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 while Archie had been forced to drop out of high school during the Great Depression to help support his family. Archie does not take advantage of the GI Bill to further his education, although he does attend night school to earn a high school diploma in 1973. Archie is also revealed to have been an outstanding baseball player in his youth: his dream was to pitch for the New York Yankees. He had to give up this dream when he left high school to enter the workforce. His uncle got him a job on a loading dock after World War