Carroll O'Connor has died :(

Very sad news .

Here's the sotry from Reuters..

Emmy-Winning Actor Carroll O'Connor Dead at 76


By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Carroll O'Connor, who became one of television's biggest stars as grumpy, bigoted but lovable Archie Bunker on the landmark 1970s TV series ``All in the Family,'' died on Thursday. He was 76.

The Bronx-born O'Connor died at Brotman Medical Center in the Los Angeles suburb of Culver City of a heart attack brought on by complications from diabetes, his publicist Charles Sherman said. His wife, Nancy, was at his side.

``He was having chest pains at home,'' Sherman said. ``They rushed him to the hospital and they tried to revive him without any luck. He'd been in and out of the hospital but his heart seemed fine so this kind of took us by surprise.''

Though O'Connor had a long career in show business that included scores of stage and film roles, he was indelibly linked to Bunker and ``All in the Family,'' which was hailed for its groundbreaking social satire -- the likes of which had never before been seen on American television.

The show, which was based on a popular British series, ''Till Death Us Do Part,'' debuted on CBS in January of 1971 and ran for eight seasons before the show was revamped and premiered under a new title, ``Archie Bunker's Place.''

The original show opened with O'Connor and co-star Jean Stapleton as his scatterbrained wife Edith behind the piano in the living of their working-class home in Queens, singing the standard ``Those Were The Days.''

The groundbreaking series first drew controversy over the comic rantings of Bunker, who called blacks ``jungle-bunnies'' and ``spades,'' Puerto Ricans ``spics'' and Asians ``chinks.''

But the show became a major hit and transformed O'Connor from a journeyman actor into a household name with critics hailing his performance as a masterpiece. He won four Emmys for the part.

'MEATHEAD' AND THE JEFFERSONS

Bunker's foils on the show were his liberal, intellectual son-in-law, portrayed by Rob Reiner -- who the irascible dock foreman referred to as ``Meathead'' -- and the black family next door, the Jeffersons, who later had a hit television series of their own.

O'Connor once described his portrayal of the narrow-minded Bunker this way: ``I'm not playing him to make people hate him for his attitude or make them like him. I'm just playing his attitude as truthfully as I know how.''

That portrayal showed Bunker as a loser trapped in his own prejudices and was praised for ultimately advancing race relations.

As he once told the Los Angeles Times: ``The funny thing about Archie is that he wouldn't change his mind. That was the fun, the comedy and the satire. That was what you laughed at. He never laughed at anything himself .... The world was a painful place to him. And because it was painful to him, it was funny to you.''

``Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker was genius at work, God's gift to the world,'' Norman Lear, producer of ``All in the Family,'' said after learning of his death.

O'Connor returned to series television in the late 1980s, winning his fifth Emmy as the small-town sheriff in the NBC series ``In the Heat of the Night,'' which was based on an Academy Award-winning film.

TRAGEDY PROMPTS ANTI-DRUG CRUSADE

Tragedy struck for O'Connor in March of 1995 when his only son, who had been battling drug addiction, shot himself to death. Hugh O'Connor's death inspired O'Connor to launch an anti-drug crusade, which culminated in his public condemnation of the man he said had sold his son drugs.

O'Connor called the drug dealer, Harry Perzigian, a ''partner in murder'' and a ``lawbreaker'' and gave out his address so that he could be ostracized, saying in one interview: ``Harry Perzigian, you sleazeball, we're going to get you.''

Perzigian sued O'Connor for slander but lost the case after a jury trial in Los Angeles.

Film critic Leonard Maltin has said that were it not for O'Connor's ``long-running gig as TV's loudmouth bigot Archie Bunker,'' the actor would not have scored very high based on his work in movies, in which he often played nasty heavies and gruff, boorish characters.

Born Aug. 2, 1924, he was educated at the University of Montana and at Dublin's National University.''

His last screen role was as Minnie Driver's grandfather in the romantic comedy ``Return to Me.''

[Sean Snow]

I was very sad when I found out. He will be missed.

[Jack's Beatle Poster]

Maybe now that Carroll has passed away, N@N should show Archie Bunker's Place.
Or Archie Bunker's Place could be put onto video.

------------------
When you gotta gun
in your hand, your
free to make any speech
you want!!-Archie Bunker

STANLEY: The car was overheated,
Helen!
HELEN: So was I!!

MARGE: Kids can be so
cruel!
BART: We can? Thanks, Mom!
(Bart socks Lisa)
LISA: Oww!!

HELEN: Stanley, you got
2 choices. You either
put your pants on and take
me to that resturant...
Or leave them off and we
could stay here and
have fun!

KIMBERLY: Willis, you gotta
do something about that
bathroom.
WILLIS: Like what?
KIMBERLY: Like not leaving
the seat up.
WILLIS: That's Arnold.
ARNOLD: No way, I stand
on the seat!

[chris jacob]

when was his funerl because of his death that NAN has not shown All in the family

[TV Guy]

Actually, N@N has just moved "All in the Family" to midnight, which actually happened a few days before Carroll O'Connor died. They're showing a 10-episode AITF marathon tonight (Monday) as a tribute to Carroll. TV Land showed an AITF marathon this weekend as a tribute. No "Archie Bunker's Place" episodes, though.

[Sean Snow]

He deserves the tribute though.