The iconic All in the Family star died of a heart attack at approximately 3:15 p.m. Thursday in Culver City, California.

He had been complaining of chest pains before collapsing at his Los Angeles home. He was rushed to nearby Brotman Memorial Hospital, his wife Nancy at his side, publicist Frank Tobin tells E! News Daily.

Doctors tried to revive the stricken O'Connor but had no luck.

He was best known for his Emmy-winning work as the bigoted, blue-collar Bunker patriarch on Norman Lear's landmark CBS '70s sitcom All in the Family, which was one of the highest-rated, most-debated shows ever. O'Connor reprised the role in one of its three spinoffs, Archie Bunker's Place (The Jeffersons and Maude were the others, with Maude leading to Good Times).

Archie/Carroll had such an impact on pop culture that Archie's famous lounge chair, from which he railed against the world, now resides in the Smithsonian.

"If Archie owes its life to Carroll O'Connor, and it does, then Americans can be grateful to Carroll O'Connor that [he] helped them have a good, serious look at themselves," Lear, who had long been estranged from the actor, tells E! News Daily.

"The world has lost a great talent, and a wonderful man. The talent lives on every night of your life in that character. Everyone should die like that--leaving so much behind."

Rob Reiner, who earned his initial fame as Archie's liberal son-in-law, Mike "Meathead" Stivic, said O'Connor was a driving creative force on the show and in Reiner's career.

"Aside from the fact that Carroll O'Connor created, I believe, the most indelible character in the history of American television, he was very important man for me, because he taught me not only about acting, but about how you construct a play, [how] you create a character," Reiner said at a Thursday night news conference. "What he taught me, I've been able to take with me in my career in film work."

Jean Stapleton, Archie's beloved "dingbat" of a wife, Edith, called her former costar a "marvelous talent and humor" and said, "I treasured working with Carroll for eight and a half years and have always respected his creativity. He was one of the most intelligent and generous people I have ever worked with. When I have the occasion to catch a rerun, I'm reminded of his marvelous talent and humor."

Sally Struthers also had high praise for her TV dad. "My own father died two years before I landed the role of Gloria on All in the Family, so Carroll O'Connor became a father to me onscreen and off. When Carroll was playing Archie I knew that he was the reason the show was a hit. Working with him was the best acting school I could ever have attended." Struthers also credited O'Connor for introducing her to her husband.

A member of the Television Hall of Fame, O'Connor also won an Emmy as gruff Sheriff Bill Gillespie on CBS' In the Heat of the Night, which he coproduced.

Before making it big on TV, the New York-born O'Connor got his start in supporting roles in the movies, often being typecast as the tough commander in such war films as Kelly's Heroes, In Harm's Way and The Devil's Brigade.

He also made the rounds in '60s shows like Ben Casey, I Spy, Gunsmoke, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Outer Limits, The Fugtive and The Wild, Wild West before Lear tapped him for TV immortality. He was also an accomplished stage actor.

Aside from the occasional appearance on Mad About You and Party of Five, O'Connor remained something of a recluse in recent years, following the 1995 suicide death of his drug-addicted son, Hugh, the subsequent legal battle with Hugh's drug dealer and a string of health setbacks.

A diabetic, O'Connor was admitted to the hospital in November, where he had a toe on his left foot amputated to improve circulation. He appeared in good spirits afterward, even showing off his bandaged foot for TV cameras.

A year earlier, he went under the knife so doctors could fix adhesions from a previous gall-bladder operation. In June 1998, doctors cleared a blockage in a heart artery to reduce his risk of stroke.

Despite his myriad ailments, O'Connor came out of semiretirement to costar in last year's Return to Me, with David Duchovny and Minnie Driver, and was judged by most critics to be the best part of the maudlin romantic comedy.

He is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years, Nancy. A private funeral will be held Tuesday in Los Angeles. Per Hollywood tradition, a bouquet of flowers was placed on O'Connor's star on the Walk of Fame.

(updated 6/22/01 at 11:35 a.m. PT)