Chuck Connors

Chuck Connors Headshot

Actor • Writer • Basketball Player • Baseball Player

Birth Date: April 10, 1921

Death Date: November 10, 1992

Birth Place: Brooklyn, New York

Imposing, lantern-jawed leading man of TV, most famous as Lucas McCain, the righteous, chain-smoking protagonist of ABC-TV's immensely popular "The Rifleman" (1958-63). Connors' six-foot-five frame helped him gain a position as a pro basketball player on the Boston Celtics after a stint in the military during WWII. He soon switched to baseball, playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs, but he was more distinguished for his comical sideline antics than his baseball prowess. Demoted to the Cubs' minor league farm, the old Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, Connors took advantage of his new location to begin an acting career, appearing in at least a dozen features before his star-making TV role."

The Rifleman" featured the athlete-turned-actor as New Mexico homesteader Lucas McCain, a diligent single father whose child-rearing duties were enlivened by gun battles with ornery varmints whom he dispatched with his trusty modified Winchester rifle. Several notable directors of genre features--Sam Peckinpah, Budd Boetticher, Joseph H. Lewis, Ida Lupino--toiled on this landmark TV Western.

Connors's subsequent series included the cop/attorney drama "Arrest and Trial" (1963-64), opposite Ben Gazzara; the Westerns "Branded" (1965-66) and "Cowboy in Africa" (1967-68); the syndicated documentary "The Thrill Seekers" (1973), which he hosted and narrated; "The Yellow Rose" (1983-84); and the short-lived "Werewolf" (1987). TV movies include "The Police Story" (the 1973 pilot movie for the popular TV series), "The Horror at 37,000 Feet" (1973), "Banjo Hackett: Roamin' Free" (1976) and "Roots" (1977).

Connors contemplated entering politics, but found politicians even more ornery than his old sagebrush adversaries. In 1973, at a party at President Nixon's vacation home, he met an unlikely fan--Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who greeted his favorite actor with a big Russian bear hug. Connors presented Brezhnev with two six-guns. He was also on hand to honor his actor-turned-President friend on a 1985 CBS special entitled "An All-Star Party For 'Dutch' Reagan."

Credits

Carnage Collection: Vicious Violence & Vengeance

Actor
Slauson / Davey
Movie
2023

Death Heads: Brain Drain

Actor
Show
2022

Girls Town

Actor
Show
2021

The Last Drive-in With Joe Bob BriggsStream

Actor
Reality
2018

Kelsey's Son

Actor
Show
1996

The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the DrawStream

Actor
Miniseries
1991

Dernier vol pour l'enfer

Actor
Movie
1991

Three Days to a Kill

Actor
Capt. Damian Wright
Movie
1991

Salmonberries

Actor
Bingo Chuck
Movie
1991

High Desert Kill

Actor
Stan Brown
Movie
1989

Face the Edge

Actor
Buddy
Movie
1989

Guns of Paradise

Guest Star
Series
1988

キラー・マニア/殺人遊戯

Actor
Movie
1988

Once Upon a Texas Train

Actor
Nash Crawford
Movie
1988

Skinheads

Actor
Mr. Huston
Movie
1988

Terror Squad

Actor
Chief Rawlings
Movie
1987

Werewolf

Actor
Janos Skorzeny
Movie
1987

Summer Camp Nightmare

Actor
Mr. Warren
Movie
1987

Sakura Killers

Actor
The Colonel
Movie
1986

Spenser For HireStream

Actor
Series
1985

Spenser: For Hire

Actor
King Powers
Movie
1985

Murder, She WroteStream

Guest Star
Tyler Morgan
Series
1984

The Yellow Rose

Actor
Jeb Hollister
Series
1983

Celebrity Daredevils

Actor
Guest
Show
1983

Las Muchachas del Valle

Actor
Movie
1983

Balboa, La Pócima del Pecado

Actor
Movie
1982

Jugando con la muerte

Actor
Sam Fisher
Movie
1982

Target Eagle

Actor
Sam Fisher
Movie
1982

The Capture of Grizzly Adams

Actor
Frank Briggs
Movie
1982

Airplane II: The SequelStream

Actor
The Sarge
Movie
1982
42%

Balboa

Actor
Alabama Dern
Movie
1982

Best of the West

Guest Star
Show
1981

Day of the Assassin

Actor
Fleming
Movie
1981

Virus

Actor
Capt. McCloud
Movie
1980

Las mujeres de Jeremías

Actor
Jonathan
Movie
1980

Disney's Wonderful World

Actor
Burn Sanderson
Show
1979

Tourist Trap

Actor
Mr. Slausen
Movie
1979

Fantasy Island

Guest Star
Series
1978

Standing Tall

Actor
Maj. Roland Hartline
Movie
1978

RootsStream

Actor
Tom Moore
Miniseries
1977
76%

The Night They Took Miss Beautiful

Actor
Mike O'Toole
Movie
1977

Banjo HackettStream

Actor
Sam Ivory
Movie
1976

Nightmare in Badham County

Actor
Sheriff Danen
Movie
1976

The Legend of Sea Wolf

Actor
Wolf-Larsen
Movie
1975

99 and 44/100 Percent Dead

Actor
Marvin `'Claw'` Zuckerman
Movie
1974

Police StoryStream

Actor
Series
1973

The Six Million Dollar ManStream

Guest Star
Niles Lingstrom
Series
1973

Thrill Seekers

Host
Show
1973

The Profane Comedy

Actor
Buddy Bates
Movie
1973

The Horror at 37,000 Feet

Actor
Captain Ernie Slade
Movie
1973

The Police Story

Actor
Slow Boy
Movie
1973

Soylent GreenStream

Actor
Tab Fielding
Movie
1973
70%

Pancho Villa

Actor
Col. Wilcox
Movie
1972

Embassy

Actor
Kesten
Movie
1972

The Proud and the Damned

Actor
Will Hansen
Movie
1972

The Mad Bomber

Actor
William Dorn
Movie
1972

Night of Terror

Actor
Brian DiPaulo
Movie
1972

Escape of the Birdmen

Actor
Colonel Morgan Crawford
Movie
1971

The Deserter

Actor
Reynolds
Movie
1971

Night GalleryStream

Guest Star
Series
1970

Men From Shiloh

Guest Star
Gustaveson
Show
1970

The Broken Puzzle

Actor
Governor Brill
Movie
1970

Captain Nemo and the Underwater City

Actor
Senator Robert Fraser
Movie
1969

Here's LucyStream

Guest Star
Series
1968

The Name of the Game

Guest Star
Series
1968

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-InStream

Guest
Variety Show
1968

Cowboy in Africa

Actor
Jim Sinclair
Show
1967

Kill and Come Back

Actor
Clyde McKay
Movie
1967

Ride Beyond VengeanceStream

Actor
Jonas Trapp
Movie
1966

Broken Sabre

Actor
Jason McCord
Movie
1966

Branded-1965

Actor
Jason McCord
Series
1965

Synanon

Actor
Ben
Movie
1965

Ride to Glory

Actor
Jason McCord
Movie
1964

FlipperStream

Actor
Porter Ricks
Movie
1963
50%

Geronimo

Actor
Geronimo
Movie
1962

The June Allyson Show

Actor
Show
1959

The RiflemanStream

Actor
Lucas McCain
Series
1958

The Big CountryStream

Actor
Buck Hannassey
Movie
1958
100%

The Lady Takes a Flyer

Actor
Phil Donahoe
Movie
1958

The Restless Gun

Guest Star
Toby Yeager
Series
1957

Wagon TrainStream

Guest Star
Private John Sumter
Series
1957

The Silent Service

Actor
Liddell
Show
1957

Tales of Wells FargoStream

Guest Star
Button Smith/Pete Johnson
Series
1957

The Hired Gun

Actor
Judd Farrow
Movie
1957

Designing WomanStream

Actor
Johnnie 'O'
Movie
1957
82%

Death in Small Doses

Actor
Mink Reynolds
Movie
1957

Tomahawk TrailStream

Actor
Sgt. Wade McCoy
Movie
1957

Old YellerStream

Actor
Burn Sanderson
Movie
1957
100%

Zane Grey Theater

Actor
Series
1956

Hot Rod Girl

Actor
Det. Ben Merrill
Movie
1956

Walk the Dark Street

Actor
Frank Garrick
Movie
1956

Screen Directors Playhouse

Actor
Show
1955

GunsmokeStream

Guest Star
Sam Keeler
Series
1955

Marshal Dillon

Guest Star
Show
1955

Target Zero

Actor
Pvt. Moose
Movie
1955

Three Stripes in the Sun

Actor
Idaho Johnson
Movie
1955

Good Morning, Miss Dove

Actor
William 'Bill' Holloway
Movie
1955

Naked Alibi

Actor
Capt. Owen Kincaide
Movie
1954

Dragonfly Squadron

Actor
Capt. Warnowski
Movie
1954

The Loretta Young Show

Guest Star
Show
1953

General Electric TheaterStream

Actor
Soldier
Series
1953

Private SecretaryStream

Guest Star
Series
1953

South Sea Woman

Actor
Pvt. Davey White
Movie
1953

Trouble Along the Way

Actor
Stan Schwegler
Movie
1953

Four Star PlayhouseStream

Actor
Series
1952

Adventures of SupermanStream

Guest Star
Series
1952

Pat and MikeStream

Actor
Police captain
Movie
1952
85%

What's My Line?Stream

Guest
Game Show
1950