Norman Lear, the famed television producer of such hit ’70s sitcoms as All in the Family and The Jeffersons, as well as the founder of the left-wing advocacy group People For the American Way, died on Dec. 5 at the age of 101.

A statement from Lear’s family on his website read, “Norman lived a life of curiosity, tenacity, and empathy. He deeply loved our country and spent a lifetime helping to preserve its founding ideals of justice and equality for all. He began his career in the earliest days of live television and discovered a passion for writing about the real lives of Americans, not a glossy ideal.”