Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors was born on April 10, 1921 in Brooklyn, New York. The athletic Connors became a professional basketball and baseball player with the Boston Celtics [1946] and The Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers [1949-1950], Chicago Cubs [1951]. Knowing he could not make a living as a ball player he turned to acting and appeared in his first film “Pat and Mike” (1952) starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. In 1953 he appeared with Burt Lancaster in “South Sea Woman”. In 1957 he starred in “Old Yeller” and “The Hired Gun” and had a co-starring role in “The Big Country” (1958). Fame came to Connors when he starred as Lucas McCain on TV’s “The Rifleman” from 1958-1963 and followed that up with his role as Jason McCord in “Branded” (1965-1966). Connors continued to appear in films and television until his death on November 10, 1992 at the age of 71. Chuck appeared in five Euro-westerns “Kill Them All and Return Alone” (1968), “The Deserter” (1971) “The Proud and the Damned” and “Pancho Villa” both in 1972 and “Garden of Venus” (1981). Today we remember Chuck Connors on what would have been his 90th birthday.
Kill them all and Come Back Alone, was the first Spaghetti western I ever watched. Saw it in a cinema about 4 years before the 'Dollars' movies were ever shown on TV.
ReplyDeleteAs a young kid at that time, I had no idea of it's origins, I just knew it was very different from any western I'd seen before.
It blew me away! Still have a lot of affection for this movie and Chuck.
Adrian, I was the opposite of you I knew the film existed but it never played on TV and I never saw it until I got a faded video, taped off of Italian TV. I never saw it in English until Wild East released it. It's an action packed film and Connors is the perfect leader of the undercover mercenaries.
ReplyDeleteBiltmore: Half way between ya both. Saw it in the cinema in the early 70's. Didn't get to see it again until Wilds East put it out.
ReplyDeleteI heard a story from Johnny Crawford in a 2015 interview on YouTube that Chuck Connors was able to get the role of Lucas McCain on "The Rifleman" after he was recognized from the film "The Big Country" where he played Buck Hennessey. Whether or not this is true remains a mystery but I believe Johnny Crawford so I guess it's true.
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