He’s had his ups and downs

When you need an old grouch, Edward Asner is your man.

But Asner – who expands his resume of grumps as the voice of a curmudgeonly widower in Pixar Animation’s new movie, “Up” – wants people to know he can play romance and action, too.

“I can do lovers,” Asner insists. “I can do Sir Galahad types. I’m not going to limit myself in voice-overs to irascible old men.

“You better get that straight!” he adds, slipping into the crabby tone he perfected as gruff newsman Lou Grant – the role that won him five of his seven Emmys, first on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and later in the spinoff “Lou Grant.”

Asner, who turns 80 in November, wishes more offers would come his way.

“I’m not sought after,” he says. “There just isn’t anything to turn down, let me put it that way.”

Asner was sought after for the role of Carl Fredricksen in “Up.” Director Pete Docter said he was Pixar’s first choice for Carl, a lonely, cranky widower who renews his spirit of adventure by tying thousands of helium balloons to his house and flying off to the wilds of South America.

Docter said the Pixar animators often zero in on voices by putting on old movies and TV shows with the picture off, listening only to the audio to see who might fit the characters they’re developing.

Asner has done a great deal of TV voice-over work for such shows as “The Simpsons,” “Spider-Man” and “The Boondocks.”

But he still wishes the phone would ring more often.

“I suppose this occurs in every profession,” he says. “People are trying to farm you out once you reach a certain age. I think it’s an American trait, and I think it’s an ugly trait.”

The birthday bunch

Actor Andy Griffith is 83. Singer Pat Boone is 75. Actor Morgan Freeman is 72. Guitarist Ron Wood (the Rolling Stones) is 62. Country singer Ronnie Dunn (Brooks and Dunn) is 56. Actress Lisa Hartman Black is 53. Model Heidi Klum is 36. Singer Alanis Morissette is 35. Singer Brandi Carlile is 28.