Carroll O'Connor, 1924 -
Actor Carroll O'Connor was born in The Bronx, New York on August 2, 1924. He attended the University of Montana where he was the associate editor for the college paper, the Kaimin. He resigned his position at the paper, in 1949, in protest of the campus administration wanting the destruction of an issue of the paper that depicted the Montana Board of Education, in a cartoon, as rats gnawing at a bag of university funds. He received a master's degree in speech from there in 1956. He also attended college at Wake Forest University and in Ireland. It was there he began his career on stage playing in Dublin, London and Paris. He made his Broadway debut in 1958. O'Connor has also spent time as an Acting and Dialogue Professor at the Julliard School of Fine Arts.
O'Connor is best known for his character Archie Bunker, the lead in the TV series "All in the Family" and the sequel "Archie's Place." He reportedly earned $200,000 per episode for "All in the Family" in 1971. He composed the closing themes "Remembering You," for "Archie Bunker's Place," and "Those Were the Days," for "All in the Family." His other long running role was as Sheriff Bill Gillespie on the TV series "In the Heat of the Night." He has made guests appearances on other series throughout the years from playing Arnie Kurtz in an episode of "The Untouchables," in 1959, to playing Gus Stemple in several episodes of "Mad About You," in the 1990's.
In 1995, O'Connor's adopted son, Hugh, committed suicide. Hugh's drug related suicide caused his father to be instrumental in the passage of the Drug Dealers Civil Liability Act in California. This act allows citizens to sue drug dealers they believe are responsible for the drug related deaths of family members. In 1997, he and his wife Nancy donated one million dollars to the University of Montana's Center for the Rocky Mountain West, a regional studies and public policy institute. The Center was renamed the