O’Connor at Court to Press Drug Accusation : Charges: Actor attends arraignment of the man he alleges is the pusher responsible for his son’s suicide. Afterward, he urges others to join him in the fight against addiction.

The much anticipated confrontation between actor Carroll O’Connor and an alleged drug dealer he blames for his son’s death lasted for only a few seconds--a baleful glare across a crowded courtroom Wednesday morning--but the actor promised that his crusade against drug abuse is for the long haul.

O’Connor used the arraignment of Harry Perzigian, charged with possession of cocaine for sale, as a platform to urge greater cooperation with police in trying to thwart drug abuse.

Three weeks after the death of Hugh O’Connor, 32, the brief morning court appearance in West Los Angeles kept the spotlight on a case that already has inspired a massive outpouring of support for the man whom much of America still recognizes as television’s “Archie Bunker,” a character who often became the touchstone for national self-examination.

On Wednesday, the actor sat in the front row of the 70-seat courtroom and watched Perzigian plead not guilty to a charge that could land him in prison for up to four years. It was O’Connor’s report to police that led to the Brentwood man’s arrest March 29, the day after the younger O’Connor shot himself to death. The night of the suicide, the actor faced a row of news cameras and resolved: “Harry, I’m looking to see you someday.”

That moment arrived at the end of the brief court session, seemingly unnoticed by almost everyone but Perzigian and O’Connor. The men arrived separately Wednesday--O’Connor with a lawyer and his publicist, Perzigian with his girlfriend and half a dozen relatives. They scarcely seemed to notice each other until they stood to leave. Then Perzigian caught O’Connor’s eye and held it, shaking his head grimly from side to side. The actor froze and glared back for several seconds.

“As an actor, I am trained to read looks and to make translations of them,” O’Connor said later. “I read that look to mean, ‘This is a very bad thing you are doing to me.’ ”

Perzigian will face a preliminary hearing May 2 and is expected soon to be charged with a second count--this one alleging specifically that he supplied drugs to Hugh O’Connor. The younger O’Connor, an actor on his father’s television drama, “In the Heat of the Night,” had been an addict for half his life. He shot himself in despair over the prospect of returning again to drug rehabilitation, his father said.

Hugh’s wife, a cousin and a friend are prepared to testify that Perzigian was his drug supplier, according to family members. And authorities said they have $6,800 in canceled checks that Hugh O’Connor wrote over five years to pay Perzigian for drugs.

Perzigian’s lawyer said the “relatively insubstantial” amount of cocaine found in his Brentwood condominium was for his personal use and that Perzigian had been paid over the years for audio equipment.

“Mr. Perzigian is not responsible for Hugh O’Connor’s suicide,” said defense attorney Bradley W. Brunon. “He did not sell him drugs. He did not supply him with a gun.

“I feel sorry for Harry because he is in the vortex of a debate about drugs and personal responsibility,” Brunon said. “He is being made a symbol, and it’s not right.”

Despite those protestations, and Perzigian’s threat to sue for defamation, Carroll O’Connor did not back off his emotional commentary. Emerging from a brief meeting with a prosecutor, O’Connor faced about two dozen TV cameras.

He held up a mug shot of Perzigian in a wrinkled T-shirt, long, unkempt hair and a beard--noting the contrast to the clean-shaven defendant who appeared in the courtroom.

“We all dress according to what we do,” O’Connor said. “I’m playing the part of a respectable actor so I dress respectably. If you are in a bum trade, you dress like a bum. I guess it’s good for business.”

O’Connor said he had once employed a private investigator in an attempt to stop the flow of drugs to his only son, whom he adopted in Italy while filming “Cleopatra.” He said he even called Perzigian a few years ago, and left a message asking him to stop the alleged sales.

The actor said he hopes his persistence will inspire others.

“I want people to know there is something that can be done,” O’Connor said. “They must not sit back and say the police will do nothing and the courts will do nothing. They must come to the police and say to the detectives, ‘That man over there is pushing drugs in my project or on my block.’ ”

O’Connor said his high profile is part of a plan to raise consciousness about alcoholism and drug addiction.

He and his wife, Nancy, have received more than 2,000 letters and phone calls from people who seem to feel a palpable connection, mostly stemming from his days portraying the flawed working stiff, Archie Bunker. Television’s top-ranked “All in the Family” explored issues as diverse as racism, menopause and impotence. Now the public seems not to have missed a beat, airing the issues of drug abuse and suicide with O’Connor.

“People have been touched by him their whole life and now they have been again,” said Sonia Wolshin of the Clare Foundation, a Santa Monica-based drug treatment center that has received many calls and letters for the O’Connor family.

Nancy O’Connor said she has spent hours each day since Hugh’s death reading letters from both well-known people--such as President Clinton and actor Paul Newman, who lost a son to a drug overdose--and unknown people.

She said the letters have helped her and O’Connor work out their grief and guilt. “I think I put my head in the sand and really thought things were working out this last time and our prayers would be answered,” she said. “But he had just been out of rehab 18 days the last time when he started drinking again. That always started it.

“A lot of people still think Carroll is Archie, and the letters have been amazingly filled with love,” Nancy O’Connor said. “The important thing is that many of them have gone through the same thing and haven’t had the place to grieve. This is a channel for people to express their agony personally and about the state of the nation and the use of drugs.”