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Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors, better known by his professional name of Chuck Connors (April 10 1921 – November 10 1992), was an American actor and professional basketball and baseball player.

Of Irish heritage, Connors was the son of Allan and Marcella (nee Lundrigan) Connors of Placentia Bay, Newfoundland who emigrated to Brooklyn, New York in 1920. Connors grew up with a sister named Gloria. He attended a private high school and later attended Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. He then dropped out in 1942 to join the Army at Camp Campbell, Kentucky and next went to West Point.

After his military discharge in 1946, he joined the newly formed Boston Celtics of the Basketball Association of America, but 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 a few weeks. Later, in 1951 he also played for the Chicago Cubs. He was then sent to the minor leagues again, in 1952, to the Cubs' top farm team at the time, the Los Angeles Angels. Few people realize that he was also drafted by the Chicago Bears, but never actually suited-up for the team. He realized that he would not make a career as a professional football player, so went the route of acting. Playing baseball near Hollywood proved to be fortuitous. He was spotted by an MGM casting director and cast in the upcoming Tracy-Hepburn film Pat and Mike, in which he played a state police captain.

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.

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."

He starred in the television Western series The Rifleman (1958-1963) and Branded (1965-1966), as well as the 1967 Cowboy in Africa TV series, alongside Ronald Howard and Tom Nardini. In 1973 and 1974 he hosted a television series called Thrill Seekers. He had a key role as a slaveowner in the famous 1977 miniseries Roots.

(According to Time magazine's cover story on TV westerns in its 3-30-59 issue, Connors' measurements were 45-34-41.)

In 1991, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Connors was frequently a supporter of the Republican Party, and attended a few fundraisers for campaigns of President Richard Nixon, who reportedly was a fan of Connors.

Chuck Connors died of lung cancer following a bout of pneumonia in 1992 at the age of 71 in Los Angeles, California.

"Chuck Connors" is also a character in O. Henry's short story "Sisters of the Golden Circle" which says that he led reform in New York in O. Henry's time.

The book Carl Erskine's Tales from the Dodgers Dugout: Extra Innings (2004) includes short stories from former Dodger pitcher Carl Erskine. Connors is prominent in many of these stories.

Filmography

• Werewolf (1987) ... Janos Skorzeny
• Terror Squad (1987) ... as Chief Rawlings
• Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) ... as The Sarge
• Roots (1977) ... as Tom Moore
• Soylent Green (1973) ... as Tab Fielding
• Go Kill Everybody and Come Back Alone (1968) ...as Clyde
• Dark Shadows (1966)
• Move Over, Darling (1963) .... as Adam
• The Big Country (1958)
• Old Yeller (1957) ... as Burn Sanderson
• Pat and Mike (1952) ... as Police captain

• See also: Other notable figures in Western films

External links

• Find-A-Grave profile for Chuck Connors
• Baseball-Reference.com - career baseball statistics and analysis

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