Hugh O'Connor

Hugh was born in Rome, Italy. When he was six days old, he was adopted by Carroll and his wife, Nancy (née Fields). Carroll was in Rome filming Cleopatra. He was named after Carroll's younger brother, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1961.

When he was 16, Hugh was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. He survived the cancer with chemotherapy and two surgeries but ultimately became addicted to drugs. He had been taking prescription drugs for the pain and marijuana for nausea but later became dependent on harder drugs. Despite numerous stays at rehabilitation clinics, he never conquered his addiction and remained in recovery.

Hugh married Angela Clayton, a wardrobe assistant on In the Heat of the Night, on March 28, 1992. Their son, Sean Carroll O'Connor, was born in 1993.

Six months before Hugh's death, Angela told Carroll that a man named Harry Thomas Perzigian had been furnishing Hugh with drugs. Carroll had retained a private detective to investigate. About a week before Hugh's death, Carroll brought the evidence to the Los Angeles Police, asking them to arrest Perzigian.

Several hours after Hugh's death, Carroll publicly named Perzigian as the man who caused his death. Perzigian was arrested the next day for drug possession and furnishing cocaine, after a search of his apartment turned up cocaine and drug paraphernalia. In January 1996, he was sentenced to a year in jail, a $1,000 fine, 200 hours of community service, and three years of probation.

Perzigian later sued Carroll for slander, for calling him a "sleazeball" and saying "he was a partner in murder, not an accessory, a partner in murder" in an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC's Primetime Live. After a highly publicized civil trial, Carroll was found not liable. He dedicated much of the rest of his life to speaking out on drug awareness.