Ever wonder why Mike Connors was nicknamed "Touch"? The actor actually earned the nickname playing college basketball at UCLA before turning to acting, and went by Touch Connors in early film roles. He was billed as Mike "Touch" Connors when he starred in Tightrope in the 50's, but by the time he was cast in the lead for Mannix 8 years later, he'd dropped the nickname professionally.
Connors passed away Thursday at 91. We've previously reviewed Tightrope, Mannix, and his last series of note, Today's FBI. What I was hoping to do was locate a crossover episode of Here's Lucy in which Mannix crossed paths with Lucy Carter (Lucille Ball), but it's not available online in its entirety at present.
Edit, 5/19/23: The video's been deleted. In its place is the season 1 open of Mannix:
Rest in peace, Mike.
If you come across any Tightrope episodes online (or anywhere else, comes to that) you'll note that his credit goes :
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MICHAEL CONNORS
Connors always hated his nickname, and wanted to use his own, Krekor Ohanian.
His then agent talked him into keeping 'Connors'; 'Michael' was a compromise, a loose
English equivalent of 'Krekor'.
Mannix was the first time he got it down to 'Mike', and that's when it took.
I know that. I remember seeing it as Michael "Touch" Connors at some point, maybe I'm wrong.
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