Mike Connors, a heavy-browed supporting actor who would ultimately put his stamp on several television series, most notably the long-running detective show \u201cMannix,\u201d died on Thursday in Tarzana, Calif. He was 91.
Variety quoted his son-in-law Mike Condon as saying that Mr. Connors had leukemia.
\u201cMannix,\u201d which had its premiere in 1967, drew heavy criticism for its violent content but quickly became the most popular crime series in an era punctuated by comedies like \u201cAll in the Family\u201d and \u201cRowan and Martin\u2019s Laugh-In.\u201d Mr. Connors\u2019s hard-boiled take on the maverick detective eventually made him one of the highest-paid television actors of the 1970s, as well as earning him four Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award.
He played Joe Mannix, a Korean War veteran \u2014 and, like Mr. Connors, of Armenian descent \u2014 who sleuthed his way through Los Angeles with a series of flashy automobiles, a penchant for Armenian proverbs and a glass jaw. (A reporter for The Washington Post tabulated the wear and tear that Mannix withstood over eight seasons; it included 17 gunshot wounds and 55 instances of being beaten unconscious.) \u201cMannix\u201d was also notable for providing one of the first leading roles on a regular series to an African-American performer: Gail Fisher joined the show in its second season as Mannix\u2019s secretary, frequent damsel in distress and occasional potential love interest. She died in 2000.
Mr. Connors was born Krekor Ohanian on Aug. 15, 1925, in Fresno, Calif. He served in the Air Force during World War II, then enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he played basketball (and earned the nickname \u201cTouch\u201d on the court). His plans to study law were interrupted when the director William A. Wellman saw him on the basketball court and encouraged him to try acting. One of his first film roles was in Wellman\u2019s 1953 adventure film \u201cIsland in the Sky.\u201d
Under the name Touch Connors, he also appeared in several forgettable films (\u201cSwamp Women,\u201d \u201cFlesh and the Spur\u201d), many of them for the director Roger Corman, and at least one enduring film: \u201cThe Ten Commandments\u201d (1956).
He bounced between film and television for much of this time and was a guest star on several series (eventually changing his first name to \u201cMichael\u201d and then to \u201cMike\u201d) before landing a lead role in 1959. The show was \u201cTightrope,\u201d in which Mr. Connors played an undercover agent with one revolver in his shoulder holster and another hidden behind his back. It received good ratings but was canceled after one season; excessive violence was cited as a factor, one that would surface again when CBS cast him in \u201cMannix.\u201d
By the end of its eight-season run, \u201cMannix\u201d earned Mr. Connors a salary of $40,000 an episode. He used his fame to publicize a then-underreported chapter in Armenian history by narrating \u201cThe Forgotten Genocide,\u201d a 1975 documentary about the targeted killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. He would later narrate another Armenian-themed documentary, \u201cArarat Beckons,\u201d by the same director, J. Michael Hagopian.
One more crime series lay in Mr. Connors\u2019s future \u2014 \u201cToday\u2019s FBI,\u201d which lasted one season on ABC in 1981 \u2014 and he later was guest-star on several shows, including an episode of \u201cDiagnosis: Murder\u201d in which he and several of his \u201cMannix\u201d co-stars reprised their characters. He also appeared on a 2007 episode of \u201cTwo and a Half Men.\u201d
He is survived by Mary Lou Wells, his wife of 67 years; one daughter; and one granddaughter.<\/p>\n

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