VIDEO: Watch Lin-Manuel Miranda Wish Norman Lear Happy Birthday Through Song

The 100-year-old television legend posted the video to his Twitter account.

By: Sep. 24, 2022
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To celebrate Norman Lear on his 100th birthday, Lin-Manuel Miranda rewrote the lyrics to the 1922 Al Jolson song "April Showers," in honor of Lear's contributions to the film and television industry.

Lear posted the video Lin-Manuel Miranda sent him to his Twitter account, saying "Dearest @Lin_Manuel, The song you sent was the gift of gifts and the treasure of treasures. I don't have the words to tell you how lifted and touched I was by your generosity of spirit. Bless our friendship and bless you."

Check out the video!

About Norman Lear

Norman Lear is a television and film writer/producer whose dynamic career in Hollywood has encompassed both the Golden Age and Streaming Era. He served as executive producer to the critically acclaimed reimagining of "One Day at a Time," which ran for four seasons and was the first Netflix series to be renewed for network television (PopTV and CBS).

Lear executive produces and co-hosts "Live in Front of a Studio Audience...," alongside Jimmy Kimmel. The series set record ratings for ABC and won the Emmy® for Outstanding Variety Special for two consecutive years.

Lear's social and political activism extends beyond the messaging of his programs, and he continues to be a strong advocate for civic duty and progressive American values.

Born in 1922 in New Haven, Connecticut, Lear attended Emerson College before flying 52 combat missions over Europe during World War II. Upon his return, he began a successful career writing and producing programs like "The Colgate Comedy Hour" and "The Martha Raye Show" - ultimately leading to Lear captivating 120 million viewers per week with his iconic shows of the 1970s and '80s - "All in the Family," "Good Times," "The Jeffersons," "Maude" and "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman."

As Lear began witnessing the rise of the radical religious right, he put his television career on hold in 1980 to found People For The American Way. Today, the organization is over 1 million members and activists strong and continues to fight right-wing extremism while defending constitutional values like free expression, religious liberty, equal justice under the law, and the right to meaningfully participate in our democracy.

In 2000, The Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism was founded as a nonpartisan research and public policy center to study the social, political, economic and cultural impact of entertainment on the world.

Lear is a 2017 Kennedy Center Honoree, a recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 1999 and the Peabody Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, and a proud member of the inaugural group of inductees to the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1984. He has won six Primetime Emmys and a Golden Globe®. He is the husband of Lyn Davis Lear and the father to six children and four grandchildren.

About Lin-Manuel Miranda

A Pulitzer Prize, Grammy, Emmy, Tony Award-winning composer, lyricist, and actor, Lin-Manuel is the creator and original star of Broadway's Hamilton and In the Heights, and the recipient of the 2015 MacArthur Foundation Award and 2018 Kennedy Center Honors. He has been an active supporter of relief efforts in Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria. He lives with his family in NYC.

Theatre credits: In The Heights (2008); West Side Story - Broadway Revival (2009); Working (2012); Bring it On The Musical (2012); Merrily We Roll Along (2012); 21 Chump Street (2014); Tick, Tick... BOOM! (2014); Hamilton (2015); Camelot (2019); Freestyle Love Supreme (2019)

Television credits: The Sopranos (2007); Sesame Street (2009); House (2009); How I Met Your Mother (2009); The Electric Company (2010); Submissions Only (2010); Modern Family (2011); Smash (2013); Do Not Harm (2013); Freestyle Love Supreme (2014); Inside Amy Schumer (2016); Difficult People (2016); Saturday Night Live (2016); Drunk History (2016); Curb Your Enthusiasm (2017); DuckTales (2017); BoJack Horseman (2017); Bartlett Series (2018); Nina's World (2018); Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2019); Fosse/Verdon (2019); His Dark Materials (2019)



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