A Star of TV and Environmentalism

His name is as synonymous with environmentalism as it is with Hollywood.

Ed Begley Jr. has for years lived the life of fervent actor-environmentalist, preaching the benefits of recycling and energy conservation at rallies and City Council and Metropolitan Transportation Authority meetings.

The 46-year-old actor practices his rhetoric, biking to meetings in Beverly Hills, driving to functions in his electric car and retrofitting his Studio City home so that it is almost entirely solar powered.

Begley has been a Valley boy since 1962, when his family moved from New York after his actor-father, Ed Begley Sr., won an Academy Award for “Sweet Bird of Youth.” He started his own acting career at 17 while attending Valley College, with bit parts as the “whiz-kid best friend.”

But it was the 1980s NBC medical drama “St. Elsewhere” that propelled Begley’s career. He played the gauche Dr. Victor Ehrlich during the show’s six-year run, a role that netted him six Emmy nominations.

Begley’s passion for environmentalism started on Earth Day 1970, long before he achieved television fame. He started composting, recycling, buying biodegradable material and got his first electric car--a golf cart-type vehicle with a tiller instead of a steering wheel.

His public activism began in 1986 and has since mushroomed with Begley acting in fewer roles and promoting environmentalism more by serving on the boards of four major environmental organizations.

He is known for going to extremes with his environmental beliefs. In 1994, he claimed that he could fit a week’s worth of household trash into the glove compartment of his 1991 Volkswagen Rabbit--which had been converted into an electric car. Challenged by a Times reporter, he rose to the occasion, straining and eventually cramming the garbage into the tiny compartment.