Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors (April 10, 1921 – November 10, 1992) was an American actor and professional basketball and baseball player.

He is one of only 13 athletes in the history of American professional sports to have played in both Major League Baseball (Brooklyn Dodgers 1949, Chicago Cubs, 1951) and the National Basketball Association (Boston Celtics 1946–48).

[3] He played on two minor league teams (see below) in 1940 and 1942, then joined the United States Army following America's entrance into World War II.

[8] Following his military discharge in 1946, the 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) Connors joined the Rochester Royals (now the Sacramento Kings) of the National Basketball League for their 1945–1946 championship season.

He did so during pre-game practice before the Celtics' first home game of their inaugural season with a shot and not a slam dunk, which is what typically breaks a backboard in modern basketball.

[7] After two more seasons with Montreal, Connors joined the Chicago Cubs in 1951, playing in 66 games as a first baseman and occasional pinch hitter.

[7] In 1966, Connors played an off-field role by helping to end the celebrated holdout (see reserve clause) by Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax when he acted as an intermediary during negotiations between management and the players.

[17] Connors can be seen in the Associated Press photo with Drysdale, Koufax and Dodgers general manager Buzzie Bavasi announcing the pitchers' new contracts.

Playing baseball near Hollywood proved fortunate, as he was spotted by an MGM casting director and subsequently signed for the 1952 Tracy–Hepburn film Pat and Mike, performing the role of a police captain.

Connors was cast as Lou Brissie, a former professional baseball player wounded during World War II, in the 1956 episode "The Comeback" of the religion anthology series Crossroads.

Don DeFore portrayed the Reverend C. E. "Stoney" Jackson, who offered the spiritual insight to assist Brissie's recovery so that he could return to the game.

He played in two episodes, one as the bandit Sam Bass, on Dale Robertson's NBC western Tales of Wells Fargo.

Other television appearances were on Hey, Jeannie!, The Loretta Young Show, Schlitz Playhouse, Screen Directors Playhouse, Four Star Playhouse, Matinee Theatre, Cavalcade of America, Gunsmoke, The Gale Storm Show, The West Point Story, The Millionaire, General Electric Theater hosted by Ronald Reagan, Wagon Train, The Restless Gun with John Payne, Murder, She Wrote, Date with the Angels with Betty White, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, The Virginian, Night Gallery hosted by Rod Serling, and Here's Lucy with Lucille Ball.

Connors beat 40 other actors for the lead in The Rifleman, portraying Lucas McCain, a widowed rancher known for his skill with a customized Winchester rifle.

[23] Connors said in a 1959 interview with TV Guide that the producers of Four Star Television (Dick Powell, Charles Boyer, Ida Lupino, and David Niven) must have been looking at 40 to 50 thirty-something men.

After the producers watched him in the movie, they decided they should cast Connors in the role of Lucas McCain and made him a better offer, including a five-percent ownership of the show.

Johnny Crawford, an unfamiliar actor at the time, former Mousketeer, baseball fan and Western buff, beat 40 other young stars to play the role of Lucas's son, Mark.

He also appeared opposite James Garner and Doris Day in the comedy Move Over, Darling in the role earlier played by Randolph Scott in the original 1940 Irene Dunne/Cary Grant version entitled My Favorite Wife.

In 1967–1968, Connors starred in the ABC series Cowboy in Africa alongside Tom Nardini and British actor Ronald Howard.

Connors was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance in a key role against type: a slave owner in the 1977 miniseries Roots.

In 1980, he hosted Chuck Connors' Great Western Theatre, a combination of off-network episodes of Branded and The Guns of Will Sonnett, managed by Leo A. Gutman, Inc.[28] In 1983, Connors joined Sam Elliott, Cybill Shepherd, Ken Curtis, and Noah Beery Jr. in the short-lived NBC series The Yellow Rose, about a modern Texas ranching family.

[32] Few American television programs were permitted to be broadcast in the Soviet Union at that time: The Rifleman was an exception, because it happened to be Brezhnev's favorite show.