Quotes

People see Archie Bunker everywhere. Particularly girls--poor girls, rich girls, all kinds of girls are always coming up to me and telling me that Archie is just like their dad.

Get between your kids and drugs any way you can if you want to save the kid's life.

Nothing will give me any peace. I've lost a son. And I'll go to my grave without any peace over that.

[asked to explain his criticism of critics] I think you all have been in a position where you all have said something out of pure emotion that is not all true. There are semi-literates. They write bad grammar. A lot of them copy what other people write and add a little twist of their own so that it appears the local boy has the inside track.

[In 1976, on how he was going to play Frank Skeffington in The Last Hurrah (1977)] I'm going to keep the bigotry Edwin O'Connor had in the novel, but I'm going to play it as an undertone rather than as the main theme.

[In 1972] It happens every time I wear this here suit. I get a helluva hand.

[what happened when he was first approached to do The Last Hurrah (1977)] I say okay, but I wanted to see the Spencer Tracy movie [The Last Hurrah (1958)]. So I did. I didn't think I could repeat what I saw on the screen, so I said, "Let me see the old screenplay . . . maybe what was on the screen wasn't the screenplay".

[regarding critics] I concluded too many of you don't know what you're doing.

[about his congressman, who was Polish but was elected from an overwhelmingly Irish district] The Polacks voted for him to get even with the Irish for tellin' all those Polish jokes; the Italians voted for him to prove it was the Irish; and the colored people voted for him 'cause they like Polish jokes and they thought he was the best one yet.

[in 1974] Television audiences are seeing more of the good and admirable qualities of blacks than they have ever seen before. Some of these shows are causing the fears that underlie prejudice to be a bit dissipated.

[about his life after the death of his son Hugh O'Connor] The biggest part of my life was the acquiring and the loss of a son. I mean, nothing else was as important as that.

[on his popularity while playing the 50-something Archie Bunker on All in the Family (1971)] Archie is what he is. He is over 50 and you can't expect any turnover in his character. He might modify his racist language in the house because he grows tired of his wife and kids jumping all over him. I am not playing Archie with any ax to grind. As I have said before, Archie is made up of persons who really exist. I have seen them.

[when at one point All in the Family (1971) was in danger of being canceled] I thought that the public would kick us off the air, because of this egregious guy [Archie Bunker]. No. They loved . . . they knew him.

[on auditioning for the Archie Bunker role in All in the Family (1971)] I was approached in 1968 and [a producer had] secured the rights to a show that was a big success in England and it was called Till Death Us Do Part (1965). I thought we'd never do a show that outrageous in this country. And I wanted to do something outrageous. I didn't think we'd last a month.