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 Born Krekor Ohanian on August 15, 1925, Connors grew up facing the discrimination heaped upon the Armenian community of Fresno, CA. He served in the Air Force during World War II and then attended UCLA on a basketball scholarship. He studied law but wanted to become an actor after appearing in several plays. After watching him on the basketball court director William Wellman encouraged him to pursue acting. Young Connors agreed and in 1952, he made his feature film debut in the RKO release "Sudden Fear", billed as Touch Connors. ('Touch' had been his nickname at UCLA and agent Henry Wilson thought it fit the era.) He continued playing supporting roles for several years. He was a member of John Wayne's downed transport crew in "Island In the Sky" (1953), and even played an Amalekite herder trying to keep water from the future wife of Moses in "The Ten Commandments" (1956). By 1958, he had changed his name to Michael Connors, and co-starred in "Live Fast, Die Young", as a member of a gang of thieves. Connors was a prisoner of Alec Guinness several years after the end of World War II in "Situation Hopeless--But Not Serious" (1965) and had one of his best movie roles as Hatfield the cardsharp in the Bing Crosby/Ann-Margret remake of "Stagecoach" (1966). In 1979, after years of TV series work, Mike went back to the big screen with "Avalanche Express" and even produced as well as starred in "Too Scared to Scream" (1985), as a new York detective who must track down a psycho killer. Connors played Jack Warner, (for whom he made "Islands in the Sky") in the feature film "James Dean: Race With Destiny" (1996). But was television, not films that would make Connors a household name. In 1954 he made his TV debut in an episode of "Ford Theatre" and was active as a guest star, particularly as a heavy in Westerns, throughout the decade. Although he has made virtually hundreds of TV appearances, Mike is best known for the four shows on which he regularly appeared: "Tightrope" (CBS, 1959-60); "Mannix" (CBS, 1967-75); "Today's FBI" (ABC, 1981-82) and as host of the syndicated series "Crimes of the Century" (1989). In "Tightrope," Mike starred as an anonymous undercover agent assigned to infiltrate organized crime. He came close to repeating that role more than 20 years later in "Today's FBI," an update of the seminal ABC show, "The FBI," starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. In this newfangled version, Mike played Ben Slater, an FBI supervisor overseeing four agents. However, it was as Joe Mannix that Mike got to shine. Whether employed by the computer-obsessed Intertect company in the first season (an advanced concept in 1967), or self-employed thereafter, Joe knew how to solve crimes quickly. "Mannix", often considered one of the most violent detective shows in TV history, brought true stardom as well as four Emmy and four Golden Globe nominations as Best Actor in a Drama Series. Connors took home the Golden Globe in 1970. He has also appeared in several TV movies including playing a narcotics Captain in "High Midnight" (CBS, 1970) and he sought to have "Revenge for a Rape" (ABC, 1976). In 1988-89, Connors played Colonel Hack Peters, a comrade of Robert Mitchum's Pug Henry in the miniseries "War and Remembrance" (ABC). In 1991, he good-naturedly poked fun at his tough-guy image, by appearing with SCTV's Dave Thomas in Showtime's "Public Enemy #2." After nearly 50 years in show business Mike has continued to appear in movies and make guest appearances on such popular shows as "Murder, She Wrote", and "Diagnosis Murder", in which he recreated his role as Joe Mannix. Most recently he played a Judge turned author who is hunted by a vengeful escaped convict in "Walker, Texas Ranger" (CBS). He appears as the voice of "Chipocles" in Disney's animated series "Hercules". Other projects include independent film, "Gideon's Web", in which he plays an ex-prize fighter. Described as a "cross between 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nes't and 'Cocoon' ", the film is set in a retirement home and co-stars Charlton Heston, Shirley Jones, Shelly Winters, and Carroll O'Connor. Now a proud grandfather and ardent golfer, Connors remains one of Hollywood's most popular performers. He receives as much fan mail from 'Mannix' reruns as he did when the show was at its height. Along with his various projects and business ventures, Connors devotes many hours to charitable organizations including "Operation Missing Persons," a national educational program designed to increase awareness of the neurological disorder known as Dystonia and raise funds for medical research and as a spokesman for National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. A true rarity in Hollywood, Mike and his wife, Mary Lou, will soon be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.
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