After one more pilot in 1969, the re-titled All In The Family was finally sold to CBS and debuted on January 12, 1971.Ħ.
YOUTUBE IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT SERIES
The series – then titled Justice For All – was so unlikely to sell (at least in O’Connor’s opinion) that the star demanded a return plane ticket as part of his deal. He was living in Rome when he got the call from Lear offering him the role of “Archie Justice” in 1968. O’Connor first caught Norman Lear’s eye as a blustery general in Blake Edwards’ What Did You Do In The War, Daddy? (1966). He first played Archie three years before All In The Family premiered. Sadly, he took his own life in 1995, just weeks before the final episode aired. Hugh O’Connor worked behind the scenes on Archie Bunker’s Place in the early 1980s and was cast in In The Heat Of The Night as Sparta cop Lonnie Jamison, a character he played for the run of the series. He survived, but reportedly developed a dependency upon drugs that would plague him for the rest of his life. Sixteen years later, Hugh O’Connor was stricken with Hodgkins Lymphoma and forced to endure chemotherapy and surgeries. They named him Hugh, after O’Connor’s younger brother (who had recently died in a motorcycle accident). Four years later, while filming Cleopatra in Italy with Elizabeth Taylor, Carroll and Nancy adopted a newborn baby boy. O’Connor made his film debut in 1958 in The Defiant Ones, a racially fraught drama. O’Connor’s adopted son had a troubled life. (Meredith also co-starred on the short-lived All In The Family spin-off Gloria with Sally Struthers, and made guest appearances on Archie Bunker’s Place.)Ĥ. O’Connor would return the favor decades later, casting Meredith as Judge Cully on In The Heat Of The Night. That production was directed by Burgess Meredith, a future Oscar nominee for Rocky and Day Of The Locust. In 1958, he was cast in the Off-Broadway adaptation of James Joyce’s Ulysses, earning acclaim from critics. After living and working in Europe for three years (using the stage name George Roberts), O’Connor and Nancy moved to New York City. O’Connor married Nancy in 1951 while studying acting at the National University of Ireland. O’Connor: Missoula native Nancy Fields.ģ. Afterward, O’Connor attended the University of Montana, where he met the future Mrs. Merchant Marine Academy and served in the Merchant Marine during the war. (Fans of All In The Family know exactly where Archie was hit with shrapnel when he was wounded!) In real life, Carroll O’Connor was a student at the U.S. Both Archie and O’Connor served our country.Īrchie Bunker is a proud veteran of World War II, a Purple Heart recipient who served in the Army Air Corps in Italy. (The Bunkers lived in Astoria.) Unlike Archie, O’Connor came from a family of white collar professionals his father was a lawyer, his mother was a teacher, and his two younger brothers became doctors.Ģ. Like the character who made him famous, O’Connor lived in Queens as a child: first in Elmhurst and later in Forest Hills. Like Archie, O’Connor was a New Yorker.Ĭarroll O’Connor was born on Augin The Bronx, New York.
YOUTUBE IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT TV
Here are some facts about one of the most enduring stars in TV history.ġ. In the process, Carroll O’Connor earned five Emmys, a Golden Globe, a Peabody Award, and a place in our hearts. His Gillespie became the anti-Archie, and O’Connor’s creative and supervisory role on the series gave him an opportunity to highlight diversity and tell stories unseen on primetime, before or since. O’Connor did the same with In The Heat Of The Night’s Chief Gillespie, a character with an equally problematic history (as depicted in the Oscar-winning 1967 film). O’Connor’s portrayal didn’t pull any punches, nor did it apologize. His Archie was a product of a particular time, mentality, and upbringing, one that many of our parents and grandparents shared. While Norman Lear created All In The Family (based on the British sitcom 'Til Death Us Do Part), O’Connor made Archie Bunker who he was: the most memorably real character primetime TV had seen to date. O’Connor could not have been more different than Archie, but that didn’t stop him from making us love him. Carroll O’Connor did just that: first, as loveable loudmouth Archie Bunker on All In The Family and then as Mississippi police chief Bill Gillespie on In The Heat Of The Night. Playing a television character beloved by generations of viewers is a rare achievement.
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