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00:00Only a few cast members from All in the Family are still with us,
00:04so what happened to the rest of the cast of the most influential sitcom of all time?
00:09Keep watching to find out.
00:11Born in New York in 1924, Carroll O'Connor tried his hand at a smattering of different careers,
00:17from journalism to a stint in the Marines to substitute teaching,
00:21before he established himself as a reliable character actor in the early 1960s.
00:26But he didn't find fame until the age of 46, when he landed the role that would make him a star,
00:32Archie Bunker, the bigoted patriarch on All in the Family.
00:36Famed writer and producer Norman Lear created All in the Family for CBS,
00:40and he hired O'Connor, who brought the character of Archie Bunker to life,
00:44making him the cultural touchstone he still is today. The New York Times wrote that O'Connor's
00:49handling of Archie made him, quote,
00:51a complex, not-always-wrong sympathetic figure to most of the 50 million weekly viewers in America.
00:57A huge accomplishment considering Bunker was vocal about his hatred for Black people,
01:01Jews, women, and so on, but he also wore his heart on his sleeve.
01:06I love you, Daddy.
01:07Well, your daddy certainly loves you, little girl.
01:12O'Connor was so successful in the role, winning four Emmy Awards for All in the Family,
01:17that he was given unprecedented control of the series and its follow-up, Archie Bunker's Place.
01:22He was consulted about both storylines and dialogue, penned the show's closing theme,
01:27and made $100,000 each episode, an amount no other TV actor was taking home at the time.
01:33Sadly, O'Connor died of a heart attack at age 76 in 2001.
01:39Archie Bunker's better half, his sweet, if maybe a little dim-witted wife, Edith Bunker,
01:44was played by Jean Stapleton. According to the New York Times,
01:47Stapleton's lead role made her one of the foremost women in television comedy in the 1970s,
01:52and something of a feminist icon, especially as her character progressed from housewife
01:57to empowered community leader. Prior to the three-time Emmy winner's success in All in the
02:02Family, which came at nearly age 50, Stapleton appeared in several Broadway productions,
02:07like Funny Girl, and landed supporting roles in a number of movies, including Damn Yankees and Clute.
02:13In 1979, after becoming tired of playing Edith, she departed from the series that made her a
02:18household name. She'd go on to accept a number of other roles in many other projects, looking to
02:23distance herself from the role of Edith, as she didn't want to be typecast. In 2013,
02:28Stapleton died at the age of 90. Her kids released a statement that said, in part,
02:33Being the children of a beloved mother on television means sharing the spirit of who
02:37Jean Stapleton was with her friends and fans. It is with great love and heavy hearts that we say
02:42farewell to our collective mother with a capital M. Her devotion to her craft and her family
02:47taught us all great life lessons.
02:50All in the Family wouldn't have worked as well as it did without characters who balanced out
02:54Archie Bunker's bigotry. Maude Finley, a cousin of Edith's, played by Bea Arthur, was one such foil.
03:01An outspoken, liberal feminist, Maude was everything Archie was not, and fans loved how she gave as good as she got.
03:08This country was ruined by Franklin Delano Roosevelt!
03:14You're fat.
03:16In fact, Maude was so popular she wound up getting her own spin-off, appropriately titled Maude.
03:22The series, which ran for six seasons, frequently tackled serious issues that were considered taboo,
03:27like divorce, addiction, LGBTQ plus rights, and women's liberation. In one particularly memorable
03:33episode, which aired two months before Roe vs. Wade was decided in 1973, Maude decides to abort a late
03:40in life pregnancy, a move that both landed Arthur at the center of a media storm and made her a leading
03:45figure in the feminist movement. Of course, it took some serious work from Arthur to get to a place
03:50where she could hold her own as the star of a series that addressed such intense topics. She got her
03:56start on stage, winning a Tony Award for her role in MAME in 1966 before making the jump to TV and film.
04:03Many fans will also remember her as Dorothy from The Golden Girls, a role she played for seven seasons.
04:09In 1992, after winning two Emmy Awards for her work, Arthur began what CNN called a sort of
04:14semi-retirement, only electing to take part in a handful of projects over the next decade and a half.
04:20In 2009, she died at age 86 of lung cancer complications.
04:25Born in 1923, Alan Melvin got his start in NBC Radio's sound effects department.
04:31After landing roles in a number of radio soap operas, he found work on Broadway,
04:36starring in the original run of Stalag 17, and then jumped to TV in the mid-1950s.
04:42Over the course of the next five decades, he appeared in everything from Gomer Pyle to The Brady Bunch.
04:47On All in the Family and Archie Bunker's Place, Melvin played Barney Hefner,
04:52Archie's neighbor and best friend. The role would mark Melvin's last on-screen acting gig.
04:56In 1983, when the spinoff went off the air, he elected to retire from being seen on the small
05:02screen, choosing to focus on voice acting work and family life.
05:05One last target, and no one will be able to stop me!
05:10In 2008, Melvin died of cancer. He's buried not far from his former co-star and on-screen
05:15pal Carol O'Connor at the Westwood Memorial Park.
05:19As a character, Archie Bunker is largely defined by his dislike of anyone who isn't just like himself.
05:25And despite his outward differences from his neighbor, George Jefferson,
05:29they were subtly similar people. Whether they liked it or not, George, who was played by Sherman
05:34Hemsley, was just as suspicious. That parallel allowed for some interesting storylines and impactful
05:40conversations. Born in Philadelphia in 1938, Hemsley didn't begin to pursue an acting career until
05:45he was discharged from the Air Force in the 60s. One of his first major roles after moving to NYC
05:51was in the musical Burley on Broadway. Norman Lear happened to catch the production and once told
05:56the Albany Times Union,
05:57"...the cocky energy of the guy was totally in sync with the offstage image we had created of George."
06:03Because of other commitments, Hemsley didn't actually appear on All in the Family until 1973,
06:08but the show's creator was so sure of his choice that he was content to just make references to the
06:13character until Hemsley's schedule freed up.
06:16"...they just happened to call and they said,
06:17where are you? We're looking for you, been looking for you to be on our show."
06:20And I said, you sure?
06:22After All in the Family and Hemsley's equally successful spinoff, The Jeffersons,
06:26went off the air in 1985, the actor worked on a handful of other TV projects, including Amen
06:32and House of Pain. In 2012, TMZ reported that the actor had died of a lung mass. He was 74.
06:39While Archie Bunker and George Jefferson were never exactly friends, Edith Bunker and Louise
06:44Jefferson, George's wife, most certainly were. Kind-hearted and street-smart, Louise balanced
06:50out her hot-headed husband the same way Edith did hers. Like so many of the other performers on this
06:55list, Isabelle Sanford didn't begin acting professionally until later in life. In 1965,
07:01she was cast in James Baldwin's play The Amen Corner, making her Broadway debut at the age of 47.
07:07This role led to a part in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, which in turn caught the attention of
07:12major Hollywood players like Norman Lear. All in the Family certainly helped launch Sanford's
07:17career to new heights, but it was the spinoff The Jeffersons that made her a household name.
07:22In 1981, her work on The Ladder Show made her the first Black woman to win an Emmy Award for
07:28Best Actress in a Comedy Series. Unfortunately, Sanford wasn't able to parlay that success into
07:33other major roles. After The Jeffersons wrapped, she was only offered guest star parts on sitcoms
07:38like Hangin' with Mr. Cooper. In 2004, Sanford died following months of declining health. She was 86.
07:46On All in the Family, Mel Stewart played Henry Jefferson, George's brother and a frequent
07:51house guest of The Bunker's Neighbors. Henry was as outspoken and opinionated as his brother,
07:56with an equally narrow outlook on life. He was a regular cast member of the original sitcom,
08:01but never appeared in the Jefferson spinoff, having been written out before the show began.
08:05Born in Ohio in 1929, Stewart started acting in the 50s, taking big parts in movies, TV shows,
08:12and an early off-Broadway production of Langston Hughes' Simply Heavenly, which eventually led to
08:17his Broadway debut in the same show. As his career progressed, Stewart landed bigger and bigger roles,
08:22including Billy Melrose in Scarecrow and Mrs. King, and Principal Rockwell in Made in America,
08:28his last on-screen role. Offscreen, Stewart was a celebrated saxophone player who performed
08:33alongside jazz icons like John Coltrane and Charlie Parker. He was also a drama professor
08:38at San Francisco State University. And outside of the arts, Stewart was a third-degree black belt
08:44in the martial arts discipline of Aikido and used his training to establish a dojo for
08:48underprivileged youth in his Bay Area neighborhood. In 2002, Stewart died of Alzheimer's disease complications
08:55at the age of 72. Lionel Jefferson, the son of George and Louise, is more laid-back than his
09:01father and uncle. A teenager at the beginning of All in the Family, Lionel typically laughs off the
09:05more ignorant things that come out of his father and neighbors' mouths, a move that works to illustrate
09:11just how misinformed those ideas are. When he won the part of Lionel in 1971, Evans was a drama student
09:17at Los Angeles City College with no professional experience, per The New York Times. Practice makes a
09:22quick teacher, though, and Evans excelled in the role, remaining with the franchise on and off for
09:27the next 14 years. He also helped create and write Good Times, a spinoff of Mod that was executive
09:33produced by Norman Lear. In the end, all of this success may have actually been Evans' downfall.
09:38Good Times star Jimmy Walker claimed to the Television Academy that Evans' over-the-top demands about
09:44screen time and his own spinoff wound up getting him fired. After telling Lear at a Christmas party that
09:49he needed more lines on The Jeffersons, or he was quitting, the famed producer apparently replied,
09:54quote,
09:55"...Okay, Michael. You're gone. Thanks."
09:57While he'd eventually returned to The Jeffersons, in 2006, the 57-year-old actor-turned-real-estate
10:03investor died of throat cancer.
10:06Another liberal foil to Archie Bunker was Irene Lorenzo, a neighboring coworker. A proud Irish Catholic
10:12woman who was incredibly handy, strong-willed, and dismissive of prescribed gender roles,
10:17Irene was well-liked by the Bunkers, as well as viewers. She remained a regular presence on
10:22the series through 1975. Betty Garrett, who played Irene, trained at NYC's Neighborhood Playhouse in
10:28the 1930s before landing roles in a series of Broadway shows. After signing a contract with MGM
10:34and appearing in a number of the studio's movie musicals, it seemed that she was destined to be
10:39a big star. However, it all came to an abrupt end when her husband, Larry Parks, was outed as a
10:44former member of the Communist Party, a connection that resulted in Garrett being blacklisted in
10:49Hollywood. Garrett was eventually able to return to professional acting and wound up working on
10:54shows like Laverne and Shirley and The Golden Girls. She also helped found the Theater West
10:59Theater in Los Angeles, where she taught classes and directed and starred in several plays and
11:04one-woman reviews. In 2011, Garrett died of an aortic aneurysm at the age of 91.
11:10Irene Lorenzo's husband, Frank, was an affable Italian man who worked as a salesman but preferred
11:17his household duties to his career work. Vincent Gardinia, a bona fide Italian who was born in
11:22Naples, Italy and immigrated to Brooklyn at a young age, brought the character to life.
11:27Gardinia got his professional start on stage in the 50s, later appearing in shows like The Prisoner of
11:32Second Avenue, which won him a Tony Award in 1972. Eventually, he moved to TV and movie work,
11:39earning Academy Award nominations for Bang the Drum Slowly and Moonstruck, and winning an Emmy
11:44Award for Age-Old Friends. Gardenia's time on All in the Family was short-lived, lasting only a
11:50single season because he was reportedly unhappy with the gig. Co-star Betty Garrick confirmed to
11:55the Television Academy that he wanted out, and producer Norman Lear granted the actor his freedom,
12:00though Frank's disappearance from the show wasn't explained. He never stopped working. According to
12:05The Washington Post, he claimed he'd played 500 roles, starting his career at five years old.
12:11At the time of his death, at age 72 in 1992, he was just beginning a new stage show when he
12:17suffered a heart attack before opening night.
12:20Burt Munson, owner of Munson's Cab Company and a drinking buddy of Archie's, appears sporadically
12:26throughout the first few seasons of All in the Family. The character, who is typically employed to
12:30provide comic relief, was played by former teen actor Billy Halep. Born into a family of performers
12:36in Brooklyn in 1920, it was only natural that Halep began pursuing a career in the arts at a young age.
12:42By the time he reached double digits, he was already an established radio star,
12:46having won parts in multiple serials, including Romeo and Juliet. In 1935,
12:51he landed the lead role in the Broadway play Dead End, a part he reprised in the film version,
12:56as well as its handful of sequels throughout the rest of the decade. It was as a member of the
13:01Dead End Kids that Halep became something of a household name. However, adulthood saw fewer
13:06roles for Halep, who began a second career as a nurse. In 1971, after experiencing heart problems
13:12for some time, he underwent open-heart surgery. His health never fully recovered, and in 1976,
13:18while still a regular on All in the Family, he died in his sleep at the age of 56.
13:23While most of All in the Family was set in the confines of the Bunker's living room,
13:28Kelsey's Bar was a popular second location. Bob Hastings, a popular character and voice actor,
13:34played the bar's proprietor and namesake, Tommy Kelsey, on seasons one through six.
13:39Hastings' career began in earnest after he returned from World War II. His first job,
13:44according to Variety, was as the voice of Archie Andrews in a radio show spinoff of the popular
13:49comic strip. From there, he worked on some of TV's first science fiction and adventure series,
13:55like Captain Video and his Video Rangers. Hastings found plenty of success in 60s, 70s,
14:00and 80s sitcoms, such as McHale's Navy, and also provided voices for a number of animated series,
14:06including as Commissioner Gordon in several Batman cartoons.
14:10But work wasn't Hastings' only focus. He was also a family man. Hastings was married to his wife,
14:16Joan Rice, for 66 years, and the couple shared four children. The Los Angeles Times reports that
14:22when he died of prostate cancer at age 89 in 2014, Hastings was survived by 10 grandchildren and 11
14:29great-grandchildren. Harry Snowden was a popular bartender at Kelsey's Bar who, after walking out
14:36and taking half the clientele with him, later became Archie's business partner. Harry and Archie
14:41never really saw eye-to-eye when it came to business matters, which resulted in Harry eventually
14:46turning over his share of the business and going back behind the bar. Popular character actor Jason
14:51Wingreen played Harry for almost a decade, both on All in the Family and its spinoff Archie Bunker's
14:56Place. Like co-star Bill Hastings, Wingreen's career really began after he returned from Air Force
15:02Service in World War II. He kicked off his career in the theater in the late 1940s before jumping over to
15:07TV and film. Notable credits include roles on films like Airplane and in series like Seinfeld and Star
15:13Trek. Outside of All in the Family, Wingreen's most iconic role was as the voice of Boba Fett
15:19in The Empire Strikes Back. Wingreen told StarTrek.com that his part in All in the Family was intended
15:25to be a one-off thing, but after his episode wrapped, the producers called his agent and asked
15:30Wingreen to come back, which he happily did for seven more years. Wingreen spent his later years
15:36traveling with his wife and died in 2015 at the age of 95.
15:41When Burt Mustin made his debut on All in the Family in a Season 4 episode called Edith Finds
15:46an Old Man, he was 89 years old. A veteran actor, Mustin played Justin Quigley, an octogenarian
15:52that has run away from the nursing home Edith volunteers at. Eventually, Mr. Quigley moves in
15:58with the Munkers before finding love with another geriatric Queens resident.
16:02How come you're all dressed for Betty boys?
16:05Well, at my age, you never know when a nap's gonna come over you.
16:09Acting for Mustin was a second act. After retiring from his first career as a fiscal agent,
16:15Mustin moved to Phoenix, Arizona with his wife and began performing in amateur theater productions
16:20as a way to fill his newly free days. Per The New York Times, it was here that he was discovered by
16:25director-producer William Wyler. Over the next 25 years, he worked on more than 400 TV shows and 70
16:32movies, including his own short-lived series, The Funny Side. One of Mustin's final on-screen
16:38appearances was in an episode of Phyllis, which aired on December 13, 1976. The Times reports that,
16:45while he was shooting the episode, he told his friends,
16:48This is it. I've had it. But it's a classy way to go."
16:51A little more than a month after his retirement, Mustin died in 1977, just shy of his 93rd birthday.
16:58Archie Bunker's misogyny was on full display any time he dealt with Mildred Boom Boom Turner,
17:04a dock worker turned waitress at Kelsey's bar. A chipper, well-endowed blonde, Mildred was often at
17:10the butt-end of some of the series' more sexist jokes, but carried on good-naturedly despite it all.
17:16Gloria Leroy, the actor who played Mildred, actually got her start as a nightclub singer-dancer,
17:21working alongside Barbara Walters' father, Lou Walters. After starring in a burlesque show in
17:27the early 50s, Leroy made the transition to the theater, where she was discovered by Norman Lear.
17:32The future, all-in-the-family producer cast her in her first film, The Night They Raided Minsky's,
17:37a musical comedy that was released in 1968. From there, Leroy went on to work on a host of other
17:44projects, ranging from movies like Cold Turkey to TV series like Shameless. In 2015, Leroy made her
17:51last on-screen appearance in Getting On as Mama Viv. She died three years later at the age of 92.
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