Mike Connors (born Krekor Ohanian August 15, 1925) is an American actor best known for playing detective Joe Mannix in the CBS television series, Mannix. In the 1959–1960 television season, he had played a crime-fighting investigator known only as “Nick” in another CBS series, Tightrope.
Connors was born in Fresno, California, of Armenian descent. During World War II he served in the United States Army Air Forces.[1] After the war he attended the University of California at Los Angeles on a basketball scholarship, where he played under coach John Wooden. Director William A. Wellman got him into acting after noticing his expressive face while Connors was playing basketball. He appeared on the Los Angeles CBS station as “Touch” Connors in an episode of Jukebox Jury before the program went national via ABC in 1953. Connors is credited in his early films, such as Island in the Sky (1953), Swamp Women (a.k.a. Swamp Diamonds), Five Guns West (1955), The Day the World Ended (1955), and Flesh and the Spur (1957) as “Touch Connors.”
In 1969, Connors won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama for his role as Joe Mannix in Mannix. Connors’ filmography, spanning more than half a century, includes more than twenty credits in a wide range of films and television, including Mannix, Island In The Sky, Tightrope, Stagecoach, Today’s FBI, and Two and a Half Men.
Connors married Mary Lou Willey in 1949. Together they have a son Matthew Gunner Ohanian and a daughter Dana Lou Connors. Connors now lives with his wife in Encino, California.
One of his favorite quotes is “If nothing else…just do the right thing”.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]