Chuck Connors

Chuck Connors (April 10, 1921 – November 10, 1992) was an American actor and professional basketball and baseball player.

Chuck Connors was the son of Marcella (Lundrigan) and Allan Connors, immigrants to Brooklyn, New York City from Ireland. Connors grew up with a two-years-younger sister named Gloria; their father was a longshoreman and their mother a homemaker. He was raised a Roman Catholic, serving as an altar boy at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

His natural athletic abilities earned him a scholarship to the private high school Adelphi Academy, and then to the Catholic college, Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. After two years in college he then dropped out and in 1942 enlisted in the Army at Fort Knox, Kentucky, listing his civilian occupation as a ski instructor. Serving mostly as a tank-warfare instructor, he was stationed at Camp Campbell, Kentucky, and later at West Point, New York.

Sports career
Following his military discharge in 1946, he joined the newly formed Boston Celtics of the Basketball Association of America. Connors left the team for spring training with Major League Baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers. He played for numerous minor league teams before joining the Dodgers in 1949, for whom he played in just 1 game; and the Chicago Cubs in 1951, for whom he played 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. Connors was also drafted by the Chicago Bears, but never suited-up for the team. Chuck Connors is one of only twelve athletes in history to have played for both Major League Baseball and in the NBA. Connors is credited with being the first professional basketball player to break a backboard. The incident occurred on November 5, 1946 during a pre-game warm-up at Boston Garden when Connors hit the basket rim with a two-handed shot.

Acting career
Realizing that he would not make a career in professional sports, Connors decided to become an actor. Playing baseball near Hollywood proved to be fortuitous, as he was spotted by an MGM casting director and cast in the 1952 Tracy-Hepburn film Pat and Mike. In 1953 he starred opposite Burt Lancaster playing a rebellious Marine private in the film South Sea Woman.

During his career in Hollywood, Connors was best known for his television work. He appeared in a 1954 episode of Adventures of Superman titled Flight to the North, in which he played a good-natured (and very strong) backwoods fellow named Sylvester J. Superman. He starred in an episode of CBS's The Millionaire. He was cast as "Lucas McCain" in the television Western series The Rifleman (1958-1963), with Johnny Crawford as his son "Mark". 

Thereafter he starred in Branded (1965-1966) and the 1967 Cowboy in Africa TV series, alongside Ronald Howard and Tom Nardini. The opening titles of The Rifleman featured Connors rapid-firing eleven shots as he walked down the street of North Fork. In 1973 and 1974 he hosted a television series called Thrill Seekers. He had a key role as a slave owner in the famous 1977 miniseries Roots.

Connors also 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 1987 he co-starred in the FOX series Werewolf as drifter Janos Skorzeny. In 1991, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Personal life & death
Connors was frequently a supporter of the Republican Party and attended a few fundraisers for campaigns of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon, who reportedly was a fan of Connors.

At a party given by Nixon at the Western White House in San Clemente, California, in June, 1973, Connors was introduced to Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union. Upon boarding his airplane bound for Moscow, Brezhnev noticed Connors in the crowd and went back to him to shake hands, and, jokingly, jump up into Connor's towering hug. 

The Rifleman was one of the few American shows allowed on Russian television at that time because it was Brezhnev's favorite. Connors and Brezhnev hit it off so well that in December, 1973, Connors traveled to the Soviet Union. In 1982, Connors indicated interest in traveling to the Soviet Union for his funeral, but the U.S. government would not allow him to be part of the official delegation.

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