Friday, Sep. 16, 2011

Ed O'Neill: From Al Bundy to Jay Pritchett

Ed O'Neill had been acting for many years before landing his breakout television role on the '90s sitcom Married with Children. O'Neill played shoe salesman Al Bundy, who loved busty blondes and griped a lot about his wife and teenage kids. The actor earned two Golden Globe nominations for the role, but once the show ended in 1997, it seemed like O'Neill was headed for TV retirement. Not so. O'Neill's hit ABC show Modern Family premiered in 2009 to rave reviews (and earned him an Emmy and a Screen Actors Guild Award), and while he still plays the patriarch of a family, this time his character, Jay Pritchett, is older, successful, wealthy and actually enjoys being around his relatives — most of the time. Married with Children's Katey Sagal, who played Bundy's wife Peg, also had her own chameleon makeover in 2008 when she returned to TV in the FX drama Sons of Anarchy, as the wife of a member of an outlaw motorcycle club in California.