Carroll O'Connor

Carroll was born in Manhattan and raised in Forest Hills, a heavily Jewish community in New York City's borough of Queens. After graduating from high school in 1942, O'Connor joined the Merchant Marines and worked on ships in the Atlantic.

In 1946, he enrolled at the University of Montana to study English. While there, he became interested in theater.

While attending the University of Montana he was an associate editor for the college newspaper, "The Kaimin". In 1949 he resigned his editing position in protest to the pressure from the campus administration that led to confiscation and destruction of an issue of the paper, which carried a cartoon depicting the Montana Board of Education as rats gnawing at a bag of university funds.

In the early 1950s, while trying to launch his acting career, he worked as a substitute high school English teacher in order to pay the rent.

During one of the amateur productions, he met his future wife, Nancy Fields, whom he married in 1951. He moved to Ireland where he continued his theatrical studies at the National University of Ireland. He was discovered during one of his college productions and was signed to appear at the Dublin Gate Theater.

He worked in theater in Europe until 1954 when he returned to New York.

Completed part of his undergraduate studies at the University of Montana before returning to earn a master's degree in speech in 1956.

His attempts to land on Broadway failed and he taught high school until 1958.

Finally in 1958, he landed an Off-Broadway production, "Ulysses in Nighttown". He followed that with a Broadway production that was directed by 'Burgess Meredith', "God and Kate Murphy", in which he was both an understudy and an assistant stage manager. At the same time, he was getting attention on TV.

He worked in a great many character roles throughout the 1960s.

Met Jean Stapleton on an episode of The Defenders (1961), years before co-starring with him on All in the Family (1971).

He adopted his only child, Hugh O'Connor (I), while in Rome filming Cleopatra (1963). He named him after his own brother, who was killed years before in a motorcycle accident.

Auditioned for the role of The Skipper on Gilligan's Island (1964), but the producers found him to be too unsympathetic in the role.

Was considered for the role of Dr. Zachary Smith on Lost in Space (1965).

A pilot for "Those Were The Days" was first shot in 1968 based on the English hit, "Till Death Do Us Part", but was rejected by the networks.

Earned a reported $250,000 a week for "All in the Family" (1971) in 1980.

Was so displeased with CBS' axing of Archie Bunker's Place (1979) in 1983, without a chance to film an actual series finale, that he vowed to never work for the network again (nonetheless, his late-1980s NBC series, In the Heat of the Night (1988), moved to CBS in 1992).

As executive producer of In the Heat of the Night (1988), he often asked longtime friends and musicians to guest-star. Two of his favorites were Jean Simmons and Bobby Short. He gave long-time friend Lois Nettleton a significant recurring role in the first few seasons.

Underwent heart bypass surgery in 1989 and angioplasty to prevent a stroke in 1998.

Was a spokesman for Partnership for Drug Free of America from 1993-97.

On 17 January 1994 he lost his restaurant in the Northridge (CA) earthquake.

In 1997 he and his wife, also a University of Montana graduate, donated $1 million to the University of Montana's Center for the Rocky Mountain West, a regional studies and public policy institute. The Center was renamed Carroll and Nancy Fields O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in September 1997.

Died on June 21, 2001, 37 days before what would have been his golden wedding anniversary with Nancy Fields.

Archie Bunker, his character on All in the Family (1971), was ranked #24 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" [20 June 2004 issue].