https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/hartfordcourant/name/francis-o-neil-obituary?id=37018878

Francis James (F.J.) O'Neil, 91, died peacefully in his sleep while under the care of his close friends and loved ones, at his home in North Hollywood, California on August 5th, 2022. F.J. was drawn to entertainment beginning with performing magic tricks, and meeting Bela Lugosi at a young age - all made a lasting impression on him and fueled his passion for acting. He became a seasoned actor of screen, stage, and television with credits in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Hunt for Red October, Guilty by Suspicion, First Monday in October, Perfect Strangers, Murphy Brown, Airwolf, A Very Brady Christmas, news anchor for WNET Channel 13 New York, as well as many television commercial appearances. Jimmie, Big Jim, Uncle Jim, as he was known by his family, was predeceased by his sister, Helen Nancy O'Neil Carson, godson and nephew Jeffrey Thomas Carson. He leaves behind to grieve him many close, dear friends in Los Angeles, as well as his nephew, James Andrew Carson and niece, Judith Ann Carson, of Connecticut, and many beloved cousins across New England. Jimmie was born in Hartford, Connecticut to Helen Hughes O'Neil and Francis J. O'Neil, lived for many years in New York City, and summered in Grove Beach, Westbrook before relocating to Los Angeles. He was a graduate of the Kingswood School in West Hartford, and Harvard University where he was fortunate to attend on a Naval scholarship. While attending Harvard, he developed his love of the theatre, was President of the Harvard Dramatic Club and a proud member of The Hasty Pudding Club. While at Harvard he began a lifelong friendship with visiting Professor Author Thornton Wilder who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Our Town, and won the prize again for his play The Skin of Our Teeth. F.J. was proud to have been cast in each production during his long stage career. F.J. was a mentor, a student, a tremendous story-teller and had a heart of gold to those who knew him best. He touched more lives than can be counted and will be deeply missed by everyone who was fortunate enough to know and love him.

Very sad........

The Newsletter from season five might be my most favorite of his episodes.

God bless you and his family always!!!

Holly

I used to occasionally see Mr. O’Neil at the subway station at Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street in Manhattan. He was a very tall and distinguished looking man. In addition to his many film and television comedy show appearances, Mr. O’Neil was an announcer on WNET, Channel 13, the PBS station in NYC.

I did not know that Mr. O’Neil had attended Harvard University on a US Navy scholarship; he must have been a US Navy ROTC student at Harvard.

I always remember Mr. O’Neil as that senior American scientist, sitting at the control panel as that gigantic alien mother ship landed on Devil’s Tower in the climatic scene in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” I wish I had asked Mr. O’Neil at that subway station if he actually believed that we were being visited by “new arrivals” from outer space.

Requiem aeternam, Mr. O’Neil.

Think my favorite episode with him was the one where Cousin Larry and Balki go hunting for geese. The way Balki was describing them they sounded an awful lot like Pterodactyls. I remember how he made me laugh acting when he was shot in the keister at the end of the episode. How much he used to just stand there and take those hugs from Balki until finally one episode Balki adapted so much that he opened his arms expecting a hug from Balki and Balki just shook his hand. Also loved the episode where Mr. Weinright hid under the desk in the episode where a person had Carp Blanche full control of assigning people to different positions to maximize the Chronicle workflow. When the weasel was putting Balki in a position where he was wasting his talent to exploit a program to help immigrants and Weinright stood up to tell him off. Really made me proud of that character.

^^^ I loved it when he said at the end of that one episode, "I'm not firing you because you are doing a bad job. I am firing you because you are a bigot and there is no place at the Chronicle for bigots!"

God bless you always!!!

Holly