Norman Lear, born in 1922, has died in 2023 at age 101.
Norman Lear was a juggernaut of the entertainment industry is both television and music. In his mid 70s in 1999 Lear bought Concord Records and resurrected the small jazz label into a commercial powerhouse. One of his first releases was Ray Charles ‘Genius Loves Company’. It won Eight Grammy Awards including Album of the Year. Concord signed Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Santana and Herb Alpert. In 2004 Concord bought Fantasy Records (Creedence Clearwater Revival) and then the iconic Stax label and resurrected the label.
This was all decades after Lear first made his name in Hollywood. He wrote and produced the hit movie ‘Divorce American Style’ in 1967 starring Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds. In 1971 he created ‘All In The Family’ featuring racist character Archie Bunker. That show could not air today. The show starred Rob Reiner as Meat Head, the son-in-law of Archie.
Lear’s formula flowed over to more TV hits ‘Sanford and Son’, ‘Maude’, ‘The Jeffersons’, ‘One Day At A Time’ and ‘Good Times’ were all Lear shows and all based on real people in real situations.
One of his more recent productions was a documentary about Rita Moreno ‘Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It’. In 2020 at age 98, he signed on as Executive Producer of a revival of ‘Who’s The Boss’ at the time of his death was working (at age 101) on a reboot of ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman’.
Norman was awarded the National Medal of the Arts by Bill Clinton. He also has a Hollywood Walk of Fame star at 6615 Hollywood Boulevard.
Stay updated with your free Noise11.com daily music news email alert. Subscribe to Noise11 Music News here
Be the first to see NOISE11.com’s newest interviews and special features on YOUTUBE and updated regularly. See things first SUBSCRIBE here: Noise11 on YouTube SUBSCRIBE
