Caroll O'Connor RIP

Actor Carroll O'Connor died June 21 from a heart attack after collapsing in his home in Los Angeles He will always be remembered as the blue collar worker Archie Bunker, the irascible bigot on Norman Lear's "All in the Family," which earned him four Emmy Awards.

"All in the Family" helped make TV comedy part of the American dialogue on race, politics, homosexuality, sexism, religion, liberals, hippies, welfare and numerous other social issues of the '70s. The show ran from 1971-79 and when other featured actors left the series, O'Connor kept the Archie character alive in "Archie Bunker's Place" from 1979-83.

O'Connor, a native New Yorker, was also well known for the television version of "In the Heat of the Night," which ran from 1987-94.