Who Was Carroll O’Connor’s Greatest TV Character? The Answer Might Surprise You

Few actors are lucky enough to find a role that keeps them working for more than a decade, let alone one that turns them into a cultural icon. To follow it up with another meaty role — at age 63, in an entirely different genre — is practically unheard of. But tat’s the luck of  Carroll O’Connor, who died 24 years ago today, on June 21, 2001, at the age of 76. He made television history as All in the Family‘s dock foreman-turned-barkeep Archie Bunker, and then followed it up with 8 seasons as Southern small-town police chief Bill Gillespie on In The Heat of the Night.

But which character did the famously exacting O’Connor enjoy playing the most?