Biography for
Chuck Connors (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

10 April 1921, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Date of Death

10 November 1992, Los Angeles, California, USA (lung cancer and pneumonia)

Birth Name

Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors

Height

6' 5½" (1.97 m)

Mini Biography

Born to Newfoundland immigrant parents, Chuck and his two-years-younger sister, Gloria, grew up in a working-class section on the west side of Brooklyn where their longshoreman-father worked the local docks.

Chuck's natural athletic prowess earned him a scholarship to Adelphi Academy, a private high school, and then to Seton Hall, a Catholic college in South Orange, New Jersey. Leaving Seton Hall after two years, on October 20, 1942 he joined the Army, officially listing his occupation as a ski instructor. After enlistment in the infantry at Fort Knox, he later served mostly as a tank-warfare instructor at Camp Campbell, Kentucky, and then finally at West Point. Following his discharge early in 1946, Chuck resumed his athletic pursuits. He played center for the Boston Celtics in the 1946-1947 season but left early for spring training with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Baseball had always been his first love and for the next several years he knocked about the minor leagues in such places as Rochester, Norfolk, Newark, Newport News, Mobile, and Montreal. (While in Montreal he met Elizabeth Riddell whom he married in October of 1948. They had four sons during their 13-year marriage.) He finally reached his goal, playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, in May of 1949 but after just five weeks and one at-bat, he returned to Montreal. After a brief stint with the Chicago Cubs in 1951, during which he hit two home runs, Chuck wound up with the Cubs' Triple-A farm team, the L.A. Angels, in 1952. A baseball fan who was also a casting director for MGM spotted Chuck and recommended him for a part in the Tracy-Hepburn comedy, "Pat and Mike." Originally cast to play a prize-fighter in this film, the role went instead to Aldo Ray. Chuck was cast to play a state police captain. Chuck now abandoned his athletic hopes and devoted full time to his acting career which often emphasized his muscular, 6-foot-5-inch physique.

During the next several years he made 20 movies, culminating in a key role in William Wyler's 1958 western, "The Big Country." Also appearing in many TV shows, he finally became a "big-name" in 1958 when "The Rifleman" began its highly-successful five-year run on ABC. Other TV series' followed as did a number of movies which, though mostly minor, allowed Chuck to display his range as both a stalwart "good guy" and a menacing "heavy."

He is buried in San Fernando Mission Cemetery with his tombstone carrying a photo of Connors as Lucas McCain in "The Rifleman" as well as logos from the three professional sports teams he played for: the Dodgers, Cubs, and Celtics.

IMDb Mini Biography By: dinky-4 of Minneapolis

Spouse

Faith Quabius	(1977 - 15 April 1980) (divorced)
Kamala Devi	(10 April 1963 - 1972) (divorced)
Elizabeth "Betty" Riddell	(1 October 1948 - 1961) (divorced) 4 children

Trivia

Played major league baseball (for the Chicago Cubs) in 1951.

Connors also played professional basketball with the Boston Celtics.

Four sons; Mike Connors, Jeff Connors, Steve, Kevin.

Chuck Person, an NBA Player, is named after him.

According to a article on TV westerns in Time Magazine (March 30, 1959), Connors stood 6'5" tall, weighed 215 pounds, and had chest-waist-hips measurements of 45-34-41

Almost suffered the same fate in each of his two TV westerns. On a 10-2-61 episode of "The Rifleman" (1958) called "The Vaqueros," he was stripped to the waist, tied to a tree and left to die under a scorching sun by a group of Mexican bandits. On an 11-14-65 episode of +"Branded" (1965)_ called "Fill No Glass for Me," he was stripped to the waist, tied to a tree and left to die under a scorching sun by a group of Indian warriors (in both cases he survived).

Very likely the only guest commentator on Monday Night Baseball to use the F- word.

Was elected to the Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1991.

In a 1997 biography titled "The Man Behind the Rifle," author David Fury says that "Chuck" Connors acquired his nickname while an athlete playing first base. He had a habit of calling to the pitcher: "Chuck it to me, baby, chuck it to me!"

Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1991.

Lucas McCain, Connors' character on "The Rifleman" (1958), was ranked #32 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" [20 June 2004 issue].

He was the first NBA player to shatter a backboard, he did it while playing for the Boston Celtics in 1946.

Accepted the role of Mr. Slausen in Tourist Trap (1979) because he wanted to "become the Boris Karloff of of the 80s".

On October 10, 1950, he was traded by the Brooklyn Dodgers - with whom he had appeared with in one game in 1949 - with Dee Fondy to the Chicago Cubs for Hank Edwards and cash. He spent part of the 1951 season with the Cubs.

Before the 1940 baseball season, he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent.

Was an altar boy and parishioner at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

He was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party as well as a frequent guest at the White House during the administration of his close friend President Richard Nixon.

A longtime smoker, he was hospitalized with pneumonia three weeks before his death.

In June 1973 he befriended Soviet Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev in a meeting at the White House. Connors traveled to the Soviet Union in December 1973, and presented Brezhnev with two Colt revolvers. In 1982 he asked his friend President Ronald Reagan if he could attend Brezhnev's funeral service, but he was not allowed to be part of the official US delegation.

Was a film "enemy" of Charlton Heston at least twice -- as Buck Hannesey in The Big Country (1958) and as Tab Fielding in Soylent Green (1973).

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 3, 1991-1993, pp. 116-118. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001.

Personal Quotes

"I don't want my kids growing up believing that there is nothing destructive in the world. I want them to know that there is good and bad in the world, that you can be hurt physically, that guns can kill you, that drugs are bad for you, that not everyone means well."

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