Carroll O'Connor Carroll O'Connor John Carroll O'Connor (August 2, 1924 – June 21, 2001) was an American actor, producer, and director whose television career spanned four decades. A lifelong member of the Actors Studio, O'Connor first attracted attention as Major General Colt in the 1970 film "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" (1971–1979) and "Archie Bunker's Place" (1979–1983). O'Connor later starred in the NBC/CBS television crime drama "In the Heat of the Night" from 1988 to 1995, where he played
Archie Bunker "Till Death Us Do Part". In 1999, "TV Guide" ranked Archie Bunker number 5 on its 50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time list. In 2005, Archie Bunker was listed as number 1 on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters, defeating runners-up such as Ralph Kramden, Lucy Ricardo, Fonzie, and Homer Simpson. Archie's chair is in the permanent collection of the National Museum of American History. Archie has a gruff, overbearing demeanor, largely defined by his bigotry towards a diverse group of individuals—blacks, Hispanics, "Commies", gays, hippies, Jews, Asians, Catholics, "women's libbers", and Polish-Americans are frequent targets of his barbs. As