Jean Stapleton: The Woman Behind ‘All in the Family’s Edith Bunker Could Never Be Stifled

Archie Bunker’s favorite nickname for his loving but long-suffering wife Edith may have been “dingbat.” But devoted All in the Family viewers knew that Edith was hardly a pushover. And neither was Jean Stapleton, the Manhattan-born character actress turned sitcom star who played her.

Stapleton played Edith for nine seasons, earning three Emmys and two Golden Globes, and building a backbone quiet strength and deep moral conviction into the sweetly naive Queens housewife who doted on her foul-mouthed, blue-collar husband (Carroll O’Connor) and the couple’s only child, Gloria (Sally Struthers). But she worried that, as the series entered later seasons and Edith endured both cancer and an attempted rape, Edith was becoming a bit too world weary. And Stapleton was becoming a bit too Edith Bunker.