Mohandas Gandhi spinning yarn in 1942. Gandhi believed in a life of simplicity and self-sufficiency.

Simple living encompasses a number of different voluntary practices to simplify one's lifestyle. These may include reducing one's possessions or increasing self-sufficiency, for example. Simple living may be characterized by individuals being satisfied with what they need rather than want.^[1][2] Although asceticism generally promotes living simply and refraining from luxury and indulgence, not all proponents of simple living are ascetics.^[3] Simple living is distinct from those living in forced poverty, as it is a voluntary lifestyle choice.

Adherents may choose simple living for a variety of personal reasons, such as spirituality, health, increase in "quality time" for family and friends, work–life balance, personal taste, frugality, or reducing personal ecological footprint and stress. Simple living can also be a reaction to materialism and conspicuous consumption. Some cite socio-political goals aligned with the anti-consumerist movement, including conservation, degrowth, social justice, ethnic diversity and sustainable development.

History[link]

Religious and spiritual[link]

The Amish are known for their simple living and plain dress.

A number of religious and spiritual traditions encourage simple living.^[4] Early examples include the Shramana traditions of Iron Age India, Gautama Buddha and biblical Nazirites (notably John the Baptist). Various notable individuals have claimed that spiritual inspiration led them to a simple living lifestyle, such as Francis of Assisi, Ammon Hennacy, Leo Tolstoy, Rabindranath Tagore, Albert Schweitzer, and Mohandas Gandhi.^[5][6]

Simple living has traditions that stretch back to the Orient, resonating with leaders such as Zarathustra, Buddha, Laozi, and Confucius and was heavily stressed in both Greco-Roman culture and Judeo-Christian ethics.^[6] Diogenes of Sinope was a Greek cynic who advocated extreme voluntary poverty and purportedly lived in a barrel in the agora.

Plain people are Christian groups who have for centuries practiced lifestyles in which some forms of wealth or technology are excluded for religious or philosophical reasons. Groups include the Shakers, Mennonites, Amish, Harmony Society, and some Quakers. There is a Quaker belief called Testimony of Simplicity that a person ought to live her or his life simply.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau strongly praised the simple life in many of his writings, especially in his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences (1750) and Discourse on Inequality (1754).^[7]

Secular[link]

Epicureanism, based on the teachings of the Athens-based philosopher Epicurus, flourished from about the fourth century BC to the third century AD. Epicureanism upheld the untroubled life as the paradigm of happiness, made possible by carefully considered choices. Specifically, Epicurus pointed out that troubles entailed by maintaining an extravagant lifestyle tend to outweigh the pleasure of partaking in it. He therefore concluded that what is necessary for happiness, bodily comfort, and life itself should be maintained at minimal cost, while all things beyond what is necessary for these should either be tempered by moderation or completely avoided.^[8]

Reconstruction of Henry David Thoreau's cabin on the shores of Walden Pond.

Henry David Thoreau, a North American naturalist and author, is often considered to have made the classic secular statement advocating a life of simple and sustainable living in his book Walden (1854). Thoreau conducted a two year experiment living a plain and simple life on the shores of Walden Pond.

In Victorian Britain, Henry Stephens Salt, an admirer of Thoreau, popularised the idea of "Simplification, the saner method of living".^[9] Other British advocates of the simple life included Edward Carpenter, William Morris, and the members of "The Fellowship of the New Life".^[10] C.R. Ashbee and his followers also practiced some of these ideas, thus linking simplicity with the Arts and Crafts Movement.^[11] British novelist John Cowper Powys advocated the simple life in his 1933 book A Philosophy of Solitude.^[12] John Middleton Murry and Max Plowman practised a simple lifestyle at their Aldephi Centre in Essex in the 1930s.^[13] Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh championed a "right simplicity" philosophy based on ruralism in some of his work.^[14]

George Lorenzo Noyes, a naturalist, mineralogist, development critic, writer, and artist, is known as the Thoreau of Maine. He lived a wilderness lifestyle, advocating through his creative work a simple life and reverence for nature. During the 1920s and 1930s, the Vanderbilt Agrarians of the Southern United States advocated a lifestyle and culture centered upon traditional and sustainable agrarian values as opposed to the progressive urban industrialism which dominated the Western world at that time.

Thorstein Veblen warned against the conspicuous consumption of the materialistic society with The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899); Richard Gregg coined the term "voluntary simplicity" in The Value of Voluntary Simplicity (1936). From the 1920s, a number of modern authors articulated both the theory and practice of living simply, among them Gandhian Richard Gregg, economists Ralph Borsodi and Scott Nearing, anthropologist-poet Gary Snyder, and utopian fiction writer Ernest Callenbach. E. F. Schumacher argued against the notion that "bigger is better" in Small Is Beautiful (1973); and Duane Elgin continued the promotion of the simple life in Voluntary simplicity (1981).

Practices[link]

Reducing consumption, income and possessions[link]

Living simply in a small dwelling.

Some people practice simple living by reducing consumption. By lowering expenditure on goods or services, it is possible to reduce income and the time spent earning money. The time saved may be used to help family or volunteering. For example during the Christmas and holiday season, some people often perform alternative giving. Others may spend the extra free time to improve their quality of life, for example pursuing creative activities such as art and crafts (see starving artist). Developing a detachment from money has led some individuals, such as Suelo and Mark Boyle, to live with no money at all.^[15][16]

Another approach is to focus more fundamentally on the underlying motivation of buying and consuming so many resources for a good quality of life.^{[citation needed]} Though our society often seeks to buy happiness, materialism very frequently fails to satisfy, and may even increase the level of stress in life. It has been said that "the making of money and the accumulation of things should not smother the purity of the soul, the life of the mind, the cohesion of the family, or the good of the society."^[17] There are eco-anarchist groups in the United States and Canada today promoting lifestyles of simplicity. Simple living can entail only consuming the resources needed to sustain life.

The grassroots awareness campaign, National Downshifting Week (UK)^[18] (founded 1995) encourages participants to positively embrace living with less. Campaign creator, British writer and broadcaster on downshifting and sustainable living, Tracey Smith says, "The more money you spend, the more time you have to be out there earning it and the less time you have to spend with the ones you love". National Downshifting Week encourages participants to 'Slow Down and Green Up' and contains a list of suggestions for individuals, companies, children and schools to help adopt green or eco-friendly policies and habits, develop corporate social and environmental responsibility in the workplace, and create eco-protocols and lessons that work alongside the national curriculum, respectively.

Reducing possessions or the size of home can also form part of simple living. The 100 Thing Challenge is a grassroots movement to whittle down possessions to a mere 100 items, with the aim of decluttering and simplifying people's lives.^[19] The small house movement includes individuals who chose to live in small mortgage-free low-impact dwellings, such as log cabins or beach huts.^[20]

Increasing self-sufficiency[link]

Robert Hart's forest garden in Shropshire, England.

One way to simplify life is to get back-to-the-land and grow your own food, as increased self-sufficiency reduces dependency on money and the economy. Tom Hodgkinson believes the key to a free and simple life is to stop consuming and start producing.^[21]

Forest gardening, developed by simple living adherent Robert Hart, is a low-maintenance plant-based food production system based on woodland ecosystems, incorporating fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables.^[22] Hart created a model forest garden from a 0.12 acre (500 m²) orchard on his farm at Wenlock Edge in Shropshire.^[23]

The idea of food miles, the number of miles a given item of food or its ingredients has travelled between the farm and the table, is used by simple living advocates to argue for locally grown food. This is now gaining mainstream acceptance, as shown by the popularity of books such as The 100-Mile Diet, and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. In each of these cases, the authors devoted a year to reducing their carbon footprint by eating locally.^[24]

City dwellers can also produce fresh home grown fruit and vegetables in pot gardens or miniature indoor greenhouses. Tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, peas, strawberries, and several types of herbs can all thrive in pots. Jim Merkel says that a person "could sprout seeds. They are tasty, incredibly nutritious, and easy to grow... We grow them in wide mouthed mason jars with a square of nylon window screen screwed under a metal ring".^[25] One argument against gardening at home is how often people begin a garden and later stop it. Farmer Matt Moore spoke on this issue: "How does it affect the consumer to know that broccoli takes 105 days to grow a head?," [...] "The supermarket mode is one of plenty — it's always stocked. And that changes our sense of time. How long it takes to grow food — that's removed in the marketplace. They don't want you to think about how long it takes to grow, because they want you to buy right now".^[26] One way to change this viewpoint is also suggested by Mr. Moore. He placed a video installation in the produce section of a grocery store that documented the length of time it took to grow certain vegetables.^[26] This raises awareness in people of the length of time actually needed for gardens and could easily be combined with online lectures to help new gardeners.

The do it yourself ethic refers to the principle of undertaking necessary tasks oneself rather than having others, who are more skilled or experienced, complete them for you.

Reconsidering technology[link]

People who practice simple living have diverse views on the role of technology. For example, people who eschew all technology are often referred to as Luddites or neo-Luddites.^[27] Others, like Scott Nearing, are skeptical about how humanity will use new technology, citing destructive inventions such as nuclear weapons.^[28] Although simple living is often a secular pursuit, it may still involve reconsidering personal definitions of appropriate technology, as Anabaptist groups such as the Amish or Mennonites have done.

Other proponents see cutting-edge technologies as a way to make a simple lifestyle within mainstream culture easier and more sustainable. They argue that the internet can reduce an individual's carbon footprint through telecommuting and paper usage. Some have also calculated their energy consumption and have shown that one can live simply and in an emotionally satisfying way by using much less energy than is used in western countries.^[29] Technologies they may embrace include computers, photovoltaic arrays, wind and water turbines. However others, like Evgeny Morozov, warn that tools like the internet can facilitate mass surveillance and political repression.^[30]

Advertising is criticised for encouraging a consumerist mentality. Many advocates of simple living tend to agree that cutting out, or cutting down on, television viewing is a key ingredient in simple living. Some see the Internet, podcasting, community radio or pirate radio as viable alternatives.^{[citation needed]}

Simplifying diet[link]

Another practice is the adoption of a simplified diet. Diets that may simplify domestic food production and consumption include vegan diets and the Gandhi diet. In the United Kingdom, the Movement for Compassionate Living was formed by Kathleen and Jack Jannaway in 1984, to spread the vegan message and promote simple living and self-reliance as a remedy against the exploitation of humans, animals, and the Earth.

Activism[link]

The White House Peace Vigil, started by simple living adherent Thomas in 1981.

Simple living may be undertaken by activists. For example, Green parties often advocate simple living as a consequence of their "four pillars" or the "Ten Key Values" of the Green Party of the United States. This includes, in policy terms, their rejection of genetic modification and nuclear power and other technologies they consider to be hazardous. The Greens' support for simplicity is based on the reduction in natural resource usage and environmental impact. This concept is expressed in Ernest Callenbach's "green triangle" of ecology, frugality and health.

Many with similar views avoid involvement even with green politics as compromising simplicity, however, and advocate forms of green anarchism that attempt to implement these principles at a smaller scale, e.g. the ecovillage. Deep ecology, a belief that that the world does not exist as a resource to be freely exploited by humans, proposes wilderness preservation, human population control and simple living.^[31]

The alleged relationship between economic growth and war, when fought for control and exploitation of natural and human resources, is considered a good reason for promoting a simple living lifestyle. Avoiding the perpetuation of the resource curse is a similar objective of many simple living adherents. Opposition to war has led peace activists, such as Ammon Hennacy and Ellen Thomas, to a form of tax resistance in which they reduce their income below the tax threshold by taking up a simple living lifestyle.^[32][33] These individuals believe that their government is engaged in immoral, unethical or destructive activities such as war, and paying taxes inevitably funds these activities.^[32]

Economics[link]

A new economics movement has been building since the UN conference on the environment in 1972,^[34] and the publication that year of Only One Earth, The Limits to Growth, and Blueprint For Survival, followed in 1973 by Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered.^[35]

Recently, David Wann has introduced the idea of “simple prosperity” as it applies to a sustainable lifestyle. From his point of view, and as a point of departure for what he calls real sustainability, “it is important to ask ourselves three fundamental questions: what is the point of all our commuting and consuming? What is the economy for? And, finally, why do we seem to be unhappier now than when we began our initial pursuit for rich abundance?”^[36] In this context, simple living is the opposite of our modern quest for affluence and, as a result, it becomes less preoccupied with quantity and more concerned about the preservation of cities, traditions and nature.

A reference point for this new economics can be found in James Robertson's A New Economics of Sustainable Development,^[35] and the work of thinkers and activists, who participate in his Working for a Sane Alternative network and program. According to Robertson, the shift to sustainability is likely to require a widespread shift of emphasis from raising incomes to reducing costs.

The principles of the new economics, as set out by Robertson, are the following:

• systematic empowerment of people (as opposed to making and keeping them dependent), as the basis for people-centred development
• systematic conservation of resources and the environment, as the basis for environmentally sustainable development
• evolution from a “wealth of nations” model of economic life to a one-world model, and from today's inter-national economy to an ecologically sustainable, decentralising, multi-level one-world economic system
• restoration of political and ethical factors to a central place in economic life and thought
• respect for qualitative values, not just quantitative values

See also[link]

	Ecology portal
	Environment portal
	Sustainable development portal

Notes and references[link]

Further reading[link]

• Helen and Scott Nearing (1970) The Good Life: Helen and Scott Nearing's Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient Living, Schocken
• Vernard Eller (1973) The Simple Life, ISBN 0-8028-1537-5
• Dolly Freed (1978) Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and with (Almost) No Money 2010 edition ISBN 0-9820539-3-2
• Charles Long (1986) How to Survive Without a Salary: Living the Conserver Lifestyle. 1996 edition ISBN 1-894622-37-5
• Wendell Berry (1990) What Are People For?, North Point Press, ISBN 0-86547-437-0
• Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez (1992) Your Money or Your Life, Viking. Your Money or Your Life: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century, published by Penguin Books in December 2008 by Vicki Robin with Monique Tilford and contributor Mark Zaifman.
• Edward Romney (1992) Living Well on Practically Nothing 2001 edition ISBN 1-58160-282-0
• Janet Luhrs (1997) The Simple Living Guide: A Sourcebook for Less Stressful, More Joyful Living, ISBN 0-553-06796-6
• Amy Dacyzyn (1998) The Complete Tightwad Gazette: Promoting Thrift as a Viable Alternative Lifestyle., ISBN 0-375-75225-0
• John de Graaf, David Wann and Thomas H. Naylor (2002) Affluenza, ISBN 1-57675-199-6

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Simple living

• Affluenza: PBS Program on the Epidemic of Overconsumption
• The Testament Of Quaker Simplicity
• Degrowth in the Americas

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This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since May 2012. It relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Tagged since May 2012. Its references may not meet Wikipedia's guidelines for reliable sources. Tagged since May 2012.

Wanda Urbanska (born January 17, 1956) is an author and television host, and a media, public relations and political strategist. She currently directs the Jan Karski US Centennial Campaign, which among other goals, sought the Presidential Medal of Freedom for the late Jan Karski, www.jankarski.net. The Medal was conferred on the hero of the Polish Underground, Jan Karski, who died in 2000, by President Barack Obama at a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on May 29, 2012.

The author or coauthor of nine books, including The Heart of Simple Living: 7 Paths to a Better Life (Krause: 2010), Urbanska was host-producer of America’s first nationally syndicated public TV series advocating sustainable living, Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska, now on hulu.com. (The series ran on public television for four seasons from 2004 through 2008.) She is published widely in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Natural Home, Mother Earth News, and many others, and is a monthly blogger for the American Library Association’s “@ your library website.” A graduate of Harvard University and a frequent visitor to Poland, her father's native land, Urbanska was awarded the prestigious Amicus Poloniae award in 2006 for promoting good will between America and Poland.

Biography[link]

Wanda Marie Urbanski was born in South Bend, Indiana, when her father, the Polish-born Edmund Stephen Urbanski, was a visiting professor at Notre Dame. The family, which included her mother, Marie Olesen Urbanski, moved frequently during her childhood. She began writing professionally while still in high school for the Bangor Daily News in Maine and interned on-camera on Maine Public Television’s live program, Maine News and Comment, during her senior year. While at Harvard, Urbanska interned at Newsweek magazine and was named one of Glamour magazine’s Top Ten College Women in 1977. She traveled to Poland the summer of her junior year in college and, upon graduation in 1978, adopted the Polish feminine of her name professionally. In 2009 – 2010, Urbanska took a seven-month sabbatical to Poland, with her then 12-year-old son, staying with a widowed friend in a townhouse in suburban Warsaw.

Professional life[link]

Urbanska began her career in New York, working for The Paris Review as an associate editor. She later moved to Los Angeles where she joined the staff of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner as an assistant editor of its in-house Sunday magazine and later as a business reporter, covering retail, airlines and health care. She moved to Southwest Virginia in 1986 with her husband, Frank Levering, to take over his family’s orchard business and wrote books in collaboration with him about the benefits of simple and rural living. Their Simple Living: One Couple’s Search for a Better Life was published by Viking in 1992. It was followed by Moving to a Small Town: A Guidebook for Moving from Urban to Rural America (1996). Urbanska co-authored Christmas on Jane Street: Based on a True Story with Billy Romp (1998). She co-authored Nothing’s too Small to Make a Difference with Levering, which was published in 2004.

She hosted Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska for four seasons, which appeared on PBS stations nationally. The series advocates sustainable living based on the four multiple and overlapping principles of environmental stewardship; thoughtful consumption; community involvement; and financial responsibility. The New York Times hailed Urbanska “the spokeswoman for a phenomenon known as the simplicity movement” and O, the Oprah magazine called her “the de facto Martha Stewart of the voluntary simplicity movement.”

Personal life[link]

Urbanska married Frank Levering in 1983 in Castine, Maine. They adopted a child, Henry, in 1997. Their marriage ended in divorce.

References[link]

• Publisher website [1]
• Hulu website for Simple Living TV series [2]
• Publisher website [3]
• Blog [4]

Bibliography[link]

Publications by Urbanska

• Builders of Hope: A Social Entrepreneur’s Solution for Rebuilding America (2011) ISBN 13: 978-0-89587-568-6
• The Heart of Simple Living: 7 Paths to a Better Life (2010) ISBN-13 978-1-4402-0451-7
• Less is More: Embracing simplicity for a healthy planet, a caring economy and lasting happiness (2009) ISBN 978-0-86571-650-6

External links[link]

• Jan Karski Campaign website [5]

For his father, see Ed Begley.

Ed Begley, Jr.
Begley, Jr. at the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009
Born	Edward James Begley, Jr. (1949-09-16) September 16, 1949 (age 62) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Nationality	American
Education	Notre Dame High School
Alma mater	Los Angeles Valley College
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1967–present
Home town	Sherman Oaks, California
Spouse	Ingrid Taylor (1976–89) Rachelle Carson (2000–present)
Children	3
Parents	Ed Begley, Sr., Allene Jeanne Sanders
Website
http://www.edbegley.com

Edward James "Ed" Begley, Jr. (born September 16, 1949) is an American actor and environmentalist. Begley has appeared in hundreds of films, television shows, and stage performances. He is best known for his role as Dr. Victor Ehrlich, on the television series St. Elsewhere, for which he received six consecutive Emmy Award nominations, and his most recent reality show about green living called Living With Ed on Planet Green with his wife, actress Rachelle Carson-Begley.

Early life[link]

Begley was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Allene Jeanne Sanders and Academy Award winner Ed Begley, (although at the time, Ed Begley was married to Amanda Huff).^[1][2] He grew up in Buffalo, New York, and attended Stella Niagara Education Park Cadet School in Lewiston, New York. In 1962 the family moved back to California, where he graduated from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, and Los Angeles Valley College in North Hollywood, California.^[3]

Acting career[link]

Begley Jr. and Penny Marshall on the red carpet at the 40th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, August 28, 1988

Begley's numerous works in television and film include one of his earliest appearances as a guest actor on Maude. He had recurring roles on Mary Hartman, 7th Heaven, Arrested Development, and Six Feet Under and starring roles in Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, St. Elsewhere, and Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central). He has played significant roles in the mockumentary films Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration. 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 US senator from North Dakota in the television drama The West Wing. In 1995, he played The Riddler's boss in Batman Forever but is uncredited. Since 2000, he has been a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

He has guest-starred on shows such as Scrubs, Boston Legal, and Star Trek: Voyager (Future's End, parts I and II). He had a recurring guest role in season three of Veronica Mars. Most recently, he appeared in the 2008 HBO film Recount, which profiled the 2000 Presidential Election and its aftermath, which was decided by the state of Florida's electoral votes. 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's latest acting role is in the CBS sitcom Gary Unmarried. Begley plays Dr. Walter Krandall, the protagonist's former marriage counselor and fiancé of his ex-wife.

Since 2008 he has appeared in a series of DirecTV commercials as a "Cable Corp Inc." executive.^[4]

Personal life[link]

According to a feature on the Bio Channel television program Celebrity Close Calls, Begley nearly died in 1972, after being stabbed multiple times while being mugged by a street gang. His attackers were teenagers, who were later apprehended by police.^[5]

He married his first wife, Ingrid Taylor, on October 31, 1976. Their first child, daughter Amanda Begley, was born on October 3, 1977. Their second and last child, son Nicholas Taylor Begley, was born on January 4, 1979. Ed and Ingrid divorced in October 1989. He married Rachelle Carson on August 23, 2000, in Las Vegas, Nevada. They have a daughter named Hayden.

Activism[link]

Environmental[link]

Since 1970 he has been an environmentalist, beginning with his first electric vehicle (a Taylor-Dunn^[6] golf cart style vehicle), recycling, and becoming a vegan.^[7] He promotes eco-friendly products like the Toyota Prius, Envirolet composting toilets and Begley's Best Household Cleaner.

Begley's home is 1,585 square feet (147.3 m²) in size using solar power and also uses wind power via a PacWind vertical-axis wind turbine, an air conditioning unit made by Greenway Design Group, LLC., and an electricity-generating bicycle used to toast bread, and he pays around $300 a year in electric bills.^[8] Arguing that the suburban lawn is environmentally unsustainable, especially in Southern California owing to water shortage, he has converted his own to a drought-tolerant garden composed of native California plants.^[9] Though he is noted for riding bicycles and using public transportation, he owns a 2003 Toyota RAV4 EV electric-powered vehicle.

His hybrid electric bicycle was often featured on his television show Living With Ed. Begley also spoofed his own environmentalist beliefs on "Homer to the Max", an episode of The Simpsons by showing himself using a nonpolluting go-cart that is powered by his "own sense of self-satisfaction" and on an episode of Dharma and Greg. Later, he appeared in "Gone Maggie Gone", another episode of The Simpsons, in Season 20. In the episode, during a solar eclipse, he drives a solar-powered car that stops running 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 competition to see who can have the lowest carbon footprint.^[10]

Begley also appeared in the Earth Day edition of The Price is Right. He announced the final showcase, which included an electric bicycle, a solar-powered golf cart Solar Golf Cart and a Toyota Prius.

Begley was featured during The Jay Leno Show's Green Car Challenge. 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, and if the celebrity had hit either of them, one second was added to his or her time.

Begley is the author of 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.^[11][12]

Environmental affiliations

• Environmental Media Association^[13]
• Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
• The American Oceans Campaign^[14]
• League of Conservation Voters
• Environmental Research Foundation
• Walden Woods Project
• Thoreau Institute
• Earth Communications Office
• Solar Living Institute [1]
• Tree People
• Friends of the Earth
• Green Wish Inc^[15]
• Orang Utan Republik

As of 2007, Begley and his wife Rachelle Carson star in their own reality television series, Living With Ed on HGTV and Discovery's Planet Green channel.^[16] 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[link]

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 were 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.^[17][18]

Filmography[link]

• The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), uncredited panelist
• The Lottery (1969), Jack Watson
• Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972), Druffle
• Cockfighter (1972), Tom Peeples
• Charley and the Angel (1973), Derwood Moseby
• Showdown (1973), Pook
• Superdad (1974), The Gang
• Stay Hungry (1976), Lester
• Dead of Night (1977), Frank
• Handle with Care (1977), The Priest
• Blue Collar (1978), Bobby Joe
• Battlestar Galactica (1978), Flight sergeant Greenbean
• Record City (1978), Pokey
• Goin' South (1978), Whitey Haber
• Columbo (1978), Officer Stein
• The One and Only (1978), The King
• Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill (1979), Moss Tillis
• Elvis (1979), D. J. Fontana
• M*A*S*H (1979), Cook
• Hardcore (1979), Actor in pornographic movie
• Hot Rod (1979), Clay
• The Concorde ... Airport '79 (1979), Rescuer #1
• The In-Laws (1979), Barry Lutz
• A Shining Season (1979), John Haaland
• Private Lessons (1981), Jack Travis
• Buddy Buddy (1981), Lieutenant #1
• Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn (1982), Jeb
• An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Voice of Altitude Chamber Instructor
• Cat People (1982), Joe Creigh
• Eating Raoul (1982), Hippie
• Young Doctors in Love (1982), Lyle August
• Not Just Another Affair (1982), Warren Krantz
• St. Elsewhere (1982–1988), Dr. Victor Ehrlich
• Still the Beaver (1983), Whitey
• Get Crazy (1983), Colin Beverly
• Streets of Fire (1984), Ben Gunn
• Protocol (1984), Mr. Hassler
• This Is Spinal Tap (1984), John "Stumpy" Pepys
• The Pound Puppies (1985), Arnold Fist
• Transylvania 6-5000 (1985), Gil Turner
• Amazon Women on the Moon (1987), Griffin
• Roman Holiday (1987), Leonard Lupo
• Tall Tales & Legends: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1987), Ichabod Crane
• Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs (1988), Alan
• The Absent-Minded Professor (1988), Dr. Jack Brooker
• The Accidental Tourist (1988), Charles Leary
• Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989), Peter
• She-Devil (1989), Bob Pattchet
• Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1990), Stephen Bradley
• In the Best Interest of the Child (1990), Lawyer Howard Feldon
• Meet the Applegates (1990), Richard Applegate
• The Great Los Angeles Earthquake (1990), Jerry Soloway
• Chance of a Lifetime (1991), Darrel
• The Story Lady (1991), Otis
• In the Line of Duty: Siege at Marion (1992), Lt. Fred House
• Dark Horse (1992), Jack Mills
• Running Mates (1992), Chapman Snow
• Exclusive (1992), Allen
• Mastergate (1992), Steward Butler
• Batman: The Animated Series (1992), (Episode: Joker's Favor) Charlie Collins
• Cooperstown (1993), Dave Cormeer
• Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993), Rupert
• World War II: When Lions Roared (1994), Harry Hopkins
• Columbo: Undercover (1994), Irving Krutch
• Renaissance Man (1994), Jack Markin
• The Pagemaster (1994), Alan Tyler
• Greedy (1994), Carl McTeague
• Incident at Deception Ridge (1994), Jack Davis
• Sensation (1994), Earl Strauber
• The Shaggy Dog (1994), Ron Daniels
• The Crazysitter (1995), Paul Van Arsdale
• Storybook (1995), Pouch (voice)
• Shining Time Station:Once Upon a Time (1995), Ned Kincaid
• Batman Forever (1995), Fred Stickley (uncredited)
• Hourglass (1996), Det. Cecil Dish
• Project ALF (1996), Dr. Warner
• The Late Shift (1996), Rod Perth
• Santa with Muscles (1996), Ebner Frost
• Star Trek: Voyager (1997), Henry Starling
• Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1997), Mr. James T. Rothwell
• The Drew Carey Show (1997), Dr. Chris Vanderkamp
• Not in This Town (1997), Henry Whitcomb
• The Student Affair (1997), Harvey Dankworth
• Ms. Bear (1997), Greg Bradley
• Alone (1997), Gerald
• Joey (1997), Ambassador Ted Ross
• I'm Losing You (1998), Zev
• Addams Family Reunion (1998), Dr. Phillip Adams (of the single "D" Adams')
• Murder She Purred: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery (1998), Fitz-Gilbert Hamilton
• The Simpsons – Homer to the Max (1998), Himself
• 7th Heaven (1999–2003), Dr. Hank Hastings
• Homicide: The Movie (2000), Dr. Victor Ehrlich
• Best in Show (2000), Mark Schafer
• Get Over It (2001), Frank Landers
• Hounded (2001), Ward Van Dusen
• Anthrax (2001), Brent Krawford
• Diary of a Sex Addict (2001), Dr. Aaron Spencer
• Six Feet Under (2001, 2005), Hiram Gunderson
• Back by Midnight (2002), Robert Wade
• Bug (2002), The Dept. of Health Inspector/'The Hand'
• Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central) (2002), Paul Weffler
• Auto Focus (2002), Mel Rosen
• The Weakest Link (2002), Himself (NBC All-Stars Edition, Winner)
• War Stories (2003), Ed O'Brian
• Net Games (2003), John Fielding
• A Mighty Wind (2003), Lars Olfen
• Going Down (2003), Oscar Earnest
• Stateside (2004), Father Concoff
• Raising Genius (2004), Dr. Curly Weeks
• Hair High (2004), Rev. Sidney Cheddar (voice)
• Life on Liberty Street (2004), Richard Spencer
• Kingdom Hospital (2004), Dr. Jesse James
• Alone in a Crowd (2005), Unknown
• Desolation Sound (2005), Doug Shepard
• Spirit Bear: The Simon Jackson Story (2005), Frank Perdue
• Arrested Development (2005–2006), Stan Sitwell
• Eco 4 the World (2006), Himself
• Relative Strangers (2006), Mr. Manoire
• For Your Consideration (2006), Sandy Lane
• The Elder Son (2006), Leonard
• Pittsburgh (2006), Himself
• Veronica Mars (2006–2007), Dean Cyrus O'Dell
• One Long Night (2007), Joel
• CSI: Miami (2007, 2011), Supervisor O' Shay
• Next of Kin (2008), Patrick
• Balancing the Books (2008), Rev. Vernon
• Fly Me to the Moon (2008), Poopchev (voice)
• Recount (2008), David Boies
• Pineapple Express (2008), Robert Anderson
• Gary Unmarried (2008–2009), Dr. Walter Krandall
• He's Such a Girl (2009), Taylor's Father
• Tripping Forward (2009), James
• Hannah Montana – Would I Lie To You, Lilly? (2009), Woody
• The Suite Life On Deck – The Swede Life (2009), Mayor Ragnar
• Whatever Works (2009), John Celestine
• Monk – Mr. Monk and the End: Part 1 (2009), Dr. Malcolm Nash
• Big Time Rush (2010), Himself
• $#*! My Dad Says (2011), Terry
• Happy Endings (2012), Himself

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ed Begley, Jr.

• Ed Begley, Jr. at the Internet Movie Database
• Ed Begley, Jr. at AllRovi
• Ed Begley, Jr. at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Ed Begley, Jr. official site
• Begley's Best Household Cleaner
• Living With Ed at MySpace
• The TreeHugger Interview: Ed Begley, Jr.
• Currie Technologies
• Interview from Log Home Design magazine: Ed Begley, Jr.
• Recount Movie
• Good Morning America covers Guide to Sustainable Living by Ed Begley, Jr.

Ed Begley, Sr.
Begley (right) with Monte Markham in 1969.
Born	Edward James Begley (1901-03-25)March 25, 1901 Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Died	April 28, 1970(1970-04-28) (aged 69) Hollywood, California USA
Occupation	Film, television, radio actor
Years active	1947–1970
Spouse	Amanda Huff (1922-1957) Dorothy Reeves (1961-1963) Helen Jordan (1963-1970)

Edward James "Ed" Begley, Sr. (March 25, 1901 – April 28, 1970) was an Academy Award-winning American actor.^[1]