Carroll O'Connor
1924 - 2001

Born Agust 2, 1924
Died June 21, 2001
Born John Carroll O'Connor

Film and television actor

O'Connor, an Irish American, was one of three children born in the Bronx, New York, the son of Elise Patricia and Edward Joseph O'Connor, who was a New York City lawyer. O'Connor's mother educated the future actor about language and life in The Bronx, New York. 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. His family became very popular, his uncle, Hugh, was a reporter for the New York Times and his grandfather, John, was a publisher of The Irish Advocate. Growing up in the 1930s, he and his mother met future actress Anne Meara, while he was attending school. After graduating from New York City's prestigious Newtown High School in 1942, he and his classmates played hooky, very often. While attending one of the Burlesque Shows in Manhattan, he looked at all the female dancers, and made a lot of new friends. He carried on that feeling when he left his native New York City to serve in the United States Merchant Marine during World War II, was educated in Montana and Ireland, and began his acting career shortly afterward.

Initially a stage actor in Dublin, London, and Paris, he acted in a number of unmemorable films during the 1950s and 1960s. He starred in CBS's All in the Family (1971–9) and Archie Bunker's Place (1979–83), winning numerous Emmy awards. He played the liberal sheriff on National Broadcasting Company's In the Heat of the Night (1987), and appeared in occasional television specials.

O'Connor was living in Italy in 1970 when producer Norman Lear asked him to star as Archie Bunker in a new sitcom called All in the Family.

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. 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 the series.

Although Bunker was famous for his malapropisms of the English language, O'Connor was highly educated and cultured and was an English teacher before he turned to acting.

O'Connor married his wife Nancy in Dublin, Ireland (and she later converted to Roman Catholicism for him) in 1951, and their only child, adopted son Hugh O'Connor, committed suicide in 1995 after a long battle with drug addiction. Hugh left a widow and small child behind. 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. After Hugh's death, O'Connor successfully lobbied to get the State of California to pass legislation that allows 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.

In April 1997 the Florida Senate unanimously passed The Hugh O'Connor Memorial Act, which allows people injured by drug dealers to sue for damages.

O'Connor died on June 21, 2001, at the age of 76 from a heart attack brought on by complications from diabetes in Culver City, California. His funeral was attended by All in the Family cast members Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers and Danielle Brisebois, and Producer Norman Lear. Actress Jean Stapleton, who had been a close friend of O'Connor's since the early 1960s, didn't attend the service due to a commitment on stage. In honor of his 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 they also showed some interview footage of O'Connor and various All in the Family actors, producers with whom he had worked, and other associates. Best friend Larry Hagman and his family were also there, alongside the surviving cast of In the Heat of the Night, especially Alan Autry and Denise Nicholas, who also attended the memorial