Remembering Ed Asner’s Best Animated Roles

On Monday, TV icon Ed Asner passed away at 91 years old, leaving behind a decades-long body of work and almost as many years of activism and charitable works. Whether it’s The Mary Tyler Moore Show or Elf, most pop-culture-savvy Americans have seen Asner in something or other, and most have a warm feeling for the star. But as with so many talented performers, it’s possible that some of your favorite Ed Asner roles didn’t have Ed Asner’s face attached to them at all. The actor has done voice acting for decades, creating a separate category of roles that he used to help shape popular culture.

Like most great actors, Asner had success in lead roles as well as supporting roles. And like many in animation, he could sometimes find himself playing two or more characters in the same production, since there was no need to spend a bunch of money to figure out how to show him talking to himself.

Asner’s legacy is going to be a varied one; he made people happy in live-action and animation, and helped improve the lives of children through his Autism advocacy…and that’s just in the last decade. It’s worth a short trip down memory lane to remember just how much great work Asner did in animation — even if this doesn’t scratch the surface in terms of sheer number of roles.

Below, you can find some of our favorite animated roles from Ed Asner. Let us know your favorite in the comments below, or reach out to @russburlingame on Twitter to share your memories of Asner.

Multiple characters in Captain Planet and the Planeteers.

Given that Asner was active in numerous political and charitable causes during his life, it’s probably no surprise that he ended up voicing some characters in Captain Planet and the Planeteers — but none stick out more than Hoggish Greedly, a pig-like human who represents the dangers of overconsumption and greed, Hoggish is the first villain Captain Planet and the Planeteers encounter. 

He also played Don Porkaloin, who was defeated by a previous generation of Planeteers and found redemption, becoming eco-friendly and giving Asner a chance to play a slightly softer side of a Greedly-like character.

Multiple characters in Gargoyles

In the years since its release, Gargoyles has become widely accepted as one of the best kids’ cartoons of the last 30 years, making a role on the series something of a badge of honor. Asner, of course, had three such roles: Hudson, Burbank, and the mobster Jack Dane. In a career rife with tough guys, it’s arguably not surprising that he found the range for two different gargoyles and a mobster, and absolutely killed in all three roles.

Maybe worth noting that Burbank looks like a character who could have been designed by Jack Kirby…more on that later.

Sgt. Mike Cosgrove in Freakazoid!

In terms of long-running characters who stand a little more on their own than his various roles on Gargoyles, we have Sgt. Cosgrove in Freakazoid!, a character who seems pretty straight-laced on the surface but actually shares the wildly varied passions of the lead character. Cosgrove is Freakazoid’s best friend and confidant, giving Asner a chance to play both a gruff exterior and a quieter, more accessible version of the character at times.

Roland Daggett in Batman: The Animated Series

The President of Daggett Industries, a pharmaceutical company, Daggett was a corrupt corporatist with a Norman Osborn-inspired haircut, who appeared in a handful of episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. While he was featured in some of the show’s most beloved episodes, it’s certainly a worthwhile argument to say he would never have reached the popularity he did without Asner’s terrific performance.

Granny Goodness in Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited, and more

The DC Animated Universe remains the definitive adaptation of DC Comics to a lot of fans, and as such, Ed Asner’s Granny Goodness — who debuted in Superman: The Animated Series and hung around all the way to the end of Justice League Unlimited — is the definitive take on Apokolips’s deranged leader of the Furies. Like so many other deep-cut DC characters who became part of the zeitgeist only after appearing in the DCAU, Jack Kirby’s Granny Goodness became an instant fan-favorite and has gone on to appear in other adaptations.

J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: The Animated Series,

Sometimes it’s hard to imagine anyone but J.K. Simmons playing the role of the Daily Bugle‘s Spider-Man-hating editor, but Ed Asner was one of a handful of actors to take on the role in the course of the nearly 60 years since JJJ’s creation, and his take shaped the character for a generation of fans on the Spider-Man cartoon in the ’90s, helping to pave the way for Simmons’s take (which originated in the Sam Raimi movies and has since expanded to animation and the MCU).

Officer Barr in Spider-Man

In The New Spider-Man Animated Series, Asner went from J. Jonah Jameson to the role of Officer Barr (first name unknown), a cop who helped Spider-Man on numerous occasions, and helped solidify Asner within the Marvel Universe even after his time as J. Jonah Jameson had come to a halt.

Ed Wuncler in The Boondocks

If Ed Asner’s personal politics make it onto this list anywhere, it’s in the form of Ed Wuncler, a repugnant indictment of modern capitalists who served as a central antagonist on The Boondocks. Asner, whose obituary in The Nation cited his role as an advocate for democratic socialism long before the popularity of Bernie Sanders on the national stage, seemed to relish bringing Wuncler to life. 

Wuncler is a wealthy realtor whose fmaily founded the town of Woodcrest, and who exploits cheap labor, complains about taxes, and uses his money and real estate holdings to wield enormous power in the community, seeming to control the police. And while playing one of the least likable people in all of TV history, he brought his A game.

Master Vrook Lamar in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Everybody wants to play a role in Star Wars, and it seems Asner was no different. The actor made his way to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and, at a time when voice work on video games was not treated with the reverence it is today, the award-winning actor left absolutely everything on the field, creating a character who feels completely at home in the galaxy far, far away.

As with Ed Wuncler, this is a character who bears at least a passing resemblance to Asner, so it’s too bad we never got to see the actor take it on in live-action, even if only for a cameo.

Carl Fredricksen in Up

What’s ironic, of course, is that one of Ed Asner’s greatest roles later in life was as Carl Fredicksen in Up and, in spite of his amazing voice acting, the sequence most people talk about in that movie is largely silent.

Still, his interplay with hapless boy scout Russell (Jordan Nagai) and exasperated determination throughout the movie made Carl one of Pixar’s most well-rounded characters…in only one movie.

Doctor Fate in Young Justice

Given Doctor Fate’s power levels and inscrutable personality, it seems easy to play him in a very specific way: a booming, mysterious voice that echoes and intimidates. Asner was certainly capable of that, but given how well he usually managed being loud, the humanity he gave to Kent Nelson, and the calm way he played the part, gives it a decidedly different flavor and serves as an exciting counterpoint to expectations.

Perry White in All-Star Superman

Since at least Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, there seems to have been a conscious effort to give the actors playing Perry White an opportunity to get out of the traditional box of White as the prototypical editor. Exploring new depths and different dimensions would distinguish them from Superman: The Movie and other memorable takes on the character.

The twist in All-Star Superman? The comic was all about reclaiming those iconoclastic versions of the characters. So who better to bring the ultimate, idealized version of newsman Perry White to life than Lou Grant himself?