Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors was born on 10 April 1921, in Brooklyn, New York City USA, to parents Marcella Nondrigan and Alban ‘Allan’ Connors, of Irish descent. He was an actor, writer and professional basketball and baseball player, one of the few athletes in American professional sports’ history who played in both Major League Baseball and the NBA. However, Connors is perhaps best known for having played the role of Lucas McCain in the hit ABC TV series “The Rifleman”. Chuck Connors passed away in November 1992.
So just how wealthy was Chuck Connors? As sources state, Connors had established a net worth of over $5 million. His wealth was acquired during his professional baseball and basketball careers, but largely during his career in the entertainment industry.
Chuck Connors Net Worth $5 Million
Connors grew up in west Brooklyn. He excelled in baseball and basketball which helped him to earn a scholarship to a private high school, Adelphi Academy. Upon matriculating in 1939, he enrolled in Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey on a baseball scholarship and played for the college baseball and basketball teams. Two years later he dropped out of college and joined the army during the Second World War as a tank-warfare instructor, but managed to continue playing both sports during his service.
When discharged in 1946, Connors briefly joined the Boston Celtics basketball team, becoming the first player in the NBA history to break a glass backboard. He then left for spring training with the Brooklyn Dodgers, a major-league baseball club. He returned to the Celtics during the 1967-68 season, but went on to devote himself to his baseball career, playing in several minor leagues at various places such as in Mobile Alabama, Montreal Canada, Rochester New York and Newark New Jersey. In 1949 Connors finally joined the Dodgers but soon returned to Montreal. Then in 1950 he joined the Chicago Cubs and later played in the minor leagues again, for the Cubs’ team the Los Angeles Angels. His baseball and basketball years contributed to raise his net worth.
In 1951 Connors was offered a small role in the movie “Pat and Mike” by the MGM casting director Bill Grady, a passionate Angels fan. Connors was cast in the role of a police captain, actually earning $12,000 before the baseball spring training started, which was more than double his baseball salary, but he went on to play his last season with the Angels in 1952. The following year he retired from baseball to devote himself to his acting career, taking roles in the 1953 movies “Code Two”, “South Sea Woman” and “Trouble Along the Way”. He went on to appear in a number of television series of the time, such as “The Loretta Young Show”, “City Detective”, “Private Secretary” “Adventures of Superman”, “Gunsmoke” and “Crossroads”, to name a few. His acting career grew and his net worth certainly improved.
Connors’ big break came with the 1957 film “Old Yeller”. His performance as a strong father figure generated astonishing popularity, significantly added to his wealth and led him to be cast in the hit ABC Western series “The Rifleman”, as Lucas McCain, the role which would remain Connors’ signature; he played a Wild West rancher owning a customized rapid-fire Winchester rifle, in the series which lasted from 1958 to 1963, was the first to portray a widowed father raising a son alone. It became extremely popular and considerably boosted Connors’ wealth.
Meanwhile, Connors appeared in numerous other television series and movies, such as the 1963 movies “Flipper” and “Move Over, Darling”. He hosted the 1973 series “Thrill Seekers”, and numerous episodes of the radio series “Family Theater”. His part in the 1977 mini series “Roots” brought him a nomination for an Emmy Award.
Overall, Chuck Connors appeared in more than 65 movies and over 50 TV productions, which established him as a Hollywood star and earned him an appreciable fortune. In 1991 Connors became an inductee into the Western Performance Hall of Fame.
Speaking of his personal life, Connors was married three times. His first marriage was with Elizabeth Jane Riddell Connors lasting from 1948 to 1931, and they had four sons together. In 1963 he married his co-star Kamala Devi, however, their marriage ended in 1973. He then married another co-star, Faith Quabius in 1977, but they divorced two years later. At the time when he died, his companion was Rose Mary Grumley. He died of lung cancer in 1992, being aged 71.
Connors was active in Republican politics, a passionate supporter of President Richard Nixon. At a party at Nixon’s Western White House in California in 1973, Connors met Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, whom he visited in the Soviet Union several years later.
Connors founded the Chuck Connors Charitable Foundation through which he hosted a golf tournament each year to help raise money for the Angel View Crippled Children’s Foundation.
