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Ed Begley Jr.

American actor

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ464425 ↗
Source-derived summary

Edward James Begley Jr. (born September 16, 1949) is an American actor and environmentalist who has appeared in hundreds of films, series, and plays.

The son of Academy Award-winning actor Ed Begley, he came to prominence for his role as Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the television series St. Elsewhere (1982–1988), which earned him six consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award nomination. He also co-hosted, along with his wife Rachelle Carson, the green living reality show Living with Ed (2007–2010), and had recurring roles as Clifford Main in Better Call Saul (2016–2022) and Dr. Grant Linkletter in Young Sheldon (2019–2024).

Begley's film appearances include Blue Collar (1978), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Transylvania 6-5000 (1985), The Accidental Tourist (1988), Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989), She-Devil (1989), Batman Forever (1995), and Pineapple Express (2008). He is a recurring cast member in the mockumentaries of Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy, including Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), For Your Consideration (2006), and Mascots (2016). He and his wife Rachelle appear in the mockumentary Reboot Camp (2020).

Editorial summary

“Ed Begley Jr.” enters the record as american actor. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Begley, American and actor can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1949, 1982, 1988, 2007—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1949-09-16. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Begley, American and actor.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Ed Begley Jr.” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Begley, American and actor provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q464425. VIAF identifies the subject as 89955358. The Library of Congress control number is n86025105. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1982, 1988 and 2007.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ed Begley Jr.”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ed Begley Jr. primary sources, Ed Begley Jr. archive and Begley research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ed Begley Jr.”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ed Begley Jr.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.