Ed Begley Jr.

Early life

Edward James Begley Jr. was born in Los Angeles on September 16, 1949, the son of Allene Jeanne Sanders and actor Ed Begley (1901–1970). His paternal grandparents were Irish immigrants. At the time of his birth, his father was still married to Amanda Huff, who died of cancer when Begley Jr. was seven. Until he was 16, he believed Amanda was his biological mother; he only later became acquainted with his biological mother, with whom his father was having an affair.

Begley grew up in Merrick, New York, where he attended the private Catholic school Cure' of Ars from kindergarten to seventh grade. He had moved to Merrick with his family when his father appeared on Broadway. When he was 13, the family moved back to California, where he graduated from Van Nuys High School in 1967. He also attended Los Angeles Valley College.

Career

Begley has had numerous roles in television and film. He appeared as a guest actor on Maude and had guest appearances in the 1970s series Room 222. He had recurring roles on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, 7th Heaven, Arrested Development, Meego, and Six Feet Under and starring roles in Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, St. Elsewhere, and Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central). He was in one episode of My Three Sons, playing a tall classmate of Chip's. Begley also had a short-lived improv act with Michael Richards.

He has played significant roles in Christopher Guest's mockumentary films Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, and Mascots. Additionally, Begley played Viper pilot Greenbean on the original Battlestar Galactica TV series, Boba Fett in the radio adaptation of Return of the Jedi, and Seth Gillette, a fictional Democratic U.S. senator from North Dakota on The West Wing.

From 2000 to 2016, Begley was a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1996, he appeared in a TV movie called The Late Shift, where he portrayed CBS executive Rod Perth. He has guest-starred on shows such as Scrubs, Boston Legal, and Star Trek: Voyager. He had a recurring guest role in season three of Veronica Mars. He appeared in the 2008 HBO film Recount, which profiled the 2000 presidential election and its aftermath, which was decided by Florida's electoral votes after the United States Supreme Court halted the counting of the state's popular vote. Begley also made an appearance on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Season 3, Episode 3, as a spokesman for Cinco.

In 2003, Begley wrote and directed the musical Cesar and Ruben. It was performed at the El Portal Theatre in Los Angeles and was revived in 2007. Begley played Dr. Walter Krandall, the protagonist's former marriage counselor and fiancé of his ex-wife in the CBS sitcom Gary Unmarried. Since 2008 he has been in a series of DirecTV commercials as a "Cable Corp Inc." executive. In 2013, he appeared on the reality television show Beverly Hills Pawn. In 2016, he began appearing in the Breaking Bad prequel and spinoff Better Call Saul as Clifford Main, senior partner at the Davis & Main law firm. Beginning in 2019, he appeared in Bless This Mess for the duration of the two seasons that the show ran.

Personal life

According to a feature on the series Celebrity Close Calls, Begley nearly died in 1972 after being stabbed multiple times during a mugging by what The New York Times reported to be a street gang of 25 youths.

Begley was married to Ingrid Taylor from 1976 to 1989. They had a son and a daughter together. In 2000, he married actress Rachelle Carson, with whom he has a daughter.

Begley was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2016.

Activism

Environmental

Begley has been an environmentalist since 1970, beginning with his first electric vehicle (a Taylor-Dunn golf cart-like vehicle), recycling, and becoming a vegan. He is noted for riding bicycles, using public transportation, and driving a 2003 electric Toyota RAV4 EV. In 2023 and 2024, he made headlines by taking public transit to the Academy Awards.

Begley's former home in Southern California is 1585 sqft in size and uses solar power, wind power (via a PacWind vertical-axis wind turbine), an air conditioning unit made by Greenway Design Group, and an electricity-generating bicycle used to power his toaster. In 2008, he stated that his electricity bills amounted to around $300 per year. Noting that a typical suburban lawn is environmentally unsustainable, especially in Southern California due to water shortages, Begley converted his own garden into a drought-tolerant garden composed of native California plants.

Begley's hybrid electric bicycle was often featured on his television show Living With Ed. He parodied his environmentalism on The Simpsons episode "Homer to the Max" in 1999; he voiced himself as he showcased his "nonpolluting go-kart" powered by his "own sense of self-satisfaction". He also poked fun at himself on an episode of Dharma and Greg. In 2000, the Futurama episode "The Honking" featured a joke in which Begley's electric motor is referred to as "the most evil propulsion system ever conceived". He again voiced himself in The Simpsons episode "Gone Maggie Gone" in 2009; during the episode, a solar eclipse causes his solar-powered car to break down on train tracks as a train approaches, but the train also stops because it is an Ed Begley Jr. Solar Powered Train.

Begley and friend Bill Nye are in a friendly competition to see who can have the lowest carbon footprint.

In 2009, Begley appeared on an Earth Day edition of The Price Is Right. He announced the final showcase, which included an electric bicycle, a solar-powered golf cart and a Toyota Prius.

Begley was featured on the Green Car Challenge of The Jay Leno Show. Various celebrities drove an electric Ford Focus automobile and tried to set records on an outdoor track. During the second lap, cutouts of Begley and Al Gore would pop out; if the celebrity hit either of them, one second was added to their time.

Begley wrote the books Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life (2008) and Ed Begley Jr.'s Guide to Sustainable Living: Learning to Conserve Resources and Manage an Eco-Conscious Life (2009), both published by Random House. He also co-wrote A Vegan Survival Guide for the Holidays (2014) with Jerry James Stone.

Affiliations

• Coalition for Clean Air
• Environmental Media Association
• Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
• The American Oceans Campaign
• League of Conservation Voters
• Environmental Research Foundation
• Walden Woods Project
• Thoreau Institute
• Earth Communications Office
• Solar Living Institute
• TreePeople
• Friends of the Earth
• Sequoia ForestKeeper
• Green Wish
• Orang Utan Republik

From 2007 to 2010, Begley and his wife Rachelle Carson starred in their own reality television series, Living with Ed on HGTV and Discovery's Planet Green channel. In 2013 he, his wife and daughter Hayden filmed "On Begley Street", a Web series chronicling the deconstruction of his current home and the "building of North America's greenest, most sustainable home".

He received the Thomas Alva Edison Award for Energy Independence from the American Jewish Congress, the first one to be presented. Begley has been a leader in this field and was recognized in November 2007 for his lifelong work in environmentalism.

Political

Begley was also on the advisory committee for the group 2004 Racism Watch, founded by fellow actor Ed Asner. The group was formed to respond to the advertisement campaign of the George W. Bush/Dick Cheney presidential campaign that they claimed was encouraging racism. The advertisement in question, "100 Days", made a reference to terrorism and terrorists while highlighting a photograph of an anonymous man of Middle Eastern descent.

Friendships with other actors

William Daniels

When Begley was a child, his future St. Elsewhere series lead, William Daniels, met Begley's father when the two were working on live television. By the time Begley Jr. grew up, he was already a fan of his mentor's work; he would work with Daniels on St. Elsewhere, where the two had on- and off-screen chemistry for six seasons. Daniels, himself, on the show, was a moody Irishman like Ed Sr., though a far more nurturing father figure. This proved so rich that the role grew beyond even the writers' expectations. Begley Jr. said about his future TV chief of surgery, "I was a huge fan of Bill Daniels. I had seen him in Two for the Road. I had seen him in The Graduate, and in Parallax View. He was an actor I just thought the world of. He played these 'Type A' personalities quite effectively, but (in real life) he is the sweetest guy in the world." He also added: "He is an actor I just thought the world of. I had no delusions about how my character came to be. I rode on the coattails of Bill Daniels... the kind of Mutt and Jeff routine of Dr. Craig looking up and berating a 6 foot 4 doctor Victor Ehrlich. So I owe all my success on the show to Bill Daniels." After the series was canceled, the two still remained friends, living not too far away from each other. In 2002, Daniels and Begley Jr., alongside other surviving St. Elsewhere cast members Stephen Furst and Eric Laneuville, all appeared on an episode of Scrubs.

Norman Lloyd

Before St. Elsewhere in the early 1980s, the struggling and unknown Begley met Norman Lloyd, who became a mentor to him while Lloyd was directing an episode of Tales of the Unexpected. The two became friends. In a 2014 interview with Jimmy Falcon of Cloverleaf Radio, he said this about Lloyd: Not only did I enjoy working with him, but I see him fairly regularly. I just had dinner with him 4 nights ago. We had dinner together at Sarah Nichols's house, his neighbor of mine and friend of his. We had a lovely time and reminisced – he's unbelievable. He's going to be 100 years old this year—and still very active, getting around on his own. He's a force of nature, so Norman Lloyd was somebody I idolized. When I was quite young, wow, James Dean is great and this is one and that. Now look at Janis Joplin, what a great voice and Jim Morrison, those people left us so young, like my point of view has change somewhere, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, saying, 'No, you idolized Jimmy Stewart, Gloria Swanson.' The people that have families and happiness and a long, economy life. You know, Norman Lloyd, he wasn't much older than me, when I did St. Elsewhere, and I went 'These are my role models, now, people had a long/happy life and continued to be creative.' Those are my role models, not the people that left us so early and I'm sorry they did, I don't mean to trifle with that, but, my role models changed from the people who had an incredible, brief spurt of creativity and life, but to people that went the distance, they became my role models at some point in my early 30s really.

On November 9, 2014, along with former St. Elsewhere co-stars, Begley attended Lloyd's 100th birthday in Los Angeles. Begley said, "I worked with Norman Lloyd the actor, and Norman Lloyd the director, and no one informed me better on the art of storytelling than that talented man. He is a constant inspiration and my eternal friend."

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

References

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