Sitcom author and producer Norman Lear has died aged 101, a spokesperson for his household has confirmed.

Lear was finest recognized for his trailblazing sitcoms within the Seventies and 80s, together with Sanford and Son and The Jeffersons.

The celebrated US author was a five-time Emmy Award winner and a member of the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

In a press release, his household mentioned realizing Lear had “been the greatest of gifts”.

They added: “Thank you for the moving outpouring of love and support in honour of our wonderful husband, father, and grandfather.

“Norman lived a lifetime of creativity, tenacity, and empathy. He deeply cherished our nation and spent a lifetime serving to to protect its founding beliefs of justice and equality for all.”

Lear died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles.

Paying tribute, George Clooney said in a statement: “It’s arduous to reconcile that at 101 years outdated, Norman Lear is gone too quickly. The total world of motive simply misplaced its biggest advocate and our household misplaced an expensive good friend. A large walked in his footwear.”

Actress Jane Fonda mentioned Lear “modified the face and soul of American comedy”, adding: “My coronary heart is heavy.”

Avengers actor Mark Ruffalo praised Lear as one of many “nice Humanists who modified the world by being sincere in regards to the love, laughter, and troubles all of us share”.

“Almost single-handedly reworked our thought of what sorts of tales TV was able to telling. To try this throughout the confines of the multi-cam sitcom format is nearly unfathomable.”

Sharing a photo of herself with Lear, actor Jamie Lee Curtis said in a post on Instagram that she was had recently been working with the sitcom writer.

“He was engaged on a undertaking with me and he and Lyn welcomed us into their house in October the place we talked politics and comedy and household,” she mentioned.

“Norman Lear was an awesome instance to me and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of different individuals.”

Lear, born in 1922, grew up in Hartford, Connecticut and began his career in PR after the war where he was part of the army air forces based in Foggia, Italy.

His career as a comedy writer began in 1970 with his first sitcom, All in the Family, a US remake of the British series Til Death Do Us Part.

The show, which followed two working-class families living in Queens, New York, was often seen as controversial for its depiction of the day’s political and and social issues.

The ground-breaking show ran for nine seasons until 1979 and earned 57 Emmy nominations, winning 22 of them, including outstanding comedy series.

He previously said that the character of Archie Bunker was based on his father, a Jewish traveling salesman who was sent to prison for selling fake bonds when Lear was nine.

Archie Bunker’s wife, Edith, was based on Lear’s mother Jeannette.

Across his decades-long career, Lear wrote a number of other comedy shows including 1974’s Good Times, which was the first show to regularly feature an African-American family on TV.

His subsequent sitcom, The Jeffersons, which ran from 1975 to 1985, unapologetically portrayed the success of an African-American couple in New York society.

During the mid-970s, Lear had five popular sitcoms airing in prime time. According to broadcaster CBS, an estimated 120 million Americans were watching his shows each week.

Among them was Sanford and Son, which retooled the BBC’s Steptoe and Son for a US audience, and was one of America’s Top 10 most-watched programmes for five of its six seasons.

Lear also produced a number of films including 1963’s Come Blow Your Horn starring Frank Sinatra and Divorce American Style in 1967 which received an Oscar nomination for best screenplay.

In addressing issues such as misogyny, racism and homophobia, Lear became a controversial figure, and earned a spot on president Richard Nixon’s so-called enemies list.

Lear, who married three times and had six children, also said he was called “the primary enemy of the American household” by televangelist Jerry Falwell.

In a 2016 documentary, Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, comedy writer Phil Rosenthal said: “Television will be damaged into two elements, BN and AN: Before Norman and After Norman”.

Fellow comedy icon Mel Brooks hailed Lear as “the bravest tv author, director and producer of all time.”

Actor Albert Brookes said Lear was “the best of the greats”, while filmmaker Rob Reiner called the sitcom writer a “second father”.

In recent years, Lear had collaborated with TV host Jimmy Kimmel on several Live in Front of a Studio Audience! specials in which star-studded casts performed remakes of his classic shows.

He continued to be politically active and founded the liberal non-profit organisation People for American Way which challenged the religious right way of thinking.

Kimmel informed Deadline: “It is clearly foolish to need extra time with an individual who outlived a complete century however shedding Norman Lear, even at 101 years outdated, feels unfair.

“His bravery, integrity and unmatched moral compass were equalled by his kindness, empathy, and wit.”