Proceeds went directly to the Angel View Crippled Children's Foundation and over $400,000.00 was raised. Connors hosted the annual Chuck Connors Charitable Invitational Golf Tournament, through the Chuck Connors Charitable Foundation, at the Canyon Country Club in Palm Springs, California. [23], Two rifles were made for Chuck Connors personally by Maurice "Moe" Hunt that were never used on the show. Dick Curtis. Johnny Crawford, an unfamiliar actor at the time, former Mousketeer, baseball fan and Western buff, beat 40 other young stars to play the role of Lucas's son, Mark. 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. Tristram 'Tris' Coffin. [3], In 1940, following his departure from college, Connors played four baseball games with the Brooklyn Dodgers' minor league team, the Newport Dodgers (Northeast Arkansas League). Connors and Brezhnev got along so well, that Connors accepted an invitation The rest of his teammates and spectators at the university's games soon caught on, and the nickname stuck. [7], In 1966, Connors played an off-field role by helping to end the celebrated holdout (see reserve clause) by Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax when he acted as an intermediary during negotiations between management and the players. World War II Army Enlistment Records; Records of the National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 64; National Archives at College Park. She also acted with Connors in Branded, Broken Sabre and Cowboy in Africa. You should not use this feature on public computers. Bob Duncan. William Desmond. 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. He played in two episodes, one as the bandit Sam Bass, on Dale Robertson's NBC western Tales of Wells Fargo. [2][3], 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. Chuck Connors Actor | Soylent Green Chuck Connors was born Kevin Joseph Connors in Brooklyn, New York, to Marcella (nee Lundrigan; died 1971) and Alban Francis "Allan" Connors (died 1966), Roman Catholic immigrants of Irish descent from the Dominion of Newfoundland (now part of Canada). A few days later, the producers of The Rifleman took their own children to watch Old Yeller in which Connors played a strong father figure. [2] He had one sibling, a sister, Gloria, who was two years his junior. Since childhood, Connors had disliked his first name, Kevin, and he had sought another name. They had four sons, Michael (1950–2017), Jeffrey (1952–2014),[26] Stephen (born 1953), and Kevin (1956–2005), but divorced in 1961. [12], Connors attended spring training in 1948 with Major League Baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers but did not make the squad[7] He played two seasons for the Dodgers' AAA team, the Montreal Royals before playing one game with the Dodgers in 1949. Prime Video Channels is the Prime benefit that lets you choose your channels. They were married in 1977 and divorced in 1979. Connors realized that he would not make a career in professional sports, so he decided to pursue an acting career. Kevin Joseph Aloysius "Chuck" Connors (April 10, 1921 – November 10, 1992) was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. Check out all 168 episodes with pictures & descriptions of each episode. [27], Connors was a supporter of the Republican Party and attended several fundraisers for campaigns for U.S. President Richard M. Nixon. He would repeatedly yell to the pitcher from his position on first base, "Chuck it to me, baby, chuck it to me!" Ben/Benny Corbett. Ed Cassidy. With a 40-year film and television career, he is best known for his five-year role as Lucas McCain in the highly rated ABC series The Rifleman (1958–63). [1], Connors was born on April 10, 1921 in Brooklyn, New York City, the elder of two children born to Marcella (née Londrigan) and Alban Francis "Allan" Connors, immigrants of Irish descent from Newfoundland and Labrador. He is one of only 13 athletes in the history of American professional sports to have played both Major League Baseball (Brooklyn Dodgers 1949, Chicago Cubs, 1951) and in the National Basketball Association (Boston Celtics 1947–48). As Connors was strongly typecast for playing the firearmed rancher-turned-single-father, he then starred in several short-lived series, including: ABC's Arrest and Trial (1963–1964), an early forerunner of Law and Order featuring two young actors Ben Gazzara and Don Galloway, NBC's post-Civil War-era series Branded (1965–1966) and the 1967–1968 ABC series Cowboy in Africa, alongside British actor Ronald Howard and Tom Nardini. � ��`I�%&/m�{J�J��t��`$ؐ@������iG#)�*��eVe]f@�흼��{���{���;�N'���?\fdl��J�ɞ!���?~|? Connors beat 40 other actors for the lead in The Rifleman, portraying Lucas McCain, a widowed rancher known for his skill with a customized Winchester rifle. He died on November 10, 1992, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 71 of pneumonia stemming from lung cancer. X Brands is cast as a baseball player. There, he played both basketball and baseball for the school, and it was there, too, where he changed his name. Kevin Joseph Aloysius "Chuck" Connors (April 10, 1921 – November 10, 1992) was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. The offer turned out to be less than Connors was making doing freelance acting, so he turned it down. College Park, Maryland, U.S.A. Upon boarding his airplane back to Moscow, Brezhnev noticed Connors in the crowd and went back to him to shake hands, and jokingly jumped up into Connors' towering hug. In 1985, he guest-starred as "King Powers" in the ABC TV series Spenser: For Hire, starring Robert Urich. He is one of only 13 athletes in the history of American professional sports to have played both Major League Baseball (Brooklyn Dodgers 1949, Chicago Cubs, 1951) and in the National Basketball Association (Boston Celtics … [4], From those offers, he chose to attend Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. Get up to the minute entertainment news, celebrity interviews, celeb videos, photos, movies, TV, music news and pop culture on ABCNews.com. [4] 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. 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. Playing baseball near Hollywood proved fortunate, as he was spotted by an MGM casting director and subsequently signed for the 1952 Tracy–Hepburn film Pat and Mike, performing in the role of a police captain. Connors acted in feature films including The Big Country with Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston, Move Over Darling with Doris Day and James Garner, Soylent Green with Heston and Edward G. Robinson, and Airplane II: The Sequel. Released, he sat out the 1941 season, then signed with the New York Yankees' farm team, the Norfolk Tars (Piedmont League), where he played 72 games before enlisting in the Army at Fort Knox, Kentucky at the end of the season, on October 10, 1942. [14] Connors can be seen in the Associated Press photo with Drysdale, Koufax and Dodgers general manager Buzzie Bavasi announcing the pitchers' new contracts.

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