Ed Asner to Receive Banff Lifetime Achievement Award

TORONTO: At this year’s Banff World Media Festival, the Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Edward Asner, who will also be featured in a special master class at the event.

Asner is known for his comedic and dramatic crossover as the journalist Lou Grant on the TV news-room comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a character who continued in the newspaper-set drama Lou Grant. Asner has received more Emmy Awards than any other living actor. He is currently touring America in the one-man show FDR and stars in the CMT prime-time sitcom Working Class. He has also been cast in a supporting role as Warren Buffet in the HBO TV-movie drama Too Big to Fail.

"Edward Asner is an iconic figure of both the big and small screen," said Ferne Cohen, the executive director of the festival. "His range and versatility as an actor have allowed him to continually push boundaries throughout his career, leaving an indelible stamp on the industry as a whole. We are so excited to have him with us at Banff, and I’m sure his master class will be compelling."