Chuck Connors' net worth: how rich was The Rifleman star?
Chuck Connors' net worth at the time of his death in 1992 was estimated to be $5 million. He had a long career as an actor known for portraying Lucas McCain on the Western series The Rifleman. Chuck was also one of the few athletes to compete professionally in both the NBA and the MLB.
Source: Getty Images
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Key takeaways
- Chuck Connors, born Kevin Joseph Connors, had a multifaceted career in entertainment spanning four decades.
- The 6-foot-5 Brooklyn native was a professional basketball and baseball player before transitioning to full-time acting in the early 1950s.
- Connors, a cowboy in real life, passed away on November 10, 1992, at the age of 71 from lung cancer complications.
Chuck Connors' profile summary
Birth name | Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors |
Date of birth | April 10, 1921 |
Place of birth | Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States |
Date of death | November 10, 1992 |
Age at death | 71 years old |
Cause of death | Lung cancer and pneumonia |
Resting place | San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Los Angeles |
Heritage | Irish |
Height | 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m/196 cm) |
Spouses | Elizabeth Jane Riddell (1948–1962) Kamala Devi (1963–1972) Faith Quabius (1977–1980) |
Children | Mike Connors, Jeff Connors, Steve Connors, Kevin Connors |
Parents | Allan Connors, Marcella Lundrigan Connors |
Siblings | Gloria Marie Connors Cole |
Profession | Actor, basketball player, baseball player |
Teams | Chicago Cubs (MLB) Brooklyn Dodgers (MLB) Boston Celtics (NBA) |
Inside Chuck Connors' net worth before he died
The athlete-turned actor had built a net worth of about $5 million (approximately $11 million in 2025) before he passed away on November 10, 1992, per Celebrity Net Worth. He was one of the highest-earning actors on TV in the 1960s.
Chuck Connors was paid $3,000 (approx. $33,000 in 2025) per episode in The Rifleman (1958-1963) for portraying the iconic Lucas McCain, according to IMDb. He continued to receive a percentage of the show's earnings after the series ended as part of his contract.
His salary rose to $7,500 per week for playing John Egan in Arrest and Trial (1963-1964). In 1965, the actor landed another lead role as Jason McCord in Branded (1965-1966), where he was paid $12,000 per week. Chuck Connors' salary rose further for his role as Jim Sinclair in Cowboy in Africa (1967-1968), with weekly earnings of $25,000.
Source: Original
Chuck Connors had an illustrious four-decade acting career
Chuck was spotted by an MGM casting director while playing pro baseball in Southern California. They cast him for a small role as a police captain in the 1952 film Pat and Mike, whose success made him retire from professional athletics.
His portrayal of Burn Sanderson in the 1957 Disney movie Old Yeller led to his casting as Lucas McCain in the hit Western ABC classic The Rifleman. Lucas, a widowed rancher and sharpshooter in the Old West, made Chuck a Hollywood star and television icon.
Connors appeared in over 100 films and TV shows during his career. Some of his top movies include Move Over, Darling, Flipper, Geronimo, Pancho Villa, and The Big Country. Chuck's final role was as Captain Damian Wright in the 1992 film Three Days to A Kill.
Source: Getty Images
Chuck Connors had fairly successful basketball and baseball careers
Connor's passion for sports started when he was growing up in Brooklyn, New York. In 1940, he signed a minor-league baseball contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers before pursuing collegiate athletics at Seton Hall University.
He took a break from playing to serve in the Army during World War II. After the war, Chuck Connors played pro basketball for the newly formed Boston Celtics in the Basketball Association of America (later NBA) from 1946 to 1948. He also played in the National Basketball League for the Rochester Royals from 1945 to 1946
In Major League Baseball, Chuck played for the Chicago Cubs in 1951. He also played several seasons in the minor leagues, like the Montreal Royals and the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, before transitioning to Hollywood.
Source: Getty Images
Chuck Connors loved living as a cowboy
Chuck's portrayal of Western characters spilt into his real lifestyle as a cowboy. He owned a 20-acre ranch at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, where he kept horses and chickens.
Chuck Connors had another house in Hollywood but preferred life in the mountains. He told the National Enquirer in the mid-1980s:
I love this ranch, which is a real working ranch. This place is my sanity now. If I had my way completely, I'd never leave the ranch. Hollywood is for the birds... It's too phoney.
Source: Getty Images
Did Chuck Connors have a relationship with Johnny Crawford?
Johnny Crawford portrayed Mark McCain, the son of Chuck Connors' character Lucas McCain in The Rifleman. The father-son bond was central to the show's theme.
The actors maintained a close relationship off the screen, and when the show ended in 1963. Crawford, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 75, spoke fondly of Connors in a 2017 interview with Cowboys & Indians, saying:
Chuck was so perfect. You know, I still miss him. He was unique — I'll never meet anybody else like him again. He tried to be a good influence for me, even off-camera. And he treated me like an adult when we were working. He made it much easier than it might have been. He was a lot of fun.
Source: Getty Images
Chuck Connors' love for smoking led to lung cancer
Chuck Connors was a heavy smoker and would take around three Camel cigarette packs per day. He started smoking in the 1940s before he decided to limit his intake in the 1970s. He even fronted anti-smoking campaigns, but resumed smoking by the 1980s.
The towering Hollywood actor was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1992 after going to the hospital for pneumonia treatment. He reportedly died a few days after the diagnosis in November 1992.
Connors was survived by his four sons, Mike Connors (died in 2020), Jeff Connors (died in 2014), Steve Connors, and Kevin Connors (died in 2005). All four children were from his first marriage to Elizabeth Jane Ridell. He was married and divorced two more times to actresses Kamala Devi and Faith Quabius.
Source: Getty Images
Conclusion
Chuck Connors' net worth reflected his success on the small screen, but he preferred a quieter life away from Hollywood in his later years. His classic role as Lucas McCain in The Rifleman cemented his legacy as one of TV's earliest and most iconic Western heroes.
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Colman was named by Time Magazine as one of 2024's 100 most influential people in the world. The actor is also a professor at USC and a faculty member at Yale School of Drama.
Source: Briefly News
