Rest in Peace! Aspiring Actor Mike Connors Embraces Death at the Age of 91
Mike Connors, who starred as a forthright private detective, Joe Mannix in the television series “Mannix” took his last breath at the age of 91 on Thursday.
The death of actor was due to the complication of Leukemia which was detected a week ago and died surrounded by family Thursday afternoon in Tarzana, Calif, said his son-in-law Mike Condon.
“Mannix” debuted on CBS on September 7, 1977, and ran for eight seasons. The long-running detective series was able to captivate viewers. On the show, a tall, smartly dressed, well-spoken detective who got punched and took a punch as well while playing a hard-hitting private eye also won Golden Globe.
“Mannix” was the last series of the Desilu productions. Previously, the show ratings were lukewarm, and despite the fact, Desilu president Lucille Ball convinced CBS to keep the show on. Later, the show caught its pace after being reorganized as the more standard detective series.
In the time, it was even criticized for being excessively violent as there were scenes of car chasing and fighting. During an interview in 1997, he stated,
“We did have car chases and fights but when you compare them to shows that are on now, we were very, very low-keyed.”
At the apex of the show’s ratings run earning $40,000 per episode, he was among the highest paid TV actors during 70s.
While talking about the show in an interview in 2014, he said
“I loved the show, I loved doing it, and it had no negatives as far as I was concerned. It would have had a negative had I been a person who said, ‘I only want to do motion pictures.’ But I just wanted to act, I loved acting, and I wanted to be recognized as an actor. And “Mannix” certainly did that for me. The show itself started a whole new era of detective shows, because this wasn’t the usual cynical private eye à la Humphrey Bogart,"
While talking about the private eye detective, he divulged,
“The character of Joe Mannix could be taken advantage of by a pretty face, he could shed a tear on an emotional level, he was very close to his father and his family, so he was more a normal personality with normal behavior. I think that’s a part of why the show was so successful."
The career of American actor stretched from the 1950s to 2007. In 2007, he made a guest appearance in comedy series “Two and A Half Men.” Before acting, during high school, he used to play basketball player at UCLA where he was nicknamed "Touch" by his teammates and was credited in his first few films as Touch Connors.
Investing almost seven decades in the entertainment industry, his credits includes Sudden Fear (1952) opposite Joan Crawford; Too Scared to Scream (1985. And he also produced; Avalanche Express (1979); James Dean: Race With Destiny (1997), as studio head Jack Warner; and Gideon (1999).
Connors was married to Mary Lou Willey in 1949. He shares 65 years of his life with his wife. The couple also has two children, a son Mathew and a daughter, Dana. But their son died at his teen was diagnosed with Schizophrenia.
Caption: A happy family picture; Connors with his wife Mary Lou Willey and daughter Dana (1983).
Photo Credit: gettyimages.com
Connors is survived by his family which includes his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter.
We would like to convey our heartfelt condolence to the heroic actor. May his soul rest in peace.