Chuck Connors

Birthday: Apr 10, 1921
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA

Bio: Born to Newfoundland immigrant parents, Chuck and his two-years-younger sister, Gloria, grew up in a working-class section on the west side of Brooklyn where their longshoreman-father worked the local docks.

Chuck's natural athletic prowess earned him a scholarship to Adelphi Academy, a private high school, and then to Seton Hall, a Catholic college in… More Bio: Born to Newfoundland immigrant parents, Chuck and his two-years-younger sister, Gloria, grew up in a working-class section on the west side of Brooklyn where their longshoreman-father worked the local docks.

Chuck's natural athletic prowess earned him a scholarship to Adelphi Academy, a private high school, and then to Seton Hall, a Catholic college in South Orange, New Jersey. Leaving Seton Hall after two years, on October 20, 1942 he joined the Army, officially listing his occupation as a ski instructor. After enlistment in the infantry at Fort Knox, he later served mostly as a tank-warfare instructor at Camp Campbell, Kentucky, and then finally at West Point. Following his discharge early in 1946, Chuck resumed his athletic pursuits. He played center for the Boston Celtics in the 1946-1947 season but left early for spring training with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Baseball had always been his first love and for the next several years he knocked about the minor leagues in such places as Rochester, Norfolk, Newark, Newport News, Mobile, and Montreal. (While in Montreal he met Elizabeth Riddell whom he married in October of 1948. They had four sons during their 13-year marriage.) He finally reached his goal, playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, in May of 1949 but after just five weeks and one at-bat, he returned to Montreal. After a brief stint with the Chicago Cubs in 1951, during which he hit two home runs, Chuck wound up with the Cubs' Triple-A farm team, the L.A. Angels, in 1952. A baseball fan who was also a casting director for MGM spotted Chuck and recommended him for a part in the Tracy-Hepburn comedy, "Pat and Mike." Originally cast to play a prize-fighter in this film, the role went instead to Aldo Ray Chuck was cast to play a state police captain. Chuck now abandoned his athletic hopes and devoted full time to his acting career which often emphasized his muscular, 6-foot-5-inch physique.

During the next several years he made 20 movies, culminating in a key role in William Wyler's 1958 western, "The Big Country." Also appearing in many TV shows, he finally became a "big-name" in 1958 when "The Rifleman" began its highly-successful five-year run on ABC. Other TV series' followed as did a number of movies which, though mostly minor, allowed Chuck to display his range as both a stalwart "good guy" and a menacing "heavy."

Date of Death:
November 10, 1992, Los Angeles, California, USA (lung cancer and pneumonia).