As The Washinton Post reports, Lear managed to “transformed the bland porridge of situation comedy into a zesty stew of sociopolitical strife and brutally funny speech and who gave the world such embattled comic archetypes as Archie Bunker, Fred Sanford, Maude Findlay and George Jefferson.”
Lear is survived by his wife Lyn and his six children, Ellen, Kate, Maggie, Benjamin, Brianna, and Madelaine.