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 Archie is a Republican and an outspoken supporter of Richard Nixon, as well as an early (1976) supporter of Ronald Reagan, who correctly predicted Reagan's election in 1980. During the Vietnam War, Archie dismisses peace protesters as unpatriotic and has little good to say about the Civil Rights Movement. Despite having an adversarial relationship with his black neighbors, the Jeffersons, he forms an unlikely friendship with their son Lionel, who performs various odd jobs for the Bunkers and responds to Archie's patronizing racial views with sarcastic quips that usually go over Archie's head. The later spinoff series "704 Hauser" features