O'Connor's apprenticeship as an actor was long; he spent many years as a substitute schoolteacher living with his wife in cold-water flats awaiting the "big break". He was well into his thirties when steady, albeit supporting, work came as an actor. But at age 46, Carroll O'Connor became Archie Bunker, the endearing bigot who grew to accept diversity (somewhat) on the ground-breaking CBS series, "All in the Family". When the series premiered in January 1971, audiences did not quite know what to make of it--a sitcom which followed the lives of a conservative, loading dock foreman, his "dingbat"
