Norman Milton Lear is an American television writer and producer. He dropped out of Emerson College in Boston to join the United States Army Air Forces and participated in World War II. Lear is best known for his comedies in ‘The Jeffersons’ and his various works such as All in the Family (TV series)and Cold Turkey (1971). He was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1999 by the national endowment of the arts in Washington D.C.