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David Hart on working with Carroll O'Connor during In the Heat of the Night
"He's an icon," said Hart of his co-star.
Working with a television legend was the dream of plenty of actors, but for David Hart, it was his reality for a few years.
Hart worked alongside Carroll O’Connor in the hit crime series, In the Heat of the Night. Previously, O’Connor had played Archie Bunker in All in the Family, a character that would earn the actor critical acclaim.
In an interview, Hart admitted that he was more than just a fan of O’Connor’s work; he truly admired the older man as an actor.
“You’ve got to admire Carroll’s work,” Hart said during an interview with the Winston-Salem Journal. “He’s an icon. Archie Bunker’s chair is in the Smithsonian.”
However, that didn’t mean that Hart grew too starstruck to do his job as an actor. He admitted that occasionally, he and O’Connor disagreed; those issues never diminished the deep respect between the two men.“Now, sometimes his idea of what’s right is not necessarily my idea of what’s right,” said Hart. “But he’s the boss, and you have to find ways to compromise or just keep your mouth shut.”
While Archie Bunker was undoubtedly what O’Connor had become known for, the actor seemed to utilize In the Heat of the Night as a means to shed his image as the sitcom star.
“He’s used this show in some regards to show how un-Archie Bunker he is,” Hart said of his co-star. “And that’s fine. It’s his show. It’s his forum for that.”
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