Ed Asner was hospitalized late Tuesday after he had trouble speaking during a performance of his one-man play “FDR” in Gary, IN, according to reports.
Show-goers told the Chicago Sun Times that the Hollywood legend began the show about 45 minutes late and he struggled during the performance.
Lake County Surveyor George Van Til, who attended the show, told the publication that Asner seemed “confused and frustrated” during the performance where he plays Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
He added that Asner apologized to the audience and said he would return to the stage as soon as he could.
TMZ reports that the 83-year-old actor was escorted off the stage about 15 minutes into the play and was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Asner is known for his role as Lou Grant on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and its spin-off “Lou Grant.” (Valerie Harper, who starred on “Mary Tyler Moore” with Asner, also announced her own medical bombshell this week.) In 2009, he was the voice of curmudgeonly Carl Fredricksen in the animated Pixar film “Up.”
Asner’s son, Matt, told TMZ, “My dad is doing fine. He was rushed to the hospital yesterday for being disoriented on stage.”
“He is resting now at an Indiana hospital and is doing well and very grumpy, which with him is always a good thing,” Matt said. “He is being assessed right now and what I can say is that it was not a stroke. That much we do know.”