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The Rifleman used a model 1892 Winchester
carbine fitted with a large loop lever that enabled it to be spun and
cocked. For more
Rifleman Trivia
Following his military discharge in 1946, Chuck
Connors joined the newly formed Boston Celtics of the Basketball
Association of America. Connors left the team for spring training with
Major League Baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers, and went to the Chicago Cubs
in 1951, for whom he played in 66 games as a first baseman and
occasional pinch hitter. In 1952 he was sent to the minor leagues
again, to play for the Cubs' top farm team, the Los Angeles Angels.
Connors was also drafted by the Chicago Bears, but never suited-up for
the team. Connors is credited with being the first professional
basketball player to break a backboard. The incident occurred on
November 5, 1946 during a pre-game warmup at Boston Garden when
Connors hit the basket rim with a two-handed shot.Playing baseball
near Hollywood proved to be fortuitous, as he was spotted by an MGM
casting director and cast in the 1952 Tracy-Hepburn film Pat and Mike.
In 1953 he starred opposite Burt Lancaster playing a rebellious Marine
private in the film South Sea Woman.
During his career in Hollywood, Connors was best known for his
television work. He appeared in a 1954 episode of Adventures of
Superman titled Flight to the North, in which he played a good-natured
(and very strong) backwoods fellow named Sylvester J. Superman. He
starred in an episode of CBS's The Millionaire. He was cast as "Lucas
McCain" in the television Western series The Rifleman (1958-1963),
with Johnny Crawford as his son "Mark". Thereafter he starred in
Branded (1965-1966) and the 1967 Cowboy in Africa TV series, alongside
Ronald Howard and Tom Nardini. The opening titles of The Rifleman
featured Connors rapid-firing eleven shots as he walked down the
street of North Fork. Actually, he only fired ten shots; the eleventh
had to be dubbed in to time out with the music. In 1973 and 1974 he
hosted a television series called Thrill Seekers. He had a key role as
a slaveowner in the famous 1977 miniseries Roots.
Connors also hosted a number of episodes of Family Theater on the
Mutual Radio Network. This series was aimed at promoting prayer as a
path to world peace and stronger families, with the motto "The family
which prays together stays together". In 1987 he co-starred in the FOX
series Werewolf as drifter Janos Skorzeny. In 1991, he was inducted
into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy &
Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
Connors was frequently a supporter of the Republican Party and
attended a few fundraisers for campaigns of U.S. President Richard M.
Nixon, who reportedly was a fan of Connors.
At a party given by Nixon at the Western White House in San Clemente,
California, in June, 1973, Connors was introduced to Secretary General
Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union. Upon boarding his airplane bound
for Moscow, Brezhnev noticed Connors in the crowd and went back to him
to shake hands, and, jokingly, jump up into Connor's towering hug. The
Rifleman was one of the few American shows allowed on Russian
television at that time because it was Brezhnev's favorite. Connors
and Brezhnev hit it off so well that in December, 1973, Connors
traveled to the Soviet Union. In 1982, Connors indicated interest in
traveling to the Soviet Union for Brezhnev's funeral, but the U.S.
government would not allow him to be part of the official delegation.
Connors died in Los Angeles at the age of seventy-one from lung cancer
following a bout of pneumonia.
The last time Chuck Connors was seen on prime time as the Rifleman was
a short cameo on The Gambler Returns: Luck of the Draw (1991).
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