Monday, August 22, 2011

Chuck Connors's Biography!








Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors; known professionally as: Chuck Connors (April 10, 1921November 10, 1992) was an American actor, writer and a professional basketball and baseball player. For the course of his four decade career, he was best known for his roles in films of the 1950s, such as Pvt. Davey White, in the movie South Sea Woman, opposite Burt Lancaster, as Det. Ben Merrill in Hot Rod Girl and as Burn Sanderson in Old Yeller, opposite Dorothy McGuire. He was also known for his starring role on television in the 1960s ABC hit western series, The Rifleman. Towards the end of his career, he reprised his role as Lucas McCain in The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, with Johnny Crawford and as veteran police officer, Capt. Damian Wright in his last film, Three Days to a Kill.


Biography

Early life

The younger of a sister, Connors was born Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors in Brooklyn, New York, a son of Allan and Marcella (Lundrigan) Connors, immigrants from the Dominion of Newfoundland. His father was a longshoreman and his mother a homemaker. He was reared Roman Catholic and served as an altar boy at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. According to his sister, Gloria Cole, she said Kevin was never close to his father, avoiding the father figure bond, growing up, despite of this, he was frequently getting into a lot of trouble and ruffing things up. Allan later took the job as night watchman.
His mother, Marcella was absolutely marvelous to Kevin and his sister, who in turn was an excellent cook who kept the family well fed despite the fact that they were poor. She took several jobs working as a janitor, who wouldn't allow her family to go hungry. Long before Kevin was a sports fan, she was also a sports fan herself, who always enjoyed listening to both - the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants on radio, the kind of love she shared with Kevin. She had a wonderful relationship with Kevin, who cherished him.

Gloria then found out his brother didn't like his first name and was looking for a number of possible first-name changes: he tested out for "Lefty", and "Stretch", but soon, it became "Chuck Connors", because while playing first base, he would always yell the catch-phrase, "Chuck it to me, baby, chuck it to me!," to a pitcher. Before long, the rest of these ballplayers and fan went after the name and attached it to the tall first baseman. Chuck's passion for baseball was his first true love. He didn't say he was a great athlete, he once admitted at the age of 13, he was the rockiest first baseman to ever hit a sandlot. An avid Brooklyn Dodgers fan, he was wondering if there were some other baseball teams in his area, to root for too, two of the best teams in New York City like the New York Yankees and the New York Giants, hence, it as undoubtedly the place for a little boy to grow up. Despite the team he loves, the Dodgers always loses during the 1930s, Chuck began playing baseball, at only 8 to 10 blocks from Ebbets Field.

Unbeknownst Connors (who was a member of Bay Ridge Celtics) know that he too would be a member, later, like: Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese, Carl Furillo, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Billy Cox, Ralph Bianca, Preacher Roe and Carl Erskine. The participants who are of the same great championship team, who also participated with Connors of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949. Maybe the individual who made the biggest impact on his life at the impeccable stage of life was his baseball coach, John Francis Flynn, who was shorter than Chuck, who wasn't supposed to have any children, therefore, he organized a neighborhood boys club called the Bay Ridge Celtics. He didn't just instructed his students on the finer points of team sports, but he also felt that strong building a character was merely important as learning to pitch, bat and field the round ball. Flynn made a repetition - coached onto the boys of working real hard in school, in addition to playing on the playground. Connors' coach would also rally young friends at the local ballfield each afternoon, a burlap sack of full of balls and bats in hand, as the day's practice began.

Connors's athletic abilities earned him a scholarship to the private high school Adelphi Academy (where he graduated in 1939), and then to the Catholic college, Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. He left college after two years, and in 1942 enlisted in the Army at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He spent most of the war as a tank-warfare instructor, stationed at Camp Campbell, Kentucky, and later at West Point, New York.


Sports career

Chuck Connors
Born: April 10, 1921(1921-04-10)
Died: November 10, 1992 (aged 71)
Batted: Left
Threw: Left 
MLB debut
May 1, 1949 for the Brooklyn Dodgers
Last MLB appearance
September 30, 1951 for the Chicago Cubs
Career statistics
  .238
  2
  18
Teams
During his army service, Connors moonlighted as a professional basketball player. 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 one game; and the Chicago Cubs in 1951, for whom he played in 66 games as a first baseman and occasional pinch hitter.[1] 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. He is one of only 12 athletes in the history of American professional sports to have played for both Major League Baseball and in the NBA. He is also credited as the first professional basketball player to break a backboard. During warm-ups in the first-ever Boston Celtics game on November 5, 1946, at Boston Arena, Connors took a shot which caught the front of the rim and shattered an improperly installed glass backboard.[2]


Acting career

Television roles

Connors realized that he would not make a career in professional sports, so he decided to become an actor. Playing baseball near Hollywood proved to be fortunate, as he was spotted by an MGM casting director and signed for 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. Connors starred in 1957's Old Yeller as Mr. Sanderson. That same year he co-starred in The Hired Gun.


A lovable, firearm character actor

Although he was in feature films, such as The Big Country and Soylent Green, with Charlton Heston, Connors also became a lovable character actor guest-starring in dozens of shows. His first guest-starring debut was on an episode of Dear Phoebe. The part led to other roles such as: Big Town, The Loretta Young Show, City Detective, TV Reader's Digest, Schlitz Playhouse, 2 episodes of The Adventures of Superman, Screen Directors Playhouse, Four Star Playhouse, Matinee Theatre, Cavalcade of America, Jane Wyman Presents: The Fireside Theatre, Frontier, Gunsmoke, The Joseph Cotten Show: On Trial, Crossroads, The Gale Storm Show, West Point, The Millionaire, 2 episodes of Tales of Wells Fargo, General Electric True Theater, Wagon Train, The Restless Gun, Hey, Jeannie, Date with the Angels, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, The Virginian, among many others. He also reprised his role as Lucas McCain on an episode of Zane Grey Theater.[3]


The Rifleman

Connors beat out 40 actors, esp. James Whitmore for the lead as widower and rancher, who used his signature firearm at his last resort, Lucas McCain on The Rifleman for ABC, this Western series was also the first show ever to feature a widowed parent to raise a young child, which later led to other series that dealt with widowhood for years such as: Bonanza, My Three Sons, The Andy Griffith Show, The Lucy Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, The Big Valley, Family Affair, Julia, The Doris Day Show, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Partridge Family, among many others. He said in a 1959 interview with TV Guide as to how he got the part was that the producers of Four Star Television (Dick Powell, Charles Boyer, Ida Lupino and David Niven - son of David Niven Jr.) must have been looking at 40-50 thirtysomething males. Connors later said he came in, one of the producers gave Connors his rifle which the producers heaved it back at him. He later said, 'What the heck! What are you monkeys trying to pull?'[4] Connors also learned the producer had an ear-to-ear smile on his face. The reason why he was the producers' favorite choice for this role was when he said it happened because it was a good actor who had performed some roles the producers liked, and in competition with some other unknown stars, Connors' was actually the producers first choice to play Lucas McCain.[citation needed] At the time, the producers offered a certain amount of money to do 39 episodes for the 1958-59 season. The offered turned out to be less than Chuck was making doing freelance acting, so he appropriately turned it down. It was also an immediate hit, ranking #4, in the Nielsen ratings, second-only to 2 Westerns, Gunsmoke, Maverick, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and Have Gun - Will Travel, plus another newcomer Lawman.

The producers of The Rifleman, in turn had brought their own children to watch a Walt Disney movie Old Yeller (that featured Connors in it), a few days later. After the producers watched him in the movie, they figured that Connors was indeed The Rifleman! - A.K.A. Lucas McCain, which also profited a 5% ownership of the show.

The producers were in pursuit of looking for an unfamiliar child actor, to play Mark McCain, hence, Johnny Crawford, a former Mousketeer, baseball fan, an idol of Connors’s movies, and Western buff, beat out 40 young stars to play the role, and stayed on the series, from 1958 (when he was 12), until its ending in 1963 (by the time, he was 17), making Crawford one of television's most beloved young stars. A strong bond between Connors & Crawford has been a present help of Western television, in the 1960s. On a few episodes, he also brought his guitar and sang some songs, thanks to his singing popularity. In turn, Connors also gave very good lessons to his TV son, on- and off- the set, each time. By the time, Crawford grew into a cute kid to a teenager, it became very difficult for him, as he was preparing to make some changes, but continued working on The Rifleman, for as long as he could. Rifleman was an audience/family favorite show for 4 seasons, where it landed in the Nielsen ratings until the last year in the 1962, where ratings began to drop. After the show was renewed for the fifth and final season, the producers [at that time] decided to add some female sex appear by adding Patricia Blair as sarcastic businesswoman, Lou Mallory. Within a short amount of time, she actually had a crush on him, all the while, she got along great with Connors. She in turn also spent a lot of hours working with Crawford, as well. The show was cancelled in 1963, after 5 seasons and 168 episodes, although ABC would've been happy to ask Connors to renew his contract for the sixth season, when he already turned it down, to move on to other projects, while Crawford, already a high school senior, was concentrating on his education.

Johnny Crawford said in a 2008 interview with The Denver Post about his TV father’s signature weapon: "I loved that rifle," Crawford said by phone from his Los Angeles home, of the rifle Connors had used for the show’s 5 seasons: "Of all the rifles, it was the most beautiful. Nice balance; easy to carry. I used to play with it. I'd spin it, but sideways because I wasn't tall like Chuck, who'd swing it under his arm." Crawford also said of his on- and off-screen chemistry with Connors: "He was my hero," said Crawford, "I enjoyed being with him. He wasn't as stern as he was on camera. He was like a kid around me." Johnny also said in a 2006 interview with Radio Video Active of his relationship with his best friend/TV father: “Well, it was a great childhood, and he was bigger-than-life, a wonderful guy, very intelligent, and a big influence on me, and a great supporter, too. He was always interested in what I was doing and ready to give me advice or help me and he would call me out of the blue, and I really miss him. He left us in ’92, and it’s still a shock to me to think that he got around because he had so much energy, and loved life and loved people, and he was ‘The Rifleman.’  He was that and a lot more.” Johnny also said about being a childhood fan of Chuck Connors’s work for years, before his first meeting with him on The Rifleman: "I was very fond of Chuck," said Johnny, "and we were very good friends right from the start. I admired him tremendously." Crawford also said about the same sport that Chuck enjoyed the most when little Johnny was growing up: "I was a big baseball fan when we started the show, and when I found out that Chuck had been a professional baseball player, I was especially in awe of him. I would bring my baseball, and a bat and a couple of gloves whenever we went on location, and at lunchtime I would get a baseball game going, hoping that Chuck would join us. And he did, but after he came to bat, we would always have trouble finding the ball. It would be out in the brush somewhere or in a ravine, and so that would end the game," Johnny also said after The Rifleman got cancelled, was staying forever connected with Connors until his sudden death, "We remained friends throughout the rest of his life. He was always interested in what I was doing and ready with advice, and anxious to help in any way that he could," The very last thing he said, "Chuck was a great guy, a lot of fun, great sense of humor, bigger than life, and he absolutely loved people. He was very gregarious and friendly, and not at all bashful. It was a good experience for me to spend time with Chuck and learn how he dealt with people. I learned a great deal from him about acting, and he was a tremendous influence on me. He was just my hero." After the series' cancelation, Johnny continued to talk to Chuck continuously for almost 35 years. Marcella's (Chuck's real-life mother) death in 1971, drew the relationship between Connors & Crawford closer, when Johnny was very devastated to hear about his series' lead's mother's passing, who had led a long life. In 1984, Crawford was invited by his old TV father, when he was pleased Chuck got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Six years later, after a 27-year absence from the limelight, he guest-starred with Connors on an episode of Paradise, just the year before, he also co-starred in a final TV Western movie, which featured his TV father, late the following year, before Chuck's passing, which was: The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, a movie that featured: Kenny Rogers, Reba McEntire James Drury, Linda Evans, David Carradine, Brian Keith, Mickey Rooney, Hugh O'Brian, among many others.


Typecasting/other TV roles

In 1963, Connors appeared in the film Flipper. He also appeared opposite James Garner and Doris Day in the outrageous comedy, Move Over, Darling.

As Connors was strongly typecasted for playing the firearmed rancher turned single father, he then starred in several short-lived series, such as: ABC's Arrest and Trial, 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. In 1973 and 1974 he hosted a television series called Thrill Seekers. He had a key role as a slaveowner in the 1977 miniseries Roots.

The actor achieved notoriety for an incident on an NBC prime-time baseball telecast in the 1970s. The network regularly invited a celebrity commentator to join the regular play-by-play crew in the broadcast booth. Connors accidentally said "fuck" during the live national telecast, stunning both the announcers and the audience.

Connors 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 1983, Connors joined Sam Elliott and Cybill Shepherd in the short-lived NBC series The Yellow Rose, about a modern Texas ranching family. In 1985, he guest starred as "King Powers" in the ABC TV series Spenser: For Hire, starring Robert Urich. In 1987, he co-starred in the Fox series Werewolf, as drifter Janos Skorzeny. In 1988, he guest starred as "Gideon" in the TV series Paradise, starring Lee Horsley.


Personal Quotes:

Chuck: "I don't want my kids growing up believing that there is nothing destructive in the world. I want them to know that there is good and bad in the world, that you can be hurt physically, that guns can kill you, that drugs are bad for you, that not everyone means well." (Source: USIMDB.com)

Chuck: "Well, it isn't because I'm the fidgety guy, seriously, I have to sit there like a mummy you can't move. Regular makeup you can turn around and I sit there like that, and the worst part of it is, after working 14 hours, I can't just take it off, I have to sit for another hour because of the way they made these appliances, and they have to be taken out very slowly." (Source: LivewithRegisandKelly.com)

Chuck who said in 1973: "The President gave me about two dozen presidential tie clips and ladies' pins, with instructions to spread them around when I thought it appropriate, Brezhnev will get more than a tie clip. I've ordered two engraved Colt revolvers or for the General Secretary, Brezhnev is quite a western buff."  (Source: Life.com)

Chuck on The Rifleman's theme song: "I hear the same thing everywhere I go."  (Source: NorthforkProductions.com)

Chuck who said of Johnny Crawford"When Johnny came on the set in 1958, he was a little twelve year old boy. He called everyone in the cast or crew, sir or ma'am. During the course of the five years of our run, he had two hit records, and he was nominated for an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor. And yet, when the show was finished after five seasons, Johnny went around and thanked everyone in the cast and crew, and he still called them sir or ma'am."  (Source: Celebhost.net/Johnny Crawford)

Chuck on his Lucas McCain character: "Lucas was a righteous character, despite all the violence. We had the benefit of the father-son relationship, so I could have a little scene at the end of the show where I would explain to Mark, essentially, that sometimes violence is necessary, but it isn't good. And there was a lot of violence on The Rifleman. We once figured out that I killed on the average of two and a half people per show. That's a lot of violence, but it was always covered by the scene with the little boy. And he would say, in essence, Gee, you won Pa.' And I would say, 'Wait a minute son. You never win when you kill someone. It demeans you, it takes something away. People have got to learn to do away with violence and guns, and to love each other.' And the viewers would forget the fact that I had killed three people during the show, because of the tender epilogue with Mark, [Johnny's favorite scenes]. The warm father-son relationship was the heart of the program, and not only did we perform it, but Johnny and I became very close friends."  (Source: Celebhost.net/Johnny Crawford)

Chuck: "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."  (Source: Bioproj.Sabr.Org)

Chuck about the character he was best-known for: "I can never get rid of The Rifleman, and I don't want to. It's a good image. 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. (Source: Bioproj.Sabr.Org)

Chuck who said in 1989: "I was a bum of a hitter just not cut out for the majors. But, I will never forget Stan's kindness. When he finished watching me cut away at the ball, Stan slapped me on the back and told me to keep swinging." (Source: RiflemanConnors.com)

Chuck who said in 1992: "If you're ever being typecasted [as most of us are], that's a great way to be typecasted. So, The Rifleman is still popular, with a lot of people, and I'm proud to be associated."  (Source: ETOnline.com)

Chuck who said in 1987 about playing Werewolf"It's played very straight and dramatically, but with a tinge of black humor, I play the evil incarnate, a 1,600-year-old man in full control of his werewolfism. Janos will kill and eat anybody and anything. Eric, on the other hand, kills only bad people in defense of his own life or those of innocent victims." (Source: TorontoStar.ca)


Chuck who said in 1959: "Baseball just lost a first baseman." (Source: TVGuide.com)

Chuck when he was introduced by a then-unknown star Johnny Crawford to play Mark McCain: "I remember the first time I saw him, I was sitting there with the producer and we were interviewing kids to play Mark. We must have interviewed 20 or 30, then Johnny came in and before we even talked to him I said, 'That's him, that's the Rifleman's son.'" (Source: Celebhost.net/Johnny Crawford)


Chuck who said in 1960: "What's cost? This is insurance. At what we pay Connors, what will it cost if he's crippled?" (Source: Guns Magazine.com)


Chuck who responded with a smile about remembering baseball: "So why not be a switch hitter with the rifle, too? Let's learn both ways. " (Source: Guns Magazine.com)

Chuck who said in 1988: "Somebody would like to have that [my agent]. He'll take that instead of commission." (Source: LivewithRegisandKelly.com)

Chuck as to how he remembered the way he used to play baseball: "I was a switch-hitter, remember? At most things, I'm a good with one hand as the other. " (Source: Guns Magazine.com)


Chuck: "I have only five days to win the job. So I can't take time out for injuries." (Source: RiflemanConnors.com)

Chuck: "I'm more than satisfied to stay put in Los Angeles. The Coast League is one of the best leagues in baseball and the living and playing conditions are superior." (Source: Bioproj.Sabr.Org)

Chuck on working on a movie that starred Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy: "They paid me 500 dollars for my weeks work in that movie, I figured they'd made some mistake on the adding machine, but I stuck the check in my pocket and shut up. Baseball, I told myself, just lost a first baseman." (Source: RiflemanConnors.com)

Chuck on how he remembered landing the starring role in South Sea Woman (1953): "I had done just a couple of pictures, and I was sitting outside a little dressing room at Warner Bros, and they were testing a lot of people [for the role of Pvt. Davie White] and I was sitting in my Marine uniform waiting to be called and I went out to get a breath of fresh air, when down the street comes Burt Lancaster in a Marine uniform. And, in those days the stars never tested with the actors. So I said to him, 'Mr. Lancaster what are you doing here?' And he was a baseball fan, so he just decided to come down and test with me. So he took me in the dressing room to, as he said, run the lines, and I didn't even know what that expression meant then. Finally I figured him out and I said, oh you mean you want to practice? So anyhow we read the scene and man he looked at me and said 'Boy we've got to work on this!' About then my name is called on the loudspeaker to come in on stage and Burt goes to the door and yells out to the people. Hey, I'm talking here, we'll be another 20 minutes, go ahead and test somebody else. Well he went over that scene, seven pages long, to give me some semblance of approaching it proper. And then I went in and did it and got the part. But Burt took that time on his own and I gotta give him credit..." (Source: RiflemanConnors.com)

Chuck who said 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." (Source: RiflemanConnors.com)


Hobbies

He had 10 hobbies: golfing, reading, swimming, fishing, poetry writing, spending time with his family, baseball, philanthropy and politics, among many others. On a lot of episodes of The Rifleman, he did a lot of horseback riding.


Personal life and death

Connors made a guest appearance in Houston, Texas at the Houston Livestock Show, whose horse, Razor was auctioned off, with the proceeds going into a scholarship fund. Razor, who was given by him to the president, Neill Masterson, who learned Connors had loved his his horse. Among the many stars appearing at the rodeo, his co-star was Rifleman alumnus, Johnny Crawford, who appeared in the dressing room. Afterwards, Chuck wanted Johnny to reduce his guest-starring appearances while attending college, full-time, instead, he went on to become a popular bandleader.

Both parents: his father, Allan Connors, died in 1966, and his mother, Marcella Connors, died in 1971.[5]

Connors was a supporter of the Republican Party and attended several fundraisers for campaigns of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon.

Connors was introduced to Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union at a party given by Nixon at the Western White House in San Clemente, California, in June, 1973. Upon boarding his airplane bound for Moscow, Brezhnev noticed Connors in the crowd and went back to him to shake hands, and jokingly jumped up into Connors' towering hug. The Rifleman was one of the few American shows allowed on Russian television at that time; that was because it was Brezhnev's favorite. Connors and Brezhnev got along so well that Connors traveled to the Soviet Union in December 1973. In 1982, Connors expressed an interest in traveling to the Soviet Union for Brezhnev's funeral, but the U.S. government would not allow him to be part of the official delegation. Coincidentally, Connors and Brezhnev both died on the same day, ten years apart.

Almost a year before his passing, his first wife, Elizabeth "Betty" (Riddell) Connors had died on February 27, 1992, at the age of 64, of a long illness.[6] He met her at one of his baseball games, and married her on October 1, 1948 before their divorce in 1961, and had 4 sons, Michael (b. 1950), Jeffrey (b. 1952), Steven (b. 1953) and Kevin (1956-2005).[7]

A heavy smoker, Chuck Connors died on November 10, 1992, in Los Angeles, California at the age of 71, of pneumonia stemming from lung cancer. He had been married three times and was survived by his four sons. He had a companion named Rose Mary (Rosie) Grumley. Among his eulogists was castmate and decades-long friend, Johnny Crawford. He was interred in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Los Angeles.

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.

Stephen King's series "The Dark Tower" featured a gunslinger named Roland Deschain as the main character. King mentions in the foreword that Roland was modeled on Chuck Connors and the illustrations in the book that show Roland bear this out.


Filmography


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