Chuck Connors

Before the 1940 baseball season, he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent.

Graduated from Adelphi Academy - a private high school in Brooklyn, New York, in 1940.

His college studies was interrupted when he was enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942 in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

He was the first NBA player to shatter a backboard; he did it while playing for the Boston Celtics in 1946.

On October 10, 1950, he was traded by the Brooklyn Dodgers - with whom he had appeared with in one game in 1949 - with Dee Fondy to the Chicago Cubs for Hank Edwards and cash. He spent part of the 1951 season with the Cubs.

Played major league baseball (for the Chicago Cubs) in 1951.

Almost suffered the same fate in each of his two TV westerns. On a 10-2-61 episode of "The Rifleman" (1958) called "The Vaqueros," he was stripped to the waist, tied to a tree and left to die under a scorching sun by a group of Mexican bandits. On an 11-14-65 episode of "Branded" (1965) called "Fill No Glass for Me," he was stripped to the waist, tied to a tree and left to die under a scorching sun by a group of Indian warriors (in both cases he survived).

Years after "The Rifleman" (1958), he was a spokesperson for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in the early 1970s.

Lucas McCain, Connors' character on "The Rifleman" (1958), was ranked #32 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" [20 June 2004 issue].

Remained good friends with Johnny Crawford during and after "The Rifleman" (1958).

Future actor LeVar Burton was also said to be a huge fan of Connors's show "The Rifleman" (1958), as a little boy.

Was a film "enemy" of Charlton Heston at least twice -- as Buck Hannesey in The Big Country (1958) and as Tab Fielding in Soylent Green (1973).

Best remembered by the public for his starring role as Lucas McCain on "The Rifleman" (1958).

His series "The Rifleman" (1958) was canceled at the end of the fifth season, because both the actor himself and co-star Johnny Crawford had decided to move on to other projects.

Future "The Rifleman" (1958) co-star, longtime friend and devoted fan, Johnny Crawford, had once said in an interview that when he was just a little boy, he too was an avid baseball fan, like Connors was, and would bring his baseball equipment whenever both he and Connors would be on location, during filming.

According to an article on TV westerns in Time Magazine (March 30, 1959), Connors stood 6'5" tall, weighed 215 pounds, and had chest-waist-hips measurements of 45-34-41.

His father, Allan died in 1966, followed by his mother, Marcella, who died in 1971.

In June 1973, he befriended Soviet Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev in a meeting at the White House. Connors traveled to the Soviet Union in December 1973, and presented Brezhnev with two Colt revolvers. In 1982, he asked his friend President Ronald Reagan if he could attend Brezhnev's funeral service, but he was not allowed to be part of the official US delegation.

Accepted the role of Mr. Slausen in Tourist Trap (1979) because he wanted to "become the Boris Karloff of the '80s".

Was elected to the Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1991.

Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1991.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives." Volume 3, 1991-1993, pp. 116-118. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001.

A couple of years before his death, he was devastated to hear about Burt Lancaster's stroke. He tried calling his office one day, but his office wasn't releasing any information at that time. Connors sent a letter in support of David Fury's nomination of Lancaster to the Cowboy Hall of Fame and signed the petition David sent to the American film Institute nominating Burt for the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.

Almost one year before his death, his first wife, Elizabeth "Betty" Connors, died on February 27, 1992, after a long illness.

In a 1997 biography titled "The Man Behind the Rifle," author David Fury says that "Chuck" Connors acquired his nickname while an athlete playing first base. He had a habit of calling to the pitcher: "Chuck it to me, baby, chuck it to me!"