Aug 7, 2018

Chuck Connors


Chuck Connors may be forever remembered as the taciturn, loving, and endlessly shirtless Lucas McCain,  Johnny Crawford's dad on The Rifleman, but he had a long career before and after as a screen hunk.  Born in 1920, he started out as a pro ball player -- both baseball and basketball -- before a talent scout spotted him and cast him in Pat and Mike (1952).  Dozens of Westerns, spy movies, and war movies followed, with an occasional comedy thrown in, like the tv series Hey Jeannie (1958) and Love That Jill (1958).










The Rifleman brought him fame, of course, both for his shirtless shots and for the frequency with which he kills bad guys -- two or three per episode.  Fortunately, the kids who grew up on a diet of nonstop violence turned out fine -- the 10 year olds of 1958 grew into the 20-year old anti-war protesters of the Summer of Love.





Immediately after The Rifleman, Chuck moved back to the 20th century to play Porter Ricks in the movie version of the boy-and-pet-dolphin movie Flipper (1963), with Luke Halpin as Sandy; it later became a popular, beefcake heavy tv series.

In the Doris Day comedy Move Over, Darling (1963), Ellen (Doris) is lost at sea and presumed dead, so after five years her husband Nick (James Garner) moves on.  But Ellen resurfaces during his honeymoon.  Hijinks ensue. Chuck plays Steven Burkett, the handsome, athletic, leopard-skin swimsuit-clad man she shared a desert island with for five years.  Nothing happened, however.

Some dramas and Westerns followed, including Synanon (1965), with Alex CordBranded (1966-67), about a man unjustly drummed out of the army for cowardice ("what do you do when you're branded, and you know you're a ma-aa-n?"; and Cowboy in Africa (1967-68), which I never saw, but appeared to be about a same-sex couple (Chuck Connors, Tom Nardini) who run a ranch in Kenya and adopt a native boy.  It was based on the movie Africa: Texas Style, starring Hugh O'Brian.



I didn't seem much of Chuck during the 1970s; he appeared mostly in Westerns, which I didn't care for.  But he appeared again in Werewolf (1987-88), which starred hunky Eric (John J. York), a college student bitten by a werewolf; Chuck played evil head werewolf Janos Skorzeny, the object of Eric's quest to free himself from his curse.





Chuck Connors died in 1992.  He was married three times and had four children.  Recently there was a rumor circulating that he did some gay porn during his pro-ball days.  I doubt it; he wasn't part of the Physique Pictorial or Henry Willson crowd, and the footage doesn't really look like him.

But here's a censored full-frontal.  It looks a lot like him.

The uncensored photo is on Tales of West Hollywood.

12 comments:

  1. Must correct one thing: The anti-war movement deflated when the draft was abolished. Yeah, basically, for most of them, it was self-interest. (Then again, the real reason pre-X generations were more violent, statistically speaking, was tetraethyl lead.)

    It could have been that he needed money, if it is him.

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  2. I saw the pirn movie 35 years ago. It was definately him!

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  3. I expect, as most in those days, they did not think too much about such. Do the act then get the money and that would be the end of it. Back then, records of such did not survive well, and no one thought about the future.
    The Gay Video is of him, but like I said above, he was not the only one that experiment in such, and then it was moreso for the money. Almost all in Hollywood did such if you research deeply.

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  4. Once on Ebay about 10 years ago, there was a reel for a Sailor's Delight gay porn film and it absolutely was Chuck Connors on the cover of the box. I noticed his photo in a big long list of things in a store before I realized it was an adult film. Many other people obviously agreed, as the auction went well over 1000 bucks. It looked like it was from the late 40s, a flat square box with his shirtless face and neck smiling -- or his doppelganger. Was he in the film or just the photo? don't know. Title was Sailor's something, not Delight probably, but something similar. I saved a screenshot of it but can't find it right now. But it's not just a rumor he was associated with gay porn.

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  5. You can see the porno loop on line now- and there is one shot in which he getting a blow job from the other guy and it does look like Connors

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  6. I saw his gay Porn film on a video of all celebrities who did portraits. It was very shocking and I quickly turned it off! I bet in the Rifleman he liked when someone sneaked up on him from behind!

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  7. I SAW THE FILM HE MADE AND IT IS HIM

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  8. It wasn’t him. Different physiques.

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  9. Chuck Connors is in Physique Pictorial

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  10. I have the video. It's grainy but you can see more in the face that it's absolutely him.

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  11. Ive only seen the Rifleman the past 2 yrs on METV,I think he was shaved before the bare chest scenes, once I noticed the Wrangler logo was cut off his pants pocket.The opening scene when he has the rifle against his crotch fireing it ,looks like jerking off.I enjoy the closing credits music

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