Kevin Joseph Aloysius "Chuck" Connors was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player.
40 Facts About Chuck Connors
2.
Chuck Connors is one of only 13 athletes in the history of American professional sports to have played in both Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association.
3.
Chuck Connors had one sibling, a sister, Gloria, who was two years his junior.
4.
Chuck Connors's father became a citizen of the United States in 1914 and was working in Brooklyn in 1930 as a longshoreman and his mother had attained her US citizenship in 1917.
5.
Chuck Connors was a devoted fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers despite their losing record during the 1930s, and he hoped to join the team one day.
6.
Chuck Connors received offers for athletic scholarships from more than two dozen colleges and universities.
7.
Since childhood, Chuck Connors had disliked his first name, Kevin, and he had sought another name.
8.
Chuck Connors left Seton Hall after two years to accept a contract to play professional baseball.
9.
Chuck Connors played on two minor league teams in 1940 and 1942, then joined the United States Army following America's entrance into World War II.
10.
In 1940, following his departure from college, Chuck Connors played four baseball games with the Brooklyn Dodgers' minor league team, the Newport Dodgers.
11.
Chuck Connors did so during pre-game practice before the Celtics' first home game of their inaugural season with a shot and not a slam dunk, which is what typically breaks a backboard in modern basketball.
12.
Chuck Connors is one of 13 athletes to have played in both the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball.
13.
In 1966, Chuck Connors played an off-field role by helping to end the celebrated holdout by Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax when he acted as an intermediary during negotiations between management and the players.
14.
Chuck Connors can be seen in the Associated Press photo with Drysdale, Koufax and Dodgers general manager Buzzie Bavasi announcing the pitchers' new contracts.
15.
Chuck Connors was the first professional basketball player to be credited with shattering a backboard when he brought down an improperly installed glass backboard with a 40-foot heave as warmups ended before the season opener was to start at the Boston Arena on November 5,1946.
16.
Contrary to erroneous reports, Chuck Connors was not drafted by the Chicago Bears of the NFL.
17.
Chuck Connors realized that he would not make a career in professional sports, so he decided to pursue an acting career.
18.
Chuck Connors had a rare comedic role in a 1955 episode of Adventures of Superman.
19.
Chuck Connors portrayed Sylvester J Superman, a lanky rustic yokel who shared the same name as the title character of the series.
20.
Chuck Connors was cast as Lou Brissie, a former professional baseball player wounded during World War II, in the 1956 episode "The Comeback" of the religion anthology series Crossroads.
21.
In 1957, Chuck Connors was cast in the Walt Disney film Old Yeller in the role of Burn Sanderson.
22.
Chuck Connors became a beloved television character actor, guest-starring in dozens of shows.
23.
Chuck Connors's guest-starring debut was on an episode of NBC's Dear Phoebe.
24.
Chuck Connors played in two episodes, one as the bandit Sam Bass, on Dale Robertson's NBC western Tales of Wells Fargo.
25.
Chuck Connors beat 40 other actors for the lead in The Rifleman, portraying Lucas McCain, a widowed rancher known for his skill with a customized Winchester rifle.
26.
The offer turned out to be less than Chuck Connors was making doing freelance acting, so he turned it down.
27.
Chuck Connors was a fan of the show and gave them to Connors.
28.
Chuck Connors guest-starred in a last-season episode of Night Gallery titled "The Ring With the Red Velvet Ropes".
29.
Chuck Connors was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance in a key role against type: a slave owner in the 1977 miniseries Roots.
30.
Chuck Connors hosted a number of episodes of Family Theater on the Mutual Radio Network.
31.
In 1983, Chuck Connors joined Sam Elliott, Cybill Shepherd, Ken Curtis, and Noah Beery Jr.
32.
Chuck Connors met his first wife, Elizabeth Jane Riddell Connors, at one of his baseball games, and married her on October 1,1948.
33.
Chuck Connors married Kamala Devi the year after co-starring with her in Geronimo.
34.
Chuck Connors acted with Connors in Branded, Broken Sabre, and Cowboy in Africa.
35.
Chuck Connors met his third wife, Faith Quabius, when they both appeared in the film Soylent Green.
36.
Chuck Connors backed Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election, and Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election.
37.
Chuck Connors campaigned for Ronald Reagan, a personal friend, and marched in support of the Vietnam War in 1967.
38.
Later, at a party given by Nixon at the Western White House in San Clemente, California, Chuck Connors presented Brezhnev with a pair of Colt Single Action Army "Six-Shooters" which Brezhnev liked greatly.
39.
Chuck Connors died on November 10,1992, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 71 of lung cancer.
40.
Chuck Connors is buried in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery.