Ed O'Neill Pittsburgh Steelers Football, Ed O'Neill grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. He attended Ohio University on a football scholarship, but he transferred to Youngstown State University after his sophomore year because he was spending more time on the field and at parties than in the library. He continued playing football at YSU, which led to a brief stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers. In a lucky twist of fate, the Steelers cut him in training camp, prompting Ed to reenroll at YSU and join the school’s new theater program.

After getting passed over for starring roles in Cheers and Family Ties, Ed O'Neill scored the role of Al Bundy the patriarch of a dysfunctional Chicago family on Married... with Children. Like Ed, Al was a former high school football star who had failed to make it big. The series aired from 1987 to 1997, making it Fox's longest-running live-action sitcom.



Ed's other television credits include Sargent Joe Friday on Dick Wolf's remake of Dragnet; the recurring role of Baker (D-PA), a potential Vice Presidential candidate on The West Wing; the role of Detective Michael Mooney on the CBS police procedural Big Apple; and most recently a retired cop on HBO's John From Cincinnati. Ed has appeared on the big screen in The Bone Collector, Little Giants, Dutch, the Wayne's World series, and several films for Pulitzer Prize-winning screenwriter David Mamet.

Ed was nominated for two Golden Globes for his work on Married... with Children, and he’s racked up two Emmy nominations and a SAG nomination for playing Jay Pritchett on Modern Family. Along with the rest of his Modern Family co-stars, Ed won a 2010 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.