O’Neill, 73, grew up on Youngstown’s north side, graduated from Ursuline High School and attended Youngstown State University. On the show, O’Neill’s character’s daughter, Claire (played by Julie Bowen) is married to Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell), and his son, Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), is married to Cameron (Eric Stonestreet).
“Modern Family” has won five Emmy Awards for best comedy series, each coming in its first five season. “Within a day, all three houses were gone. “When we came out of the Dunphy house, we had to walk past the interior set and they were already tearing it down,” he said. It was shortly afterward that the finality really hit home for O’Neill. “On the last day, Sofia and I finished a scene in the kitchen and had to walk to the Dunphy house and I heard her yell ‘Ed, Ed, Ed’ and I turned around and she said, ‘That’s the last scene there, we’ll never go back.’ I hugged her, and she started laughing and crying.” “You walk out the stage door and say, ‘I’m never going back.’ “You leave the hair and makeup trailer and say, ‘I’m never going back,’ ” O’Neill said. On the final day, every moment was colored by “this is the last time” sentimentality, as if it were the last day of school. I’m not afraid of emotion but I was trying to maintain the same mindset we had for 11 years.” “I saw actors walking off in tears and then coming back and it was becoming hard to shoot,” he said. O’Neill said he put the situation out of his head and focused on the job at hand. “Being from Youngstown, having worked in a steel mill and in construction and as a bartender, I am results-oriented and I was just thinking, ‘Let’s get it done and then we can have wine and cry if you want.’ ” That’s when his Mahoning Valley work ethic took over. The last two days were long ones because the was together filming for 12-hour days and it became very emotional.”
People were getting choked up and it built up to that last day. “The last two weeks of shooting, there was a build up of emotion and you could feel it all around you,” he said.
On the last day of shooting, he was much like his character – the calm in the eye of the storm. The Youngstown native plays Jay Pritchett, the patriarch of the family, on the show. O’Neill discussed “Modern Family” and what’s next for him in a March 10 phone interview from Hawaii, where he was vacationing.
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