Carroll O'Connor (born John Carroll O'Connor) (August 2, 1924 – June 21, 2001) , was an American actor, producer and director whose television career spanned four decades. Known at first for playing the role of Major General Colt in the 1970 movie Kelly's Heroes, he later found fame as the bigoted working man Archie Bunker, the main character in the 1970s CBS television sitcoms All in the Family (1971 to 1979) and Archie Bunker's Place (1979 to 1983). O'Connor later starred in the NBC/CBS television crime drama In the Heat of the Night from 1988 to 1995, where he played the role of southern Police Chief William (Bill) Gillespie. At the end of his career in the late 1990s, he played the father of Jamie Stemple Buchman (Helen Hunt) on Mad About You.
In 1996, O'Connor was ranked #38 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.[2]
O'Connor, an Irish American, was the eldest of three sons born in Manhattan,[1] New York, to Elise Patricia and Edward Joseph O'Connor,[3] who was a New York City lawyer. Both of his brothers were doctors: Hugh, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1961, and Robert, a psychiatrist in New York City.[1] O'Connor spent much of his youth in Elmhurst and Forest Hills, Queens, in the same borough in which his character Archie Bunker would later live.[4] In 1941 O'Connor enrolled at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, but dropped out when the United States entered World War II. During World War II he was rejected by the United States Navy and enrolled in the United States Merchant Marine Academy for a short time. After leaving that institution, he became a merchant seaman.[5]
O'Connor attended the University of Montana-Missoula where he met Nancy Fields, who would later become his wife. He also worked at the Montana Kaimin student newspaper as an editor.[1] At the U of M, O'Connor joined Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity.[6] At that time, however, O'Connor did not take any drama courses as an undergraduate.[1] O'Connor later left U of M to help his younger brother Hugh get into medical school in Ireland, where he completed his studies at the University College Dublin. It was there that he began acting in Theatre.[1]
After he graduated from the University of Montana in 1951 with degrees in drama and English, O'Connor's fiancée, Nancy, sailed to Ireland to meet O'Connor.[7] The couple was married there on July 28, 1951.[3] In 1956, O'Connor returned to Missoula to earn a master's degree in speech.[7]
After acting in theatrical productions in Dublin (Ireland) and New York during the 1950s, O'Connor's breakthrough came when he was cast by director Burgess Meredith (assisted by John Astin) in a featured role in the Broadway adaptation of James Joyce's novel Ulysses. O'Connor and Meredith remained close, lifelong friends.[8]
O'Connor made his television acting debut as a character actor on two episodes of Sunday Showcase. These two parts led to other roles on television series such as Gunsmoke, The Eleventh Hour, I Spy, Bonanza, The Fugitive, The Wild Wild West, Armstrong Circle Theatre, The Americans, Death Valley Days, Alcoa Premiere, The Great Adventure, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Slattery' People, Dr. Kildare, That Girl, Premiere, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea among many others. During his later career, he guest-starred on Mad About You, alongside veteran television personality Carol Burnett.
He was also among the actors considered for the roles of The Skipper on Gilligan's Island and Dr. Smith in the TV show Lost In Space, as well as being the visual template in the creation of Batman foe Rupert Thorne, a character who debuted at the height of All in the Family's success in Detective Comics #469 (published May 1976 by DC Comics).
[edit] All in the Family
Publicity photo of Connor and Jean Stapleton in
All in the Family, 1973.
O'Connor was living in Italy in 1968 when producer Norman Lear first asked him to come to New York to star in a pilot he was creating for ABC called Justice For All, with O'Connor playing Archie Justice, a loveable yet controversial bigot. After three pilots done between 1968 to 1970, a network change to CBS, and the last name of the character changed to Bunker, the new sitcom was renamed All in the Family. The show was based on the BBC's Til Death Us Do Part, with Bunker based on Alf Garnett, but somewhat less abrasive than the original. It has been stated that O'Connor's Queens background and New York accent influenced Lear to set the show in Queens.[9]
Wanting a well-known actor to tackle the controversial material, Lear had approached Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney to play Archie; both declined. O'Connor accepted, not expecting the show to be a success and believing he would be able to move back to Europe. (In her book Archie & Edith, Mike & Gloria : the Tumultuous History of All in the Family, Donna McCrohan noted that O'Connor requested that Lear provide him with a return airline ticket to Rome as a condition of his accepting the role, so that he could return to Italy when the show failed.) Instead, the show became the highest-rated television program on American television for five consecutive seasons until the 1976-1977 season (the sixth season). The Cosby Show has since met the record set by All in the Family.
O'Connor's own politics were liberal. He understood the Bunker character and played him not only with bombast and humor but with touches of vulnerability. The writing on the show was consistently left of center, but O'Connor often deftly skewered the liberal pieties of the day. Although Bunker was famous for his malapropisms of the English language, O'Connor was highly educated and cultured and was an English professor before he turned to acting.
The show also starred a Broadway actress, also from New York City, Jean Stapleton, in the role of Archie Bunker's long-suffering wife, Edith Bunker, after Lear saw her in the play Damn Yankees. The producer sent the show over to ABC twice, but it didn't get picked up. They then approached CBS with more success, and accordingly, All in the Family was retooled and debuted early in 1971. The show also starred unknown character actors, such as Rob Reiner as Archie's liberal son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic and Sally Struthers as Archie and Edith's only child and Meathead's wife, Gloria Bunker-Stivic. The cast had a unique on- and off-camera chemistry, especially Reiner, who became O'Connor's best friend and favorite actor.
CBS was unsure whether the controversial subject matter of All in the Family would fit well into a sitcom. Racial issues, ethnicities, religions, and other timely topics were addressed. Like its British predecessor Til Death Do Us Part, the show lent dramatic social substance to the traditional sitcom format. Archie Bunker's popularity made O'Connor a top-billing star of the 1970s. O'Connor was afraid of being typecast for playing the role, but at the same time, he was protective of not just his character, but of the entire show.[10]
A contract dispute between O'Connor and Lear marred the beginning of the show's fifth season. Eventually, O'Connor got a raise and appeared in the series until it ended. For his work as Archie Bunker, he was nominated for eight Emmy Awards as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series; he won the award four times (1972, 1977, 1978, and 1979).
At the end of the eighth season in 1978, Reiner and Struthers left the series to pursue other projects, but O'Connor and Stapleton still had one year left on their contracts. At the start of the final year, the show cast a child actress, Danielle Brisebois, in the role of Archie's and Edith's niece, Stephanie Mills. The series was finally cancelled in 1979 after nine seasons and 210 episodes.
[edit] Archie Bunker's Place
Archie Bunker's Place ran for 4 years. Longtime friend and original series star Jean Stapleton reprised her role as Edith Bunker, but her screen time was limited. Her character died of a stroke, leaving Archie to cope with the loss. Danielle Brisebois played Stephanie Mills, Archie's niece in the series. The show was a hit, but not as big as its parent show. The show was unceremoniously canceled in 1983, after 97 episodes, and O'Connor was angered about the show's cancellation, maintaining that the show ended with an inappropriate finale. He vowed never to work in any type of show with CBS again, although he starred in In the Heat of the Night, which aired on CBS in that show's last three seasons.
All told, he played Archie Bunker for 13 years in 307 episodes.
[edit] In the Heat of the Night
While coping with his son's drug problem, O'Connor starred as Sparta, Mississippi, Police Chief Bill Gillespie, a tough veteran Mississippi cop on In the Heat of the Night. Based on the 1967 movie of the same name, the series debuted on NBC early in 1988 and performed well. He cast his son Hugh O'Connor as Officer Lonnie Jamison. The headquarters of the Sparta Police Department was actually a renovated storefront in Hammond, Louisiana.
Much like O'Connor himself, Gillespie was racially progressive and politically liberal. But the character of Bill Gillespie was also a smart and tough police officer who was not afraid to use his gun when the occasion called for it.
In 1989, while working on the set, O'Connor was hospitalized and had to undergo open heart surgery, which caused him to miss four episodes at the end of the second season (actor Joe Don Baker took his place in those episodes as an acting police chief.) The series was transferred from NBC to CBS in 1992 and cancelled two years later, after its seventh season. O'Connor reprised his role the following year for four two-hour In the Heat of the Night television films to critical acclaim[citation needed].
While on the series, O'Connor recorded "Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella," for the 1991 "In the Heat of the Night" Christmas CD "Christmas Time's A Comin'." He was joined by Grand Ole Opry star mandolinist Jesse McReynolds, Nashville accordionist Abe Manuel, Jr., and Nashville fiddlers Buddy Spicher and Randall Franks. CD Producer and series co-star Randall Franks created the arrangement which was co-produced by series co-star Alan Autry. He joined other members of the cast for a recording of "Jingle Bells" with vocals by Country Music Hall of Fame members Little Jimmy Dickens, Kitty Wells, Pee Wee King, and The Marksmen Quartet, Bobby Wright, Johnnie Wright and Ken Holloway.
- Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy, 1972, All in the Family[3]
- Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, 1971, 1976, 1977, and 1978, All in the Family[3]
- George Foster Peabody Broadcasting Award, 1980, for Archie Alone episode, Archie Bunker's Place[3]
- Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama, 1989, In the Heat of the Night[3]
- Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama nomination 1990, In the Heat of the Night'[3]'
- Television Hall of Fame, elected 1990 for contributions to the television industry[3]
- NAACP Image Award, 1992, In the Heat of the Night[3] Best Dramatic Series
- NAACP Image Award, 1993, In the Heat of the Night[3] Best Dramatc Series
In 1973, his fraternity conferred its highest honor, Sigma Phi Epsilon Citation, on him.[11]
In July 1991, O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers were reunited to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of All in the Family, which made its debut on CBS. Thanks to reruns which aired in syndication, TV Land and on CBS, the show continued to be popular. Those reruns led producer Norman Lear to create a new sitcom, Sunday Dinner, which was soon cancelled. The following year, Lear created The Powers That Be, which was also unsuccessful.
In March 2000, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was given a St. Patrick's Day tribute by MGM.
His caricature figures prominently in Sardi's restaurant, in New York City's Theater District.
In 1962, while he was in Rome, filming Cleopatra, O'Connor and his wife adopted a six-day-old boy, naming him Hugh after O'Connor's brother who had died a year earlier. 17-year-old Hugh later worked as a courier on the set of Archie Bunker's Place. O'Connor would eventually create the role of Officer Lonnie Jamison on In the Heat of the Night for his son.[12]
In 1989, O'Connor's long time cigar smoking finally caught up with him. He was admitted to the hospital for heart bypass surgery.
In 1995, O'Connor's son Hugh committed suicide after a long battle with drug addiction. Following his son's death, O'Connor appeared in public service announcements for Partnership for a Drug Free America and spent the rest of his life working to raise awareness about drug addiction. O'Connor also successfully lobbied to get the State of California to pass legislation allowing family members of an addicted person or anyone injured by a drug dealer's actions, including employers, to sue for reimbursement for medical treatment and rehabilitation costs. The law, known as the Drug Dealer Civil Liability Act in California, went into effect in 1997. Eleven other states followed with similar legislation, which has been referred to as The Hugh O'Connor Memorial Law.
During the late 1990s, O'Connor established a small automotive restoration shop in Newbury Park, California. Called "Carroll O'Connor Classics" the shop contained many of O'Connor's personal vehicles and the cars once owned by his late son.[13] Among the cars O'Connor owned were a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow sold to him by William Harrah, a Maserati 3500 GT, and a Dodge Challenger equipped with the 440-cubic inch V-8 that was the car he drove during production of All In The Family.
In 1997, the O'Connors donated $1 million to their alma mater to help match a challenge grant to the University of Montana from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The university named a regional studies and public policy institute the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West.[7] Afterward, O'Connor taught screenwriting at the university.
In 1998 O'Connor underwent a second surgery to clear the blockage in a cardiac artery, to reduce his risk of stroke.
O'Connor died on June 21, 2001 in Culver City, California from a heart attack brought on by complications from diabetes. His funeral mass was celebrated at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Westwood, Los Angeles, California and was attended by All in the Family cast members Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers and Danielle Brisebois, as well as producer Norman Lear. Actress Jean Stapleton, who played O'Connor's onscreen wife and who had been a close friend of O'Connor's since the early 1960s, did not attend the service due to a stage production performance commitment.[14]
In honor of O'Connor's career, TV Land moved an entire weekend of programming to the next week and showed a continuous marathon of All in the Family. During the commercial breaks TV Land also showed interview footage of O'Connor and various All in the Family actors, producers with whom he had worked, and other associates. O'Connor's best friend Larry Hagman and his family were also there, alongside the surviving cast of In the Heat of the Night, including Alan Autry and Denise Nicholas, who also attended the memorial. O'Connor is buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery with his son Hugh's cenotaph placed on his grave stone.
O'Connor met Broadway and character actress Jean Stapleton in a 1962 episode of The Defenders. Nine years later, she auditioned for the role of Archie's wife Edith in All in the Family. She and O'Connor shared a remarkable husband and wife chemistry for the next decade. She made limited guest appearances on its later spin-off show, Archie Bunker's Place, before leaving in the show's second season. During Stapleton's run as Edith Bunker, she and O'Connor became close friends. She was distressed in 1995, as she bestowed her condolences on the passing of Carroll's son, Hugh, who committed suicide. She remained close and supportive while O'Connor was in court to testify concerning his son's death. Then on the first day of Summer in 2001, while performing on stage, she received word that her friend had died. Though she was unable to attend the service, she delivered her condolences to Nancy.
O'Connor had a long-running friendship with actor Larry Hagman, beginning in 1959, when Carroll was working as an assistant stage manager for the Broadway play God and Kate Murphy, in which Hagman starred. Later as the two struggled as young actors, they rented apartments near each other in New York. Over the years they had a lot in common; just as O'Connor concluded contract negotiations for his salary on All in the Family, in 1974, missing two episodes, Hagman eventually found himself re-negotiating his salary on Dallas, with similar results. Hagman's daughter, Heidi, whom O'Connor had known since her childhood, joined the cast for one season of Archie Bunker's Place. Hagman directed several episodes of O'Connor's later series, In the Heat of the Night. They both endured serious health issues, with O'Connor's heart bypass surgery, and Hagman's liver transplant. Hagman remained close after O'Connor's loss of his son Hugh, and through the rest of O'Connor's life, delivering a eulogy at the funeral.
"Nothing will give me any peace. I've lost a son. And I'll go to my grave without any peace over that."[15]
"It was a lack of system that made the '30s Depression as inevitable as all others previously suffered."[16]
"Get between your kid and drugs, any way you can, if you want to save the kid's life".[15]
"I thought that the public would kick us off the air, because of this egregious guy. No. They loved ... they knew him."[17]
On his son: "I should have spied on him. I should've taken away all his civil rights, spied on him, opened his mail, listened to telephone calls, everything."[17]
"I never heard Archie's kind of talk in my own family. My father was a lawyer and was in partnership with two Jews, who with their families were close to us. There were black families in our circle of friends. My father disliked talk like Archie's—he called it lowbrow."[18]
"The biggest part of my life was the acquiring and the loss of a son. I mean, nothing else was as important as that."[17]
"Conventional show-biz savvy held that Americans hated to be the objects of satire."[19]
- White Christmas (1954) .... The Sheriff
- Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar' as Crassus (1956)
- The Sacco-Vanzetti Story (TV mini-series) (1960) as Frederick Katzman
- By Love Possessed (1961) .... Bernie Breck
- Parrish (1961) .... Firechief
- A Fever in the Blood (1961) .... Matt Keenan
- Lad: A Dog (1962) as Hamilcar Q. Glure
- Belle Sommers (TV) (1962)
- Lonely Are the Brave (1962) Hinton the Truck Driver
- The Silver Burro (TV) (1963)
- Cleopatra (1963) as Casca
- Nightmare in Chicago aka Once Upon a Savage Night (TV) (1964)
- In Harm's Way (1965) (uncredited) .... *Cmdr./Capt. Burke (USS Swayback)
- The Last Patrol episode of The Time Tunnel (1966) as British General Southall and Colonel Southall, his 1815 ancestor
- Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966) as Gen. Maynard C. Parker
- Hawaii (1966) as Charles Bromley
- What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966) as Gen. Bolt
- Waterhole #3 (1967) as Sheriff John H. Copperud
- Point Blank (1967) as Brewster
- Warning Shot (1967) as Paul Jerez
- For Love of Ivy (1968) as Frank Austin
- The Devil's Brigade (1968) as Maj. Gen. Hunter
- Marlowe (1969) as Lt. Christy French
- Death of a Gunfighter (1969) as Lester Locke
- Ride a Northbound Horse (TV)(1969)
- Fear No Evil (TV) (1969) as Myles Donovan
- Kelly's Heroes (1970) as Maj. Gen. Colt
- Doctors' Wives (1971) Dr. Joe Gray
- Of Thee I Sing (TV) (1972) President Wintergreen
- Law and Disorder (1974) as Willie
- The Last Hurrah (TV) (1977) as Frank Skeffington
- A Different Approach (1978)
- Brass aka Police Brass (TV) (1985) as Frank Nolan
- Convicted (1986) (TV) .... Lewis May
- The GLO Friends Save Christmas (1986) .... Santa
- The Father Clements Story (1987) (TV) .... Cardinal Cody
- Gideon (TV) (1999) as Leo Barnes
- 36 Hours to Die (TV) (1999) Jack 'Balls' O'Malley
- Return to Me (2000) as Marty O'Reilly
- Bronk (TV) (1975) Series creator
- The Last Hurrah (TV) (1977)
- Archie Bunker's Place (1979) TV series (writer)
- Brass aka Police Brass (TV) (1985) (credited as Matt Harris)
- In the Heat of the Night (1988–1995) Numerous episodes (credited as Matt Harris)
- Bronk (TV) (1975) Series (executive producer)
- The Last Hurrah (TV) (1977) (executive producer)
- In the Heat of the Night (TV) (1988–1995) (executive producer)
- Archie Bunker's Place (TV) (1979) Series
- In the Heat of the Night (TV) (1988) Series
- In the Heat of the Night (TV) (1988) Series (executive story editor credited as Matt Harris)
- All in the Family (TV) (1971) Series "Remembering You" (together with Roger Kellaway)
- Archie Bunker's Place (TV) (1979) Series "Remembering You" (together with Roger Kellaway)
- All in the Family (TV) (1971) singing title song
- Remembering You (1972) An LP of classic songs Himself
- An All-Star Tribute to Elizabeth Taylor (1977) Himself
- CBS: On the Air (1978) mini-series part VII co-host
- The 30th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1978) Himself Winner
- All in the Family: 20th Anniversary Special (1991) Himself
- All in the Family: The E! True Hollywood Story (2000) Himself
- Intimate Portrait: Minnie Driver (2000) Narrator
- A&E Biography: Carroll O'Connor - All in a Lifetime (2001) Himself
- Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000) (V)
- The 53rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (2001) Memorial tribute
- Inside TV Land: African Americans in Television (2002)
- The 74th Annual Academy Awards (2002) Memorial tribute
- ^ a b c d e f Carroll O'Connor interview with the Archive of American Television on YouTube
- ^ "Special Collectors' Issue: 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time". TV Guide (December 14-20). 1996.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Carroll O'Connor Biography (1924-2001)". FilmReference.com. http://www.filmreference.com/film/30/Carroll-O-Connor.html. Retrieved September 3, 2011.
- ^ Severo, Richard. "Carroll O'Connor, Embodiment of Social Tumult as Archie Bunker, Dies at 76", The New York Times, June 22, 2001. Accessed November 18, 2007. "The O'Connors lived well, at first in the Bronx, later in a larger apartment in Elmhurst, Queens, and finally in a nice single-family home in Forest Hills, Queens, then an enclave for people of means."
- ^ Shattuck, Kathryn. "Carroll O'Connor". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/person/53347/Carroll-O-Connor. Retrieved 2009-03-19.
- ^ "Prominent Alumni - Entertainment". Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. http://www.sigep.org/about/alumni_entertainment.asp. Retrieved March 21, 2010.
- ^ a b c "All in the UM Family - O'Connors Donate $1 Million to Center". University of Montana. http://www.umt.edu/urelations/MainHall/0999/family.htm. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
- ^ O'Connor, Carroll, I Think I'm Outta Here, Simon & Schuster, 1998
- ^ "Carroll O'Connor". New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/person/53347/Carroll-O-Connor/biography. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
- ^ citation needed
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0640356/bio
- ^ "10 Questions With...Carroll O'Connor - All Cars - Motor Trend Magazine". Motortrend.com. http://www.motortrend.com/features/archive/112_9708_questioning_carroll_o_connor/index.html. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
- ^ Participation to funeral according to AllBusiness.com
- ^ a b Source: USIMDB.com
- ^ source: BrainyQuote.com
- ^ a b c Source: A&EBiography.com
- ^ Source: CNN.com
- ^ Source: BrainyQuote.com
