The Only Actors Still Alive From The Cast Of All In The Family

Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin were new to sitcoms when they started working on an American version of "Till Death Us Do Part," a British show about a grouchy racist and his long-suffering family. Carroll O'Connor was cast as mouthy patriarch Archie Bunker and Jean Stapleton got the role of his wife Edith. Sally Struthers (daughter Gloria) and Rob Reiner (son-in-law Michael) rounded out the cast and CBS was ready to go, but the press questioned whether a show about a foul-mouthed bigot was needed. "We think it would be good for television and good for the country," Yorkin told The Marion Star in 1970. Privately, however, they were concerned about the possible reaction.

Speaking to Grant Magazine, Sally Struthers recalled how Norman Lear still had doubts right up until the last moments. "It's either going to be a big hit, and you will be recognized everywhere you go," he reportedly said, "or the public is going to be up in arms with the way Archie talks, with all his racial slurs, and it's going to be off the air after tonight, and we'll all be out of a job." The show went on to be nominated for a whopping 55 Emmys, winning 22 of them. It spawned an incredible seven spinoffs ("Maude," "Good Times," "The Jeffersons," "Archie Bunker's Place," "Checking In," "Gloria," and "704 Hauser"), becoming a cultural touchstone and phenomenon that still reverberates today.

We've lost many "All in the Family" cast members over time, including Archie and his better half Edith, but some are thankfully still with us.

When casting the role of Archie and Edith's daughter Gloria, Norman Lear remembered seeing Sally Struthers on "The Smothers Brothers Summer Show," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "I just loved her look, something about the way she composed herself," he said. "So, I brought her in to read." The competition was tough, including Rob Reiner's partner, Penny Marshall, but in the end, Struthers was the best fit. She didn't have much in common with the character, however, and she actually attempted to leave the series in 1975. Her contract was upheld and she returned to work for another three years before she called it quits. "The public needs a breather from me and I need a breather from myself and Gloria," she told The Sentinel at the time. "I'm glad I'm leaving the show before Gloria goes through menopause."

She did return for guest appearances on "Archie Bunker's Place" and starred in a short-lived spin-off featuring her character, "Gloria," and Struthers remained very much in the public eye trying to save children around the world with those ubiquitous TV ads. In the years that followed her departure from the show, she became more grateful for her experience on it. "I get all these offers, and that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been on 'All in the Family,'" she told Grant Magazine. "I've been beyond fortunate." She would make herself known to newer generations, voicing Rebecca Cunningham on Disney's "Tail Spin," and later as the beloved and mouthy Babette Dell on "Gilmore Girls." The show reunited her with "Family" friend, Liz Torres.

Liz Torres studied drama at NYU and by the mid-70s she was a regular on the show "Phyllis." Norman Lear spotted her on "The Tonight Show" and wrote her into "All in the Family" as Puerto Rican hospital clerk Teresa Betancourt, who assists Archie before surgery and later rents a room in his home. Torres and O'Connor shared more than barbs and laughs, as she learned he once taught at the same New York high school she attended. Apparently, it was a rather rough school. "Girls would go into the washroom and disappear for three years," Torres told the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Accepting the role was a no-brainer for Torres. "I'm one of those actresses who never turns down a part, no matter how small," she told the Los Angeles Times in 1994. "I don't have the luxury of picking and choosing. I take everything." While she acknowledges that she has "an impressive bio" (she's done shows like "The Wonder Years" and "Scandal," and has Emmy nominations for "The Famous Teddy Z" and "The John Larroquette Show"), Torres "never had financial success," she said. "I'm just somebody who works." She worked for Lear again on "The Jeffersons" and later reunited with Sally Struthers on "Gilmore Girls." Torres, who plays fan favorite Miss Patty, told Starry Mag that they hadn't seen each other in the interim years. "We picked up right where we had left off," she said. "I think we finished the sentence we started thirty years ago."

Early in his career, Clyde Kusatsu (a Hawaiian native of Japanese descent) was often relegated to parts playing to Asian stereotypes, but he would make the most of every opportunity he got. When he popped up on "All in the Family" as the reverend whom Archie wants to baptize his grandson, he gave Archie Bunker a taste of his own medicine. "In one scene he calls me Mr. Ching," Kusatsu told Hawaii Forward. "My character says that wasn't my name. Then Archie calls me Mr. Chang and I say it's Chong and Archie says, 'Whatevers.' Later in the episode my character calls Archie 'Mr. Binker,' and he says 'It's Bunker,' and I say, 'Whatevers.'"

Kusatsu would appear as Rev. Chong in two more "All in the Family" episodes, impressing Rob Reiner's dad Carl, who called him "funny" and cast him in his film "Oh, God!" He would make a name for himself as a reliable character actor over the decades, notching over 300 credits. He plied his trade on both iterations of "Hawaii 5-0" and also appeared in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," which he credited for always offering "better equal opportunities for a lot of actors of color." Kusatsu reunited with Sally Struthers to play her husband on the sitcom "Still Standing," with Rob Reiner for his 2005 film "Rumor Has It," and with Norman Lear, for a reflection on his career with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, a foundation close to his heart.

Archie's funny co-worker, Stretch Cunningham, was a mythical figure often talked about in the Bunker household, but had never made an appearance on the show until Season 5. When star Carrol O'Connor demanded a raise and then walked off the show, James Cromwell came in as Stretch, who had traveled with Archie to a conference, lost him, and returned to tell his family. They were going to kill Archie off, as Cromwell told the AV Club. "I was to move into the house," he said. "And of course Carroll settled." Stretch died off screen two seasons later, with Archie giving the eulogy.

Cromwell toiled on television after that, including on many a Lear production, like the short-lived "Hot l Baltimore." He told the Standard-Speaker: "As an older character actor, you have to accept a lot of junk or go unemployed for long periods of time. Both options drive me crazy." That all changed when he took a chance on a talking pig movie. He gave some humanity to 1995's  "Babe," earning himself an Oscar nomination (and becoming a vegan in the process). He went on to appear in the likes of "L.A. Confidential," "The Green Mile," "Six Feet Under," "The Artist," and "Succession."

In 2013, Cromwell won an Emmy for his turn as Arthur Arden in "American Horror Story." That same year, he told HuffPost that it was a good thing that Stretch got killed off when he did. "I would have been like the Fonz," he said. "I would have always been known as Stretch."