TVs Archie Bunker OConnor dies at 76

Thesp became household name through 'Family' Carroll OConnor, who changed the face of American television through his portrayal of the lovable bigot Archie Bunker, died Thursday of a heart attack brought on by complications from diabetes. He was 76.

Thesp became household name through 'Family'

Carroll O’Connor, who changed the face of American television through his portrayal of the lovable bigot Archie Bunker, died Thursday of a heart attack brought on by complications from diabetes. He was 76.

O’Connor died after he was rushed to Brotman Medical Center in Culver City.

Working in theater and films without much recognition for more than half his life, O’Connor became a household name through “All in the Family,” in which his character became synonymous with working class, prejudiced and offensive. The character struck a nerve in the American psyche as O’Connor played him loud and clear, the beneficiary of scripts that never toned down his bellowing of racial epithets and a life driven by ethnic stereotyping.

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He played Bunker on “All in the Family” from 1971-79 and in the spinoff series “Archie Bunker’s Place” from 1979-83. The character earned him four Emmys. So popular was Bunker that the character’s favorite armchair was preserved by the Smithsonian Institution as an artifact of cultural Americana.

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At the height of its popularity, “All in the Family” was the No. 1 show on television for five years, and specific episodes were viewed by more than 50 million Americans. CBS banked on its popularity, airing reruns from 1975-79 in the afternoon and during the summer of 1991.

O’Connor’s other hit series, which debuted in 1988, was “In the Heat of the Night,” in which he was again cast as a racially narrow-minded character, this one a Southern sheriff. Based on the Oscar-winning 1967 film directed by Norman Jewison, the hourlong series ran through 1994; four TV movies followed the next season. He won one acting Emmy for the series.

In March 1995, his only son, Hugh O’Connor, who had a small recurring role in “Heat,” committed suicide. O’Connor frankly addressed his adopted son’s drug abuse problems, which led to the arrest of the man who supplied Hugh O’Connor with drugs.

The death inspired O’Connor to launch an anti-drug crusade, leading him to call the drug dealer, Harry Perzigian, a “partner in murder.” He gave out Perzigian’s address so that he could be ostracized. Perzigian sued O’Connor for slander but lost the case.

O’Connor was born in New York on Aug. 2, 1924, and grew up in the Bronx. After high school graduation in 1942, O’Connor became a merchant marine, working on ships in the North Atlantic. In 1946 he enrolled in the U. of Montana, majoring in English and developing an interest in the theater. In a local amateur production he met his future wife, Nancy Fields, whom he married in 1951 in Ireland, where he continued his studies at the National U. of Ireland.

During one of his college productions, he was signed by the Dublin Gate Theatre, where he worked with the theater’s founders Michael MacLiammoir and Hilton Edwards. He worked at the theater for two years and continued to live and work in Ireland as well as England, France and Scotland until 1954, when he returned to New York.

His career came to an abrupt halt as he tried to break into Broadway productions. O’Connor and Fields subsisted as substitute teachers in the New York school system until he decided to return to the U. of Montana to earn his M.A. Back in New York, he worked as a high school English teacher and considered abandoning the theater.

But in 1958 he landed a role Off Broadway in “Ulysses in Nighttown,” directed by Burgess Meredith. That was followed by a role in a revival of Clifford Odets’ “The Big Knife,” under the direction of Peter Bogdanovich.

Character roles

Simultaneously, he began to draw attention as a television performer. In 1960 he appeared on NBC in “The Sacco and Vanzetti Story,” which led to his 1961 film appearance in “A Fever in the Blood.” During the ’60s, he worked steadily in character roles in almost 30 films, including “Lonely Are the Brave,” “Cleopatra,” “Death of a Gunfighter,” “In Harm’s Way” and “Kelly’s Heroes.”

O’Connor also appeared in more than 100 TV programs such as “The U.S. Steel Hour,” “Kraft Theatre” and “Armstrong Circle Theatre.” In 1964, he wrote a comedy called “Ladies of Hanover Tower,” which was produced by the Theater Group of UCLA. O’Connor also co-directed and starred.

Lear saw O’Connor in the film “What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?” and was convinced he had his Archie Bunker. An American adaptation of the popular BBC TV series “Till Death Do Us Part,” it took three years for the series to reach the air. Its first pilot, “Those Were the Days,” was shot for ABC in 1968; the network rejected the series as too bold. After some wrangling, CBS was convinced to take on the project, in which Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers and Rob Reiner were also cast.

‘Family’ troubled at first

When it debuted on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1971, “All in the Family” drew a great deal of criticism: Some believed the show portrayed bigotry in a sympathetic light, and the series had trouble attracting advertisers.

By the spring of 1971 the series had caught on and that summer it won its first Emmy as best comedy series. In the fall, CBS moved it to Saturdays at 8, where it became a sensation. It spawned a million-selling record of excerpts and several books.

O’Connor capitalized on his popularity, landing roles in movies and TV specials, including a TV production of the musical satire “Of Thee I Sing” in 1972. In 1974 he starred in the film “Law and Disorder,” which was not a hit, and in 1976 he appeared in a TV adaptation of “The Last Hurrah,” for which he also wrote the script. He also created a short-lived series, “Bronk,” starring Jack Palance.

O’Connor played Bunker as his co-stars departed the series, Reiner and Struthers in 1977, and Stapleton, who played his wife Edith, at the end of the 1979-80 season.

Throughout his later years O’Connor acted in television, appearing on “Mad About You” as the father of Helen Hunt’s character, Jamie Buchman, and on Fox’s “Party of Five” in 1996.

He also appeared in the 2000 pic “Return to Me” with David Duchovny and Minnie Driver, playing the part of her grandfather.

O’Connor is survived by his wife, Nancy.

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