#1: Ed O’Neill as Al Bundy
Ed O’Neill portrayed Al Bundy, the grumpy yet lovable shoe salesman and patriarch of the Bundy family. Known for his sarcasm, misery, and signature couch slump, Al became one of TV’s most iconic sitcom dads — a man who hated his job, his luck, and most days of the week.

At the time, O’Neill was a classically trained actor from Youngstown, Ohio, who had mostly done stage work and small film roles before landing Married… with Children in 1987. The role catapulted him to stardom, earning him critical praise and typecasting him as the everyman antihero of late-’80s sitcoms.
