Product Code Database
Kevin Joseph " Chuck" Connors"New York, New York City, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1947", FamilySearch
: Sat Mar 09 13:31:07 UTC 2024), Entry for Kevin Joseph Connors and Student College, 15 Feb 1942. (April 10, 1921 – November 10, 1992) was an American actor and professional basketball and baseball player. He is one of only 13 athletes in the history of American professional sports to have played in both the National Basketball Association (Boston Celtics 1946–48) and Major League Baseball (Brooklyn Dodgers 1949, Chicago Cubs, 1951). With a 40-year film and television career, he is best known for his role as Lucas McCain on the ABC series The Rifleman (1958–63).
: Thu Jan 16 02:47:56 UTC 2025), Entry for Allen Connors and Marcella Connors, 1930."United States, Census, 1950", FamilySearch
: Wed Mar 20 16:09:23 UTC 2024), Entry for Allan Connors and Marcella Connors, 10 April 1950. Raised as a Catholic Church, Connors served as an altar boy at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn.
His father became a citizen of the United States in 1914 and was working in Brooklyn in 1930 as a longshoreman, and his mother had also attained her U.S. citizenship in 1917.
Connors was a devoted fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers despite their losing record during the 1930s, and hoped to join the team one day. A talented athlete, he earned a scholarship to the Adelphi Academy, a preparatory school in Brooklyn, where he graduated in 1939. He received offers for athletic scholarships from more than two dozen colleges and universities., "Welcome to the McCain Ranch" website dedicated to the history and content of the television series The Rifleman; retrieved July 24, 2017. He attended Seton Hall University and played both basketball and baseball at the school.
Since childhood, Connors had disliked his first name, Kevin, and sought another name. He tried using "Lefty" and "Stretch" before finally settling on "Chuck". Profile, ourchuckconnors.com; accessed March 7, 2015. The name derived from his time as a player on Seton Hall's baseball team. He would repeatedly yell to the pitcher from his position on first base, "Chuck it to me, baby! Chuck it to me!" The rest of his teammates and spectators at the university's games soon caught on, and the nickname stuck.
Connors left Seton Hall after two years to accept a contract to play professional baseball. He played on two minor league teams (see below) in 1940 and 1942, then joined the United States Army following America's entrance into World War II.U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records 1938–1946, National Archives and Records Administration. Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, 1938–1946 Archival; ARC: 1263923. World War II Army Enlistment Records; Records of the National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 64; National Archives at College Park. College Park, Maryland, U.S.A. During most of the war, he served as a tank-warfare instructor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and later at West Point in New York.
Following his time in the Army, Connors played for the Newport News Dodgers (Piedmont League) in 1946, the Mobile Bears (Southern Association) in 1947, the Montreal Royals (International League) from 1948 through 1950, and the Los Angeles Angels (Pacific Coast League) in 1951 and 1952.
Connors is one of 13 athletes to have played in both the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. The 12 others: Danny Ainge, Frank Baumholtz, Hank Biasatti, Gene Conley, Dave DeBusschere, Dick Groat, Steve Hamilton, Mark Hendrickson, Cotton Nash, Ron Reed, Dick Ricketts, and Howie Schultz.
Connors attended spring training in 1948 with Major League Baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers, but did not make the squad. He played two seasons for the Dodgers' AAA team, the Montreal Royals, before playing one game with the Dodgers in 1949. After two more seasons with Montreal, Connors joined the Chicago Cubs in 1951, playing in 66 games as a first baseman and occasional pinch hitter. In 1952, he was sent to the minor leagues again to play for the Cubs' top farm team, the Los Angeles Angels.
Contrary to erroneous reports, Connors was not drafted by the Chicago Bears of the National Football League.
| 1946–47 | Boston | 49 | .247 | .464 | .8 | 4.6 |
| 1947–48 | Boston | 4 | .385 | .667 | .3 | 3.0 |
| Career | 53 | .252 | .471 | .8 | 4.5 | |
| + Career offensive totals | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Total | 67 | 215 | 202 | 16 | 48 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 18 | 4 | 12 | 25 | .238 | .280 | .302 | .582 | 55 | 61 | 1 | 1 |
| + Career defensive totals |
Connors was cast as Lou Brissie, a former professional baseball player wounded during World War II, in the 1956 episode "The Comeback" of the religion anthology series Crossroads. Don DeFore portrayed the Reverend C. E. "Stoney" Jackson, who offered the spiritual insight to assist Brissie's recovery so that he could return to the game. Grant Withers was cast as Coach Whitey Martin; Crossroads regular Robert Carson also played a coach in this episode. Edd Byrnes, Rhys Williams, and Robert Fuller played former soldiers. X Brands is cast as a baseball player.
In 1957, Connors was cast in the Walt Disney film Old Yeller in the role of Burn Sanderson. That same year, he co-starred in The Hired Gun.The Rifleman The Original Series The Riflemen website , therifleman.net; accessed March 10, 2015.
He also became a beloved television character actor, guest-starring in dozens of shows. His guest-starring debut was on an episode of NBC's Dear Phoebe. He played in two episodes, one as the bandit Sam Bass, on Dale Robertson's NBC Western Tales of Wells Fargo.
His other television appearances were on Hey, Jeannie!, The Loretta Young Show, Schlitz Playhouse, Screen Directors Playhouse, Four Star Playhouse, Matinee Theatre, Cavalcade of America, Gunsmoke, The Gale Storm Show, The West Point Story, The Millionaire, General Electric Theater hosted by Ronald Reagan, Wagon Train, The Restless Gun with John Payne, Murder, She Wrote, Date with the Angels with Betty White, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, The Virginian, Night Gallery hosted by Rod Serling, and Here's Lucy with Lucille Ball.
The Rifleman was an immediate hit, ranking number four in the Nielsen ratings in 1958–59, behind three other Westerns – Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, and Have Gun – Will Travel. Johnny Crawford, an unfamiliar actor at the time, former Mousketeer, baseball fan, and Western buff, beat 40 other young stars for the role of Lucas' son, Mark. Crawford remained on the series from 1958 until its cancellation in 1963. The Rifleman landed high in the Nielsen ratings until the last season in 1962–63, when it was opposite the highly rated return to television of Lucille Ball on The Lucy Show, and ratings began to drop. The show was cancelled in 1963 after five seasons and 168 episodes.
Two rifles were specifically made for Chuck Connors by Maurice "Moe" Hunt and were never used on the show. He was a fan of the show and gave them to Connors. Arnold Palmer, a friend and honorary chairman of the annual Chuck Connors charity golf event, was given one of the personal rifles by Connors and it was on display at The World Golf Hall of Fame.
As Connors was strongly typecast for playing the single-father rancher, he then starred in several short-lived series, including: ABC's Arrest and Trial (1963–1964), an early forerunner of Law & Order featuring two young actors Ben Gazzara and Don Galloway; and NBC's post-Civil War-era series Branded (1965–1966).
In 1967–1968, Connors starred in the ABC series Cowboy in Africa alongside Tom Nardini and British actor Ronald Howard.
Connors guest-starred in a last-season episode of Night Gallery titled "The Ring With the Red Velvet Ropes". In 1973 and 1974, he hosted a television series called Thrill Seekers.
Connors was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance in a key role against type: a slave owner in the 1977 miniseries Roots.
Connors hosted a number of episodes of Family Theater on the Mutual Radio Network. This series was aimed at promoting prayer as a path to world peace and stronger families, with the motto, "The family which prays together stays together."
In 1980, he hosted Chuck Connors' Great Western Theatre, a combination of off-network episodes of Branded and The Guns of Will Sonnett, managed by Leo A. Gutman, Inc.
In 1983, Connors joined Sam Elliott, Cybill Shepherd, Ken Curtis, and Noah Beery Jr. in the short-lived NBC series The Yellow Rose, about a modern Texas ranching family.
In 1985, he first guest-starred in the pilot episode which would become a recurring role of King Powers in the ABC TV series , starring Robert Urich as Spenser — "with an S, like the poet" — and Avery Brooks as Hawk.
In 1987, he co-starred in the Fox series Werewolf, as drifter Janos Skorzeny.
In 1988, he guest-starred as Gideon in the TV series Paradise, starring Lee Horsley. He also starred as Nash Crawford, an aged, retired Texas Ranger, in the film Once Upon a Texas Train.
In 1991, Connors was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
Connors married Kamala Devi (1963) the year after co-starring with her in Geronimo. She also acted with Connors in Branded, Broken Sabre, and Cowboy in Africa. They were divorced in 1973.
Connors met his third wife, Faith Quabius, when they both appeared in the film Soylent Green (1973). They were married in 1977 and divorced in 1979.
Connors was a supporter of the Republican Party and attended several fundraisers for campaigns for U.S. President Richard M. Nixon. Connors also backed Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election, and Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election. He campaigned for Ronald Reagan, a personal friend, and marched in support of the Vietnam War in 1967.
Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the Soviet Union, met Connors when Brezhnev arrived on Air Force One at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station with President Richard Nixon in June 1973. Brezhnev noticed Connors in the group on the tarmac waiting to receive the President and him. Brezhnev shook Connors' hand and then wrapped his arms around him, and leapt into Connors' arms to be lifted up by the hulking American actor. The crowd laughed and clapped at the spectacle. Later, at a party given by Nixon at the Western White House in San Clemente, California, Connors presented Brezhnev with a pair of Colt Single Action Army "Six-Shooters" (revolvers), which Brezhnev liked greatly.
Few American television programs were permitted to be broadcast in the Soviet Union at that time; The Rifleman was an exception, because it happened to be Brezhnev's favorite show. Connors and Brezhnev got along so well that Connors accepted an invitation to visit the Soviet leader in Moscow in December 1973. After Brezhnev's death in 1982, Connors expressed an interest in returning to the Soviet Union for the General Secretary's funeral, but the U.S. government would not allow Connors to be part of the official delegation.
On July 18, 1984, Connors was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (star location at 6838 Hollywood Blvd). Over 200 close friends attended, including his family and actor Johnny Crawford.
| Uncredited |
| Uncredited |
| Episode: "Three and One Half Musketeers" |
| Episode: "Billy Gets a Job" |
| Episode: "Semper Fi" |
| Two episodes |
| Two episodes |
| Episode: "The Girl Who Knew" |
| Episode: "Trouble in Toyland" |
| Episode: "The Manufactured Clue" |
| Episode: "Mr. Neanderthal" |
| Episode: "O'Connor and the Blue-Eyed Felon" |
| Episode: "Flight to the North" |
| Episode: "The Brush Roper" |
| Three episodes |
| Episode: "O'Toole from Moscow" |
| Episode: "Barbed Wire Christmas" |
| Episode: "The Thread" |
| Episode: "The Assassin" |
| Episode: "The Preacher" |
| Episode: "Fear is the Hunter" |
| Episode: "The Nevada Nightingale" |
| Episode: "The Comeback" |
| Two episodes |
| Episode: "The Witch Doctor" |
| Episode: "The Hub Grimes Story" |
| Two episodes |
| Episode: "The Story of the U.S.S. Flier" |
| Episode: "The Charles Avery Story" |
| Episode: "Silver Threads" |
| Episode: "The Bet" |
| Episode: "Double Trouble" |
| Episode: "They Went Thataway" |
| Episode: "The Sharpshooter" |
| Two episodes |
| Lead role 168 episodes |
| Episode: "Trial by Fear" |
| Lead role 30 episodes |
| Lead role 48 episodes |
| Lead role 26 episodes |
| Episode: "The Animal" |
| Episode: "The Broken Puzzle" |
| TV movie |
| TV movie |
| Episode: "The Ring with the Red Velvet Ropes" |
| TV movie |
| TV movie |
| Episode: "Lucy and Chuck Connors Have a Surprise Slumber Party" |
| Episode: "Chuck Conners, Howard Cosell, Miss U.S.A. and Miss Universe: 9/12/73" |
| Four episodes |
| Episode: "The Price of Liberty" |
| TV movie |
| TV movie |
| Miniseries |
| TV movie |
| TV movie |
| Episode: "Case Number HM-89428, Homicide" |
| Episode: "Kidnapped" |
| Episode: "Frog's First Gunfight" |
| TV movie |
| Episode: "Sitting Duck/Sweet Suzi Swann" |
| TV movie |
| TV movie |
| Episode: "Bricker's Boy/Lotions of Love/The Hustlers" |
| Episode: "Get Houston" |
| Main cast 21 episodes |
| 2 episodes |
| Two episodes |
| TV movie |
| Recurring role Five episodes |
| TV movie |
| Episode: "Pilot" |
| TV movie |
| Three episodes |
| TV movie |
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