional reporting by Matt Webb Mitovich)

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