From a mobster to a Martian.
Carroll O’Connor is one of TV history’s proudest talents. A prolific and highly esteemed actor, he trained in Ireland, then he fell in love and married an American girl and that’s when New York City met one of Dublin’s best new prospects.
Once O’Connor got cast as a character actor, it seems like he was instantly welcomed to every dramatic show on air, generating a solid decade of performances before he took on the role that would define him in 1968. Before he became the All in the Family patriarch with endless pearls of “wisdom,” audiences were captivated by the actor, whether he was a Martian blending in with Earthlings or a willful commanding officer demanding Festus’ head.
Of course, there’s never been any doubt that O’Connor is a multidimensional actor. After All in the Family ended, O’Connor rose to fame again on television, garnering attention (and Golden Globe nominations) as the star of In the Heat of the Night in 1988. But if you’re less familiar with O’Connor’s initial character work that landed him in Archie’s armchair, this scroll’s for you…
1. A dishonest bail bondsman on The Untouchables.
One of the first meaty roles O’Connor took on was as a bail bondsman on The Untouchables in its third season for the episode “Power Play.” His accent he used in the show probably now sounds positively foreign to those used to hear him like Archie Bunker. It was good enough for him to get an invite back next year, though, this time as Chicago gangster Arnie Kutz. In “Bird in the Hand,” it’s not Eliot Ness who threatens O’Connor’s most safety, but actually the pets his sinister character is sitting.
2. “The Boss” on Bonanza.
In the fourth season of Bonanza, O’Connor gives us a show of strength as Tom Slayden, a dirty businessman whose underhanded tactics end up getting Little Joe shot! That move lands O’Connor on the opposite side of Ben Cartwright, who sees Slayden thrown in jail – and unexpectedly throws the whole town into disarray.
3. A Martian on The Outer Limits
In the first season of The Outer Limits, O’Connor plays a Martian secretly observing Earth from a pawn shop until he’s visited by another Martian. Together, they decide to try and wrap their heads around the Earthling concept of murder. Using a time-control device, they choose a random murder in a hotel to replay, but in the meantime, they unwittingly disturb the entire order of the universe.
4. A sheriff on The Fugitive.
When The Fugitive episode “Flight from the Final Demon” opens up, we see Dr. Richard Kimble disguised as a masseuse working on none other than Carroll O’Connor, playing a sheriff. When O’Connor’s character recognizes the fugitive, he must run, but then, that’s just another day in Kimble’s life, right?
5. A brainwashing financier on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
We’re not gonna say the ’60s was a cushy time for Carroll O’Connor, but here he is getting another backrub, this time on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Here, he plays the villain Walter B. Brach in “The Green Opal Affair,” a financier who brainwashes people to do his bidding, and his eyes are on Napoleon Solo next. Luckily, Brach’s brainwashing comes back to bite him in the end… [spoiler alert] when he’s unceremoniously tossed into a pool of sharks by one of his brainwashed subjects.
6. A mysterious sailor on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
In the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode “Long Live the King,” O’Connor plays Old John, a sailor who becomes a boy king’s only friend when he is suddenly promoted to the throne. Everyone suspects the sailor has bad intentions, but Old John [spoiler alert] ends up being the king’s savior. It’s a beautiful performance by O’Connor, and one of his more unique early roles.
7. A kidnapper on I Spy.
Of course, it didn’t take O’Connor long to find himself cast back as a villain. In the first season of I Spy, his character Karolyi kidnaps Kelly Robinson and, yet again, is back to brainwashing (a talent Archie Bunker probably yearned for).
8. A suspected killer on Gunsmoke.
Carroll O’Connor first shows up on Gunsmoke in a 1966 episode called “The Wrong Man.” In it, he plays Hootie Kyle, a man suspected of killing another man that Hootie punched for cheating him at cards the day before. The episode title likely gives you a hint as to how this one played out.
9. “The Butcher” on The Time Tunnel.
We got two O’Connors for the price of one in the 1966 Time Tunnel episode “The Last Patrol.” O’Connor plays both a hardened Civil War generally known as “The Butcher” and that man’s descendant, whose role is to predict what his sinister ancestor will do next. The chrononauts are, of course, at the mercy of these two sides of the same actors.
10. A Mortician on The Wild Wild West
There’s much more to this Carroll O’Connor role than The Wild Wild West’s agents suspect, as he plays a mortician suspiciously connected to the deaths of many.
