In Modern Family, Ed O’Neill plays the family patriarch Jay Pritchett.
Jay is the father of Claire Dunphy and Mitchell Pritchett, and he is married to Gloria Delgado-Pritchett. The series presents him as part of a large extended family whose households are connected through marriage, parenthood, and sibling relationships.
Jay is portrayed as older and more traditional than several other central characters, but the comedy also develops his affection, vulnerability, and willingness to adapt. His relationship with his adult children and grandchildren is one of the show’s recurring storylines.
The names in the Pritchett family can be easy to mix up because Phil Dunphy is also a father and Mitchell is also a parent. Ed O’Neill’s character, however, is Jay, the older father at the center of the extended family.