Born Kevin Connors in Brooklyn in April 1921, Chuck Connors was an avid athlete and intelligent student in his youth. He attended Seton Hall College but dropped out to join the Army. Following the end of World War II, Connors started a basketball career with the Boston Celtics but soon ditched basketball for baseball, playing in both the major and minor leagues. He married in the late 1940s, and with a growing family that would soon include four children, Connors longed for a career with a steady paycheck. After stints with the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs, Connors was playing baseball for a Los Angeles minor league team when a talent scout spotted him. He was quickly cast in the Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn MGM comedy Pat and Mike (1952; with Aldo Ray).