Carroll O’Connor, best known for his iconic role as Archie Bunker on “All in the Family,” faced an unimaginable tragedy when his only son, Hugh O’Connor, committed suicide at 32 after a long battle with drug addiction. “Nothing will give me any peace,” Carroll lamented. “I’ve lost a son. And I’ll go to my grave without any peace over that.” Yet, despite his profound grief, Carroll was determined to ensure that his son’s death would not be in vain.
Carroll and his wife, Nancy, adopted Hugh as a baby in Rome. They stood by his side through every challenge, including his victory over Hodgkin’s disease at the age of 16. Unfortunately, it was around this time that Hugh developed a drug problem. Carroll never gave up on him, giving him a job as a courier on the “All in the Family” set and later casting him in a regular role on “In the Heat of the Night.”
“Carroll loved Hugh,” recalls Denise Nicholas, Carroll’s co-star on “In the Heat of the Night,” in an interview with Closer. “He tried to save him from drugs. Hugh’s death broke his heart. I can barely talk about it without crying.”
In his quest for justice, Carroll became a fervent advocate for the Drug Dealer Liability Act, which allows people to sue drug dealers responsible for users’ deaths. Enacted in California in 1997 and adopted by many other states, the law became known as the Hugh O’Connor Memorial Law. “He was 100 percent supportive, and it was perhaps cathartic for him to have something he could do in response to his son’s death,” says Steve Boreman, an attorney who worked with Carroll on the legislation. “He felt like something needed to be done as far as the people who are profiting from selling poison.”
Through his advocacy, Carroll found a way to honor Hugh’s life and death. “The biggest part of my life was the acquiring and loss of a son; nothing was as important as that,” he said. “Get between your kids and drugs any way you can if you want to save their lives.”
Carroll’s role as Archie Bunker catapulted him from a character actor to a TV superstar when “All in the Family” debuted in 1971. Despite his convincing portrayal of the bigoted character, Carroll was far from sharing Archie’s views. “He cared about the little guy,” says Rob Reiner, who played his son-in-law on the sitcom. “He shone a light on bigotry and ignorance and hope.” Carroll continued to address racial issues when he took over Rod Steiger’s Oscar-winning role as a Southern sheriff on TV’s “In the Heat of the Night” in 1988.
“That role embodied more of the real Carroll, in terms of embracing people of different ethnicities,” says Denise. “He ended up marrying [my character], a black woman, and we got hate mail for days.” Carroll’s unwavering support extended to his co-stars, standing by Howard Rollins during his substance abuse struggles and hiring Denise to write scripts for the show after she pointed out the lack of African-American writers on staff. “If he cared about you, he would not turn his back on you,” Denise remembers. “The man had character; we don’t see that a lot today.”
Carroll O’Connor passed away at 76 in 2001 from a heart attack due to complications from diabetes. Denise fondly recalls her friend and co-star, “He had these exquisite blue eyes, and they seemed to sparkle and dance when he was happy, you could see it. Those of us who were the beneficiaries of his largesse will always remember that as his legacy. I really miss him.”