CARROLL O'CONNOR - PRINTED LETTER SIGNED IN INK - HFSID 309872

CARROLL O'CONNOR
His printed thank you message to supporters during a family crisis
Printed Letter signed in ink: "Best Regards/Carol O'Connor", 1 page, 6¼x4½, affixed to a 8½x11 mount (2 surfaces). Printed letter, which also bears his facsimile first name signature. In full: "I'd like to write something special, like the fond message you wrote to me, but by the time my special replies reached all the thousands of sweet well-wishers hardly anyone would remember what the crisis was about. Better to say as soon as possible the same words of thanks to everybody. God bless you for your loving thoughts and prayers; they made the good things happen to me and Nancy and Hugh." Stage, screen and television actor Carroll O'Connor (1925-2001) is best known for his role as Archie Bunker on All in the Family, televised on CBS from 1971-1979, for which he won four Emmy Awards. The first situation comedy to deal openly with bigotry, prejudice and politics, All in the Family was the number one show in the Nielsen ratings during its first five seasons and continued as Archie Bunker's Place (1979-1983). O'Connor won a fifth Emmy for his portrayal of Sheriff William "Bill" O. Gillespie in the TV series In the Heat of the Night (1988-1994), in which his adopted son, actor Hugh O'Connor, also appeared. Over his 50-year acting career, O'Connor also starred in a number of feature films, including Parrish (1961), Lonely Are the Brave (1962), Cleopatra (1963), In Harm's Way (1965), What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966), Hawaii (1966) and In the Heat of the Night (1988), and made-for-television movies and was a guest star on a number of TV series. Nancy was his wife, the former Nancy Fields, whom he had married on July 28, 1951. Hugh was their adopted son, a cast member of In the Heat of the Night, who battled drug addiction until his suicide on March 28, 1998. This letter, obviously not a response to mere fan mail and written before the suicide, may have been prompted by Hugh's well-publicized rehab efforts, or else by Carroll's own heart bypass surgery of 1989. Residue on bottom right corner of mount. Fine condition.