Edward Leonard "Ed" O'Neill is an American actor.
He is best known for his role as the main character, Al Bundy, on the Fox TV Network
sitcom Married... with Children, for which he was nominated for two Golden Globes.
Since 2009, O'Neill has been playing patriarch Jay Pritchett on the award-winning ABC sitcom
Modern Family, a role for which he was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards and won three
Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Early life O'Neill was born into an Irish Catholic family
in Youngstown, Ohio.
His mother, Ruth Ann, was a homemaker and social worker, and his father, Edward Phillip
O'Neill, was a steel mill worker and truck driver.
O'Neill attended Ursuline High School and won a football scholarship to Ohio University,
where he majored in history.
O'Neill left Ohio after his sophomore year: he spent more time playing sports and partying
than studying and also feuded with his coach.
He transferred to Youngstown State University, where he was a defensive lineman.
O'Neill was signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969, but was cut in training camp.
Later, on Married... with Children, O'Neill played a former high-school football star
who had failed to make it big and constantly reminisced about his "glory days" at Polk
High.
As part of this theme, former Pittsburgh Steelers great and hall of fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw
also made two guest appearances on the show.
O'Neill was also a social studies teacher at Ursuline High School, before becoming an
actor.
Career O'Neill reenrolled at YSU after being cut
by the Pittsburgh Steelers and was one of the first students at the school's then new
theatre program.
He played Lennie in a stage production of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men at the American
Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In 1985, O'Neill appeared alongside Jeff Kinsland in a Red Lobster commercial and made a brief
guest appearance in The Equalizer.
In 1986, he was cast as the character of NYPD Police Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle for
the planned television series Popeye Doyle.
The Popeye Doyle character originally appeared in the motion picture The French Connection.
The two-hour made-for-television movie/pilot was filmed and shown on network television.
O'Neill received good reviews for his performance, and the pilot received good ratings, but the
series was not picked up for production.
O'Neill is primarily known for playing the lead role of Al Bundy in Married... with Children,
a long-running American sitcom about a dysfunctional family living in Chicago.
It was the first primetime television series to air on the Fox Network as a midseason replacement,
debuting on April 5, 1987 and concluding June 9, 1997, after 11 seasons.
During and following the success of Married... with Children, O'Neill appeared in several
movies, including The Bone Collector, Little Giants, and Dutch.
He also had small parts in Wayne's World and Wayne's World 2, and appeared as Relish the
Troll King in The 10th Kingdom.
O'Neill made a brief appearance on the comedy variety show In Living Color, playing the
"Dirty Dozens" champion who defeats the challenger, played by Jamie Foxx.
He also made a cameo on the sitcom 8 Simple Rules where he was the ex-boyfriend of Cate
S. Hennessy.
He also appeared in the movie The Adventures of Ford Fairlane with Andrew Dice Clay and
in Cruising with Al Pacino.
During the mid-1990s, he had a long string of appearances in commercials for 1-800-COLLECT.
Law & Order franchise creator Dick Wolf cast O'Neill as Sgt.
Joe Friday in his 2003 remake of Jack Webb's classic TV crime series Dragnet.
The series was canceled by ABC in its second season.
O'Neill went on to appear as Governor Eric Baker, a recurring character on NBC's The
West Wing.
Baker, a strong candidate for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, assumed the office
of the Vice President under Matt Santos at the end of the series.
O'Neill also played Bill on HBO's television series John From Cincinnati.
In 2008, O'Neill appeared in an advertisement for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama
as "Al the Shoesalesman".
In January 2009, O'Neill reunited with David Faustino for two episodes of Faustino's show
Star-ving.
O'Neill also appeared with the entire cast of Married with Children again when they were
honored at the 7th Annual TV Land Award show in 2009.
Since 2009, O'Neill has played the role of Jay Pritchett on the ABC sitcom Modern Family,
a role that earned him three Primetime Emmy Award nominations in 2011, 2012, and 2013.
Starting in winter 2012, O'Neill has lent his voice to TV advertisements for allergy
pill Zyrtec.
Personal life Since 1986 O'Neill has been married to actress
Catherine Rusoff, who appeared in two episodes of Married... with Children.
In 1989, the couple separated but reconciled in 1993.
They have two daughters: Claire, born in 1996, and Sophia, born in 1999.
The couple currently lives in Los Angeles.
After being introduced to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by his friend writer/director John Milius,
O'Neill has trained in the martial art for 22 years under the mentoring of Rorion Gracie.
In December 2007, O'Neill received his black belt.
In the 2011 TV documentary I Am Bruce Lee, O'Neill states that he considers getting his
black belt "the greatest achievement of my life, apart from my children."
Awards O'Neill received a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame on August 30, 2011.
Filmography Film
Television Awards and nominations
See also List of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners
References
External links Ed O'Neill at the Internet Movie Database
Ed O'Neill interview video at the Archive of American Television