Ed O’Neill, who plays the character of Jay Pritchett on the sitcom ‘Modern Family’ is a classic American white man who has made a fortune from his business. Though his character arc is quite interesting as he begins to embrace his emotional side by the end of the show, Jay Pritchett is shown to be a difficult nut to crack.
While many ‘Modern Family’ viewers love Jay Pritchett for all his vices and virtues, the real man behind the character is quite the opposite of what Jay is. The only similarity that perhaps Ed O’Neill shares with his character is the hard work that got both of them an amazing rags-to-riches story. In a revelation that may shock many of his fans, O’Neill recently recalled how he was extremely close to being a Mafioso before he became an actor.
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Ed O’Neill Recalls The Night When A Friend Offered Him To Get Into Crime For Money
Veteran actor Ed O’Neill, most popular for his portrayal of Jay Pritchett on the show ‘Modern Family’, shared a rather shocking chapter from his past. He was speaking on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s ‘Dinner’s on Me’ podcast when he revealed how his father saved him from getting involved in organized crime.
Before achieving fame as Al Bundy in ‘Married…with Children’ and later as Jay Pritchett in ‘Modern Family’, O’Neill said he was considering joining a gang, and even almost did that. His journey to the small screen began after O’Neill was cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969.
He was struggling and broke at the time when he once found himself in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, contemplating his future. A childhood friend, whom the actor identified as Jim, offered to take him on a drive and put forth an unexpected proposal.
“We’re driving, and he said, ‘How you doing? You know, you got cut, you got no money. I said, ‘No, I’m broke. You know, I don’t know what I’m going to do,’” O’Neill said while speaking on the podcast.
The two then took an unusual pitstop at an out-of-place bar. O’Neill said his friend Jim engaged the bartender in a conversation and inquired about a man named Jimmy Demko. “He says, ‘I’m looking for this kid, his name is Jimmy Demko, do you know him?’ And the guy says, ‘No, it doesn’t ring a bell,’” O’Neill said.
“So he gives him 20, and he says, ‘Look, he’s an old friend of mine, I haven’t seen him in years, you know, I’m looking to reconnect, but I’d like to surprise him. So if he comes in again, this is my, you can call this number. You can reach me,’” he continued.
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What Stopped O’Neill From Being A Mafioso?
The encounter then took a dark turn when Jim offered O’Neill an unexpected job. “We left and he said, ‘You can do this kind of stuff for me, you know, I’ll protect you,’” he said. “‘I’ll give you easy stuff. Just you collect here. You do that. You run, you drop something off here and there. You know, you may have to lean on a guy. You’re good at that. You can make some good money… I said, ‘Let me think about it, Jim. Cause I’m, I don’t know. I might be leaving town to pursue this acting thing.’”
O’Neill said he was contemplating the offer when he had a conversation with his father. He said his father was somehow aware of Jim’s shady connections than O’Neill realized. The actor remembered his father asking, “I saw you take a ride with Jimmy… I just want to ask you a question. Can you do time?’”
O’Neill told him he couldn’t, and his father’s response was decisive. “He said, ‘You couldn’t do time. You’d have a hard time being in jail, right?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t think I could do time. He said, ‘Okay.’”
This was the conversation that saved O’Neill from leading a life of crime. Grateful, he informed Jim of his decision and set off for New York to pursue acting. “I went, and then I called Jimmy, and I thanked him, and I said, ‘I’m going to New York. Yeah. I’m going to try this, this other thing.’”
O’Neill then went on to become a stage actor and later became massively successful on television and in movies. It is rather a matter of wonder where he would have been had he gone ahead with the offer he got that day. As for his fans, they have O’Neill’s father to thank for the actor they know and love today.
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