Living green with Ed Begley Jr.

Kara Rota interviews Ed Begley Jr. on his eclectic career, environmental activism, and hit television show.

Ed has high expectations for the evolution of his own ecologically sound lifestyle as well as optimism for the future of American environmentalism. “My long-term goal is to be more efficient in home energy use and in travel, whatever the mode of transportation, and to do something about air pollution, water pollution . . . we’ve got a lot of different things to work on. In the short term, I want to help people to save money in this tough economy.”

Ed Begley Jr.’s grandparents, Michael Begley from Killarney and Hannah Clifford Begley from Killorglin, both in County Kerry, came over from Ireland on a boat in 1898 and settled to raise a family in Hartford, CT. Ed’s childhood included the Irish experience of Catholic schools in New York, on which he commented, “Though the nuns at Cure of Ars  Catholic School in Merrick were super strict, my experience there and at Stella Niagara in Lewiston showed me that hard work and discipline can really pay off.”    
Ed stays in close communication with his relatives in Ireland. “A relative on my grandmother’s side, a Clifford, lives in Killarney still and I write to him and his daughter and stay in touch with them. Mick Begley, a cousin of mine, lives in Dublin and I also keep in touch with him. He’s come to visit me here and brought his family over, so I see him a lot.”

Ed was drawn to acting by the work of his Academy Award-winning father, and his work also brings families together, as I found in preparation for my interview with him. I was familiar with Ed’s work from his appearances on more recent television shows like Arrested Development and Six Feet Under, but my grandfather remembered seeing him on Johnny Carson decades earlier. “For many years, I just tried to pick the best material and that would vary from film on occasion to television shows like St. Elsewhere . . . when I got that job in the early 1980s, it was better than most films I’d worked on,” says Ed. “Even though it was on the smaller screen, it was better material. I did stage as well, and sometimes that provides the best material. And this reality show –  there’s no script, but it’s an opportunity to engage people in a humorous fashion and to have takeaways every show where people can try this stuff and save money.”

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