O'Connor, Carroll

▪ 2002

      American character actor (b. Aug. 2, 1924, New York, N.Y.—d. June 21, 2001, Culver City, Calif.), was classically trained and appeared in scores of movies and television programs, but to the majority of the viewing public, he was the irascible but lovable bigot Archie Bunker, the lead character in the groundbreaking sitcom All in the Family (1971–79) and its sequel Archie Bunker's Place (1979–83). Although Bunker was outspoken in his beliefs in ethnic and gender stereotypes, O'Connor brought out the character's humanity and made sympathetic his bewilderment at the rapidly changing society he was attempting to cope with. O'Connor served in the merchant marine during World War II and afterward attended the University of Montana and then the National University of Ireland in Dublin (B.A., 1952). He appeared in productions presented by the Gate Theatre in Dublin and also toured other European cities, but after returning to the U.S. (1954), he found it difficult to find acting jobs and instead earned a master's degree (University of Montana, 1956) and became a teacher. In 1958, however, O'Connor was cast in an Off-Broadway production of Ulysses in Nighttown, and his success in that show led to another Off-Broadway role, in The Big Knife (1959). He also amassed numerous TV and movie credits, including roles in the films Lonely Are the Brave (1962), Cleopatra (1963), and What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966), but he was still relatively unknown when he was cast as Bunker in All in the Family, an adaptation of the edgier BBC series Till Death Us Do Part. Although the character initially stirred up enormous controversy with the outrageous closed-mindedness that Archie Bunker spouted at every opportunity—views that were the exact opposite of those held by O'Connor himself—the show grew in popularity as most of the audience came to recognize that it was the evident absurdity of Bunker's beliefs that was the target of the humour. The show spent five years in the number one spot, at its peak counting some 50 million weekly viewers, and O'Connor's performance as Bunker won him four best actor Emmy Awards. In 1989 he won a fifth Emmy for another successful series, In the Heat of the Night (1987–94). Following the 1995 suicide of his son, who had been struggling with alcohol and drug addiction, O'Connor dedicated much of his time to a crusade against drug abuse. His last film role was in Return to Me (2000).

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