Facts About Chuck Connors

Larrylambert
3 min readOct 31, 2023

He was one of the best athletes/actors of all time.

Creative Commons: lapoinsettia

Lots of actors have been athletes, but one of them really stands out to me. Chuck Connors. The thing that I found striking out Chuck is he played pro baseball and basketball. And when I say pro baseball and basketball, I don’t mean some minor league outfit that payed their players. I mean MLB and the NBA. He was a seriously good athlete.

As an actor, he is most noted for his role as Lucas McCain, aka “The Rifleman.” He was also in some big-time movies. Sometimes he was the hero, and sometimes he was the heavy. In the movie, “The Big Country” he played a bully/coward, but he played it well. He also played a notable heavy in the sci-fi flick, “Soylent Green.”

But now let’s consider some things you didn’t know about Chuck Connors.

1: The rifle Connors used in “The Rifleman” was not available during the time period the show was set in.

The rifle was from 1892, but the series was set in the 1870s and 1880s. Well, Lucas McCain was always ahead of his time.

2: During his NBA career with the Boston Celtics, Chuck was reported to be the first guy to break a backboard.

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Larrylambert

You probably don't know my name, but have likely seen my work. I've written for numerous syndicated cartoon strips and my gags have appeared in national pubs.