The post-Bunker era found O'Connor doing his most regular work as star and producer of a TV version of In the Heat of the Night (1988-94), which won him another Emmy and gave a supporting role to his adopted son, Hugh, who committed suicide in 1995 after struggling with drug addiction.

(From '79 to '83, he polished shot glasses with less conviction as a bar owner in Archie Bunker's Place.) On Family from 1971 to '79, O'Connor was amazingly nuanced: He could be mean, dumb, sly, vindictive, and embarrassed all in the space of a single scene, and deserved every one of the four Emmys he won. Everyone in Archie's world - his son-in-law (Rob Reiner's Meathead), his dim but noble wife, Edith (Jean Stapleton), his neighbor George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley) - existed to point out Archie's flaws, to offer the other side of any tirade, whether it concerned the women's movement or black nationalism. O'Connor was able to suggest why a white working stiff of that generation may have held the fetid beliefs he did, shrewdly realizing that Lear had constructed the rest of the series as a critique of Archie. The actor boldly revealed the true ugliness of Archie's bigotry, his mixed jealousy and contempt for blacks, Jews and Hispanics, whom he referred to with epithets no one had uttered on a comedy before. Over the years, it's become standard to call Archie a lovable bigot, but that sells O'Connor's performance short. Middle-aged, perennially peeved-looking fellows weren't offered starring roles in sitcoms every day - especially on CBS, then still the Tiffany Network.

O'Connor had spent his early career in bit parts on TV shows like Bonanza and The Rifleman, and he caught the eye of Family producer Norman Lear with his role in the 1966 film What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? Mickey Rooney had reportedly turned down the role of Bunker, an embattled Queens, N.Y., dock foreman, and O'Connor probably figured he had nothing to lose. He didn't become a star - that is to say, he didn't become All in the Family's Archie Bunker, the guileless archconservative and one of the greatest characters in television history - until he was well into his 40s.

Those were the days.Īrroll O'Connor died June 21 of a heart attack in Los Angeles at the age of 76. EXTRA! 8/01 - Carroll O'Connor Tribute / The Great American Drive-InĬarroll O'Connor's Archie Bunker was TV's

Carroll o&#39;connor wife nancy today

Carroll o'connor wife nancy today