Chuck Connors

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 Connors , Kevin Connors.

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

According to an article on television westerns in Time Magazine (March 30, 1959), Connors stood 65" tall, weighed 215 pounds, and had chest-waist-hips measurements of 45-34-41.

Suffered almost the same fate in each of his two television western series. In "The Rifleman" {The Vaqueros (#4.1)} , he was stripped to the waist, tied to a tree, and left to die under a scorching sun by a group of Mexican bandits. In "Branded" {Fill No Glass for Me: Part 2 (#2.10)} , 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" , was ranked #32 in TV Guides 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 because he wanted to "become the Boris Karloff 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 Brezhnevs 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 and as Tab Fielding in Soylent Green .

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

Best remembered by the public for his starring role as Lucas McCain on "The Rifleman" .

Remained good friends with Johnny Crawford during and after "The Rifleman" .

His series "The Rifleman" was canceled at the end of the fifth season, because both the actor himself and co-star Johnny Crawford had decided to move on to other projects.

Graduated from Adelphi Academy - a private high school in Brooklyn, New York, in 1940.

His father, Allan died in 1966, followed by his mother, Marcella, who died in 1971.

Years after "The Rifleman" , he was a spokesperson for the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in the early 1970s.

At age 13, he remembered he was a lousy first baseman, and the man who made the biggest impact on his life was his coach on a team called the Celtics, a diminutive gent named John Flynn.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on July 18, 1984.

Future talk show hosts - his friend, Regis Philbin and Arsenio Hall , were once said to be their admirable television heroes. Philbin was a young adult while Hall was just a child.

Before he was an actor, he spent most of the war as a tank-warfare instructor in Camp Campbell, Kentucky, before West Point, New York.

His parents were Allan Connors, who was a longshoreman and Marcella Lundrigan Connors, a housewife.

Was best friends with: James Drury , Doug McClure , John Smith , Adam West , Jerry Lewis , Angela Lansbury , Joey Bishop , Regis Philbin , Paul Fix , Fess Parker , Gregory Peck , Alex Cord , James Arness , Peter Graves , Michael Landon , Robert Reed , Bob Hope , Frank Sinatra , Sammy Davis Jr. , Dean Martin , Alvy Moore , Dabbs Greer , Richard Anderson , Gene Barry , Bill Quinn , Charlton Heston , Aaron Spelling , Tom Helmore , Richard Nixon , Burt Lancaster , James Stewart , Mickey Rooney , Julie Adams , Jeff York , Aldo Ray , Gerald Ford and Leonid Brezhnev.

He had 10 hobbies: golfing, riding horses, reading, swimming, fishing, poetry writing, spending time with his family, baseball, philanthropy and politics.

Resumed his sports career after the war had ended. Connors had no choice other than to play professional basketball, when he continued to play baseball.

His college studies were interrupted when he was enlisted in the United States Army in 1942 in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Had won numerous scholarships while in high school, but chose to attend Seton Hall College (now Seton Hall University).

After he won a scholarship attending a private high school, he played basketball, football & baseball.

Before he was an actor, he was a professional basketball and baseball player.

Future actor LeVar Burton was also said to be a huge fan of Connors series "The Rifleman" , as a little boy.

Future comedians, Bill Rafferty and Vicki Lawrence , announcers Burton Richardson and Randy West , actors David Cassidy , Kathy Garver , Clarence Gilyard Jr. , Bill Mumy , and talk show hostess, Oprah Winfrey describes him as one of their childhood television heroes.

Future "The Rifleman" co-star, longtime friend and devoted fan, Johnny Crawford , had once said in an interview that when he was just a little boy, he too was an avid baseball fan, like Connors was, and would bring his baseball equipment whenever both he and Connors would be on location, during filming.

Chuck Connors died on November 10, 1992, at 71. A couple of years before his death, he was devastated to hear about Burt Lancaster s stroke. He tried calling his office one day, but his office wasnt releasing any information at that time. Connors sent a letter in support of David Furys nomination of Lancaster to the Cowboy Hall of Fame and signed the petition David sent to the American film Institute nominating Burt for the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.

Almost one year before his death, his first wife, Elizabeth "Betty" Connors, died on February 27, 1992, after a long illness.

His father was born in Dunville and his mother in St. Marys, Placentia Bay, both in the Dominion of Newfoundland (now Canada). They were both of Irish descent.

Acting mentor and friend of Johnny Crawford.

Appeared on the front cover of TV Guide five times.

Connors was one of only twelve athletes in history to have played for both Major League Baseball and in the NBA.

He joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949.

Was a member of the Sheriffs Advisory Board of Orange County, California.

Was a Boy Scout.

Took part in a parade in New York in support of the Vietnam War in 1967, and campaigned for his friend Ronald Reagan.

He smoked three packs of Camel cigarettes a day until the 1970s. He fronted anti-smoking campaigns in the mid-1970s, although in a 1987 interview he said he was still smoking one cigarette a day.

Connors wasnt the only baseball star to appear on "The Rifleman" , a couple of former baseball stars appeared on that show were: Duke Snider and Don Drysdale.

On "The Rifleman" , his character had used a lot of rifles, in real-life, he owned rifles.

He was most widely known to be a social butterfly.

Professional boxer turned tour guide of New York Citys Chinatown.

Now who goes to the games in LA? Producers, directors, writers, casting,directors. So because of the good year, I became a kind of favorite of,the show business people, unbeknownst to myself.

Basically, [the show] was the simplicity of the love between the father,and the son. That was the foundation. The rifle was for show, but the,relationship was for real. There was some violence, but at the end, I,would explain to the boy that the violence was not something we wanted,to do, but had to do.

Baseball, I told myself, just lost a first baseman.

[In 1953] I owe baseball all that I have and much of what I hope to,have. Baseball made my entrance to the film industry immeasurably,easier than I could have made it alone. To the greatest game in the,world I shall be eternally in debt.