|
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. A life member of The Actors Studio, O'Connor first attracted attention as Major General Colt in the 1970 movie Kelly's Heroes. The following year he 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 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.
O'Connor, an Irish American, was the eldest of three sons born in Manhattan, New York, to Edward Joseph O'Connor, a lawyer, and his wife, Elise Patricia O'Connor. Both of his brothers became doctors: Hugh, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1961, and Robert, a psychiatrist in New York City. O'Connor spent much of his youth in Elmhurst and Forest Hills, Queens, the same borough in which his character Archie Bunker would later live.
In 1941, Carroll 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.
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. At the University of Montana, he joined Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. At that time, however, O'Connor did not take any drama courses as an undergraduate. O'Connor later left the University of Montana 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 his acting career.
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 Carroll, who was visiting his brother, Hugh. The couple married in Dublin on July 28, 1951. In 1956, O'Connor returned to Missoula to earn a master's degree in speech.
Starring roles
All in the Family (1971–1979) as Archie Bunker (Salary $200,000 per episode)
Archie Bunker's Place (1979–1983) as Archie Bunker (Salary $250,000 per episode)
In the Heat of the Night (1988–1994) as Chief/Sheriff Bill Gillespie
Mad About You (1996–1999) Gus Stemple #3
Films/made for television films
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
O'Connor died on June 21, 2001 in Culver City, California from a heart attack brought on by complications from diabetes.
|
