NEWS'Modern Family' Star Ed O'Neill Declined an Offer to Work for the Mob Because He Was Afraid of Ending Up in Jail
Ed O'Neill's life could have played out very differently.
During his Tuesday, January 16, appearance on Modern Family costar Jesse Tyler Ferguson's podcast, the Married... With Children alum revealed he almost started working for the mob because he was "broke" and at a standstill in his career.
Ed O'Neill knew several people who worked in organized crime.
O'Neill, 77, explained that the opportunity came to him in 1969 when he was unemployed and living in Ohio.
"I had friends in organized crime," the actor admitted, referring to one pal as Jim. "Most of them, actually, were not mafia-made guys. There weren't that many made guys in Youngstown. But it was a lot of gangsters in Youngstown. All associated with these made guys. A lot of these guys were called associates."
'Modern Family' ran from 2009 to 2020.
Since O'Neill told his friend he didn't know what he was going to do to earn money, Jim picked him up one day in his car and drove them to a restaurant that the actor described as a place he "would never go" to.
"He started talking to the bartender. 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,'” the Emmy nominee recalled.
The actor married Catherine Rusoff in 1986.
"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,'” O'Neill continued.
After the men wrapped up their interaction with the bartender, O'Neill's pal offered him a job.
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"We left and he said, ‘You can do this kind of stuff for me, you know, I’ll protect you, 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,'” he added.
The dad-of-two told his friend, "'Let me think about it, Jim. I don’t know. I might be leaving town to pursue this acting thing.'”
The star and Sofía Vergara played spouses on 'Modern Family.'
O'Neill spilled that his father caught wind of the proposal and steered him away from it by noting there was a good chance the TV star would end up in jail if he joined the mob.
"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, ‘OK,”’ he revealed of the chat he had with his dad.
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In the end, the star thanked his friend but told him, "'I'm going to New York.'"
O'Neill had several movie and TV gigs in the '80s before landing his breakout role in Married... With Children, which aired from 1987 to 1997.
