Chuck Connors

A modern renaissance man, former Tehachapi area resident Chuck Connors set the standard for today’s athlete-turned entertainer long before the trend was fashionable.

Connors grew up in New York, attending a private high school on an athletic scholarship. Following his discharge from the US Army in 1946, he pursued a career in professional sports -- first playing basketball with the Boston Celtics and later baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Chicago Cubs.

In 1952, Connors was tabbed for a bit part in the Tracy-Hepburn film Pat and Mike. He continued playing minor roles through much of the 1950s before finally landing the role of bully Buck Hannassy in the 1958 film The Big Country.

Success in a major feature led to small screen stardom as family-man Lucas McCain in The Rifleman, which debuted that same year.

The series aired through 1963 and earned Connors two Emmy Awards. He continued to act for the next quarter century with roles in film and television projects including Soylent Green, Walking Tall and Support Your Local Gunfighter.

In 1985, Connors received a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame and in 1991 was elected to the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Hall of Great Western Performers. Connors died in 1992 at age of 71.