Carroll O'Connor
-
Born - 3 August
1924 -
The Bronx - New
York.
Died 21 June
2001
After twenty years as
a character actor on stage, screen and television, Carroll O'Connor became
a star with his portrayal of the cantankerous and self-righteous working-class
bigot Archie Bunker in the legendary television comedy series "All in the
Family." He played the role in thirteen prime time seasons; the name of
the series beginning with the tenth season was "Archie Bunker's Place."
When first aired
on CBS-TV in January, 1971, "All in the Family" was attacked by liberals
for its matter-of-fact treatment of bigotry, but O'Connor maintained that
it was no help to bigotry to satirize it. By portraying Archie Bunker as
a loser, held back by his own stubborn refusal to face up to present-day
realities, O'Connor felt he was showing the futility of Bunker's attitudes.
The series was also attacked by conservatives who thought it was making
fun of them.
Of Irish Roman Catholic
background on both sides of his family (his mother's family was also O'Connors),
Carroll O'Connor was born in New York City on August 2, 1924. He had two
younger brothers (one of them now deceased), both of whom became physicians.
Growing up in Forest Hills, Long Island, O'Connor lived in prosperous circumstances
even during the Depression. The social attitudes he encountered in childhood
were not generally those of Archie Bunker. "I never heard Archie's kind
of talk in my own home, " he told Cynthia Lowry of The New York Post (August
11, 1971). "Mine was a family of teachers, -- my mother, two aunts and
an uncle. 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
low brow."
ABC Television had
the first rights to "All In The Family" and financed two pilot episode
(then titled "Those Were the Days") in 1968 and 1969. But ABC executives
could not bring themselves to air the series because they decided that
the public was not ready for such strong fare. O'Connor too had his doubts:
"I thought the American public was too dour to laugh at itself," he later
recalled. After ABC rejected it, producer Norman Lear sold CBS President
Bob Wood on the project and "All In The Family" was shown on CBS-TV for
the first time on January 12, 1971 with O'Connor as Archie Bunker.
In its frank exposition
of bigotry, including Archie's unsparing use of ethnic epithets and the
treatment of topics formerly taboo, "All In The Family," marked a sharp
departure form the bland situation comedies to which the American viewing
public had been exposed. On May 14, 1972, O'Connor received the Emmy Award
for "Outstanding continued performance by an actor in a comedy series."
"All In The Family" was again rated best comedy series. An LP recording
of excerpts from "All In The Family, " issued by Atlantic Records racked
up sales of more than $1,000,000 by January, 1972 (and spawned a second
sound track album) and the paperbacks "The Wit and Wisdom of Archie Bunker"
and "Edith Bunker's 'All In The Family' Cookbook" also met with considerable
success. O'Connor has personally been honored over and over for his contributions
to the series. He has received three additional Emmys -- four in all for
the role -- and the Peabody Award.
Since the conclusion
of his famous series in 1983, O'Connor has starred in two Broadway plays
and three movies for television. He has written articles for The Los Angeles
Time, TV Guide and Parade Magazine, and has narrated two documentary films
for television.
In January, 1990,
Carroll was elected to the Television Hall of Fame for his contributions
to the television industry. He was the recipient of the 1990 and 1991 NAACP
Image Award as producer of "In The Heat of The Night" for "Best Dramatic
Television Series" for "Contributing positive portrayal s of African Americans
in a prime time television series." The series received another "Image"
nomination in 1992 and Carroll was the subject of a career retrospective
by The Museum of Television and Radio in New York City in December, 1992.
 ............
All In The Family..................In
The Heat Of The Night
FILM & TV
ROLES
Gideon's Webb (1998)
- Leo Barnes
Party of Five (1994
TV Series) - Jacob Gordon
In the Heat of the
Night (1988 TV Series) - Chief/Sheriff William "Bill" Gillespie
The Father Clements
Story (1987 TV) - Cardinal Cody
Convicted (1986
TV) - Lewis May
Brass (1985 TV)
- Frank Nolan
Archie Bunker's
Place (1979 TV Series) - Archie Bunker
The Last Hurrah
(1977 TV) - Frank Skeffington
Law and Disorder
(1974)
Doctors' Wives (1971)
- Dr. Joe Gray
All in the Family
(1971 TV Series) - Archie Bunker
Kelly's Heroes (1970)
- General Colt
Marlowe (1969) -
Lieutenant Christy French
Fear No Evil (1969
TV) - Myles Donovan
Death of a Gunfighter
(1969) - Lester Locke
The Devil's Brigade
(1968) - Maj. Gen. Hunter
For Love of Ivy
(1968) - Frank Austin
Waterhole #3 (1967)
- Sheriff Copperud
Warning Shot (1967)
- Paul Jerez
Point Blank (1967)
- Brewster
Hawaii (1966) -
Charles Bromley
Not with My Wife,
You Don't (1966) - General Maynard C. Parker
What Did You Do
in the War, Daddy? (1966) - General Bolt
In Harm's Way (1965)
- Lieutenant Commander Burke (Uncredited Role)
Profiles in Courage
(1964 TV Series) - Grover Cleveland
Nightmare in Chicago
(1964 TV)
Cleopatra (1963)
- Casca
Lad: A Dog (1962)
- Hamilcar Q. Glure
Lonely Are the Brave
(1962) - Hinton
Parrish (1961) -
Firechief
By Love Possessed
(1961) - Bernie Breck
A Fever in the Blood
(1961) - Matt Keenan
NOTEABLE GUEST APPEARANCES
Mad About You (1992)
- "Gus Stemple" in "The Birth" and "Jamie's Parents"
Gunsmoke (1955)
- "Major Vanscoy" in "Major Glory" and "Hootie Kyle" in "The Wrong Man"
The Wild, Wild West
(1965) - in "The Night of the Ready-Made Corpse"
The Time Tunnel
(1966) - "General Southall/Colonel Southall" in "The Last Patrol"
I Spy (1965) - "It's
All Done With Mirrors"
Voyage to the Bottom
of the Sea (1964) - "Old John" in "Long Live the King"
The Fugitive (1963)
- "Sheriff" in "Flight from the Final Demon"
The Outer Limits
(1963) - "Deimos" in "Controlled Experiment"
Naked City (1958)
- in "Spectre of the Rose Street Gang"
The Untouchables
(1959) - "Arnie Kurtz aka Albert Krim" in "Bird in the Hand" and "Barney
Lubin" in "Power Play"
Naked City (1958)
- in "Goodbye Mama, Hello Auntie Maude"
The United States
Steel Hour (1953) - in "Shadow of a Pale Horse" |
