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Modern Family's Ed O'Neill revealed to TV son Jesse Tyler Ferguson's podcast Dinner on Me that he almost became part of an organized crime ring.
The veteran actor said that he didn't have a lot of money then and was looking for a job in Youngstown, Ohio, where he lived in 1969. His friend then offered him a job for a mob ring.
“We're driving and he said, ‘How you doing? You know, you, you got cut, you got no money,” O'Neill told Ferguson.
“I said, ‘No, I'm broke. You know I don't know what I'm going to do',” he continued.
The sitcom star remembered his friend Jim took him to a bar, where he watched him exchange information with someone.
“He started talking to the bartender,” O'Neill said.
“He says, ‘I'm looking for this kid, his name is whatever, Demko, his name is Jimmy Demko, do you know him?' And the guy says, ‘No, it doesn’t ring a bell.' 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, you can call this number, you can reach me.'” the actor added.
O'Neill and his friend Jim left the bar and talked about job prospects. He recalled that Jim offered him a job doing “this kind of stuff” and assured him that he would “protect” him.
O'Neill elaborated that Jim was offering him the “easy stuff”: collection. However, there might be some instances where he'll have “to lean on a guy.” But that shouldn't be a problem for the almost-mobster since he's “good at that” and he can always “make some good money.”
Quite a tempting offer for a broke guy living in a small town.
The actor told Jim, “Let me think about it, Jim. Cause I'm, I don't know. I might be leaving town to pursue this acting thing.”
Before coming to a decision, O'Neill consulted his father who one important question: “Can you do time?”
He answered his father with a “No.”
This response may have sealed O'Neill's fate away from a life of crime because his father told him, “You couldn't do time. You'd have a hard time being in jail.”
He went back to Jim and told him “Thanks, but no thanks.” O'Neill then set off to New York to try “this other thing.”
This other thing being acting.
O'Neill went on to star in Married… with Children from 1987 to 1997. He spent 11 seasons playing Al Bundy, the patriarch of a dysfunctional family living in Chicago. The sitcom also starred Katey Segal as his wife Peggy and Christina Applegate as his daughter Kelly.
He also starred in films such as 1991's Dutch and 1994's Little Giants. O'Neill had small roles in 1992's Wayne's World and its sequel 1993's Wayne's World as well as in 1999's The Bone Collector, starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.
He most recently starred as Jay Pritchett on ABC's Modern Family from 2009 to 2020. The Emmy-winning show (22) also starred Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen and Ferguson. The cast unofficially reunited in social media photos that Vergara posted a couple of months ago.
