Chuck Connors was an American actor and professional baseball and basketball player, born April 10, 1921 in Brooklyn, New York, United States. He is known for his memorable role in the television series “The Rifleman” and the movie “Old Yeller”.
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Early life
Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors was born the only son of Marcella and Alban Connors, Irish immigrants from Newfoundland and Labrador. The Great Depression of the 1930s left her father unemployed for years and her mother became the backbone of the family working in office buildings scrubbing floors.
This led Kevin and his younger sister Gloria to grow up in the face of the harshness of poverty. As a child and following his family’s Roman Catholic tradition, Connors became an altar boy at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Sunset Park, which he also attended.
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From childhood, Connors displayed incredible physical prowess and talent in various sports, a skill that earned him a spot to play on the local baseball team, Bay Ridge Celtics, and where he played. met coach John Flynn, who helped Connors get a scholarship to attend Adelphi Academy. Along with playing football and basketball during his high school days, Connors became a valuable asset to his baseball team. He reportedly received numerous scholarship offers to attend various colleges.
However, he eventually chose Seton Hall University in New Jersey, where he played on the college basketball and baseball teams.
Name change
It is said that Kevin changed his name during his university years because he did not like his first name “Kevin”.
Following a story told by his sister Nancy in 1997, Connors decided to adopt a name he felt was appropriate for him, experimenting with various nicknames such as “Lefty”, “Stretch” and finally “Chuck”, which originated of the custom phrase he would shout from his first base position to the pitcher “Throw it at me, baby, throw it at me!”.
However, other sources contradict this rumor and even Connors said something different in 1945: “They called me Chuck when I started playing baseball because they thought Kevin was effeminate”. Thus, the year he officially began to be known as this is not disclosed.
Career
Baseball – First Steps
Connors had been an avid fan of the now-defunct Brooklyn Dodgers since childhood.
His dream of joining the team came true in 1940, when he signed a contract to play with them in a minor league, leaving his studies behind in favor of baseball. However, his time with the Dodgers was short-lived as he was assigned to a Class D league in Arkansas. In 1941 he signed with the Norfolk Tars of the Piedmont League, playing a total of 72 games with them during his one-year stay.
Army – 1942
On October 20, 1942, Connors left the league to enlist in the United States Army to serve his country in World War II. He was based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky as a tank warfare instructor and was officially discharged in 1946.
Between basketball and baseball
After the war ended, Chuck Connors returned to sports, although he did not return to baseball right away, and instead played for the Rochester Royals team of the National Basketball League (NBL), appearing in 14 matches with them until its release in March of this year. , returning to baseball to train with the New York Yankees.
After winning the National Baseball Minor League with a small Yankees team, Connors was traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers and joined his farm club in Newport, Virginia. With this team, he gained a good reputation as a player and became one of the main prospects for the Dodgers’ main team.
In the fall of 1946, Connors returned to his other career, joining the Basketball Association of America by signing with the newly formed Boston Celtics. However, his role in the team was not so promising: “I’m sure my greatest value to the Celtics was as an after-dinner speaker. It seems like I did more public speaking for the team than playing that first season. They sent me all over New England for speaking engagements.
Despite this, Connors will always be remembered as a National Basketball Association (NBA) legend, for being the first player to break a backboard.
Baseball – Professional League
In 1947, Connors quit basketball for good, after noticing that he was losing his fitness for baseball: “I had to leave the Celtics at the end of February for spring training, and I thought to myself that I was in great shape because I had been running on the boards all winter. But because of that, I found that my legs were actually a lot harder to get into shape. I think my baseball legs have been very embarrassed by basketball.
Back with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Connors was sent to play for his Class AA Mobile, Alabama team, slowly moving up the league chain. This led to him being assigned to play at a top club in Montreal. Although his efforts were rewarded with a win in the International League, he was nowhere near becoming first baseman with the Dodgers. His playful and comedic nature helped him though, earning a good image with the media which the executives believed would be positive for the team.
Thus, this led to him becoming Dodger’s first base man in 1949.
During one of his first games with the team, he was hit in the mouth by a bullet and taken to hospital. This accident cost him two exhibition games and a third loss. Eventually, Connors was benched by coach’s decision.
Shortly after this event, the executives made the decision to transfer Connors to the Los Angeles Angels farm team, which ended up in his favor, because in California he met various producers, directors and other people from the entertainment industry.
Acting
While performing with the Angels, Connors received a call from director Bill Grady to be tested for a small role in “Pat and Mike.” This served Connors well, as he felt he had found his next career: “I said right away, this is my racquet.
Playing with Tracy and Hepburn, I was in the big leagues much faster than I got there in baseball.”
Although he continued to play baseball, his acting appearances continued to increase, and in 1952 he had roles in various films which provided him with a better income than his sports career. In 1953, he officially left baseball, although he was still grateful for what it brought him: “Baseball owes me nothing. I owe him everything I have and much of what I hope to have. Baseball made my entry into the film industry infinitely easier than I could have done on my own. In the greatest game in the world, I will be eternally indebted”.
During his acting career, Connors appeared in several films, including “Move Over Darling”, “Soylent Green” and “Flipper”. He also became a recurring television actor, with roles in series such as “Dear Phoebe”, “Hey, Jeannie!” and “This is Lucy”.
However, two roles cemented his career in Hollywood. He first appeared in the role of Burn Sanderson in the Disney adventure film “Old Yeller” in 1958. With this character he won the hearts of viewers and led him to play the main role of ” The Rifleman” as Lucas McCain. The western series ran for five years from 1958 to 1963 and would be the most widely recognized acting work of his career.
Private life
romantic life
Connors first married in 1948 to Elizabeth Riddel, whom he met at a baseball game. The couple had four sons named Michael, Jeffrey, Stephen and Kevin, but eventually filed for divorce in 1961.
In 1963, Connors married Kamala Devi, his co-star in “Geronimo”. The couple had no children and divorced in 1973.
In 1973, Connors met actress Faith Quabius during the movie “Soylent Green” and they were married four years later. However, the union was short-lived and they filed for divorce in 1979.
Connors’ last publicly known romantic relationship was with Rose Mary Grumley, who was with him until his death.
Death
On November 10, 1992, Connors died at a Los Angeles medical center from complications related to lung cancer, an illness stemming from his decades-long smoking habit, although he had given it up in 1972.
Net value
Chuck Connors had an estimated net worth of $5 million as a result of his career as an actor and as a professional basketball and baseball player.
“The Rifleman,” starring Chuck Connors, aired its last original episode on this date in 1963. The ABC series ran for five…
Posted by Classic Hollywood | Los Angeles Times Friday, April 8, 2016
Physical appearance
Chuck Connors was an American-born man. His impressive stature and defined facial features gave him a tough appearance. He was 6 feet 6 inches (1.98) tall, although his weight is unknown. Her hair was dark brown and her eyes blue.
Interesting facts
He was interested in charity and founded his own Chuck Connors Charitable Foundation.
Connors was a supporter of the Republican Party, developing a close friendship with Richard Nixon and campaigning for Ronald Reagan, a former colleague in the acting profession.
Connors met the leader of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev in 1973 and presented him with two Colt six-guns.
His father obtained his American citizenship in 1914 and his mother in 1930.
