Mike Connors ('Mannix') and Barbara Hale ('Perry Mason') Both Died on the Same Day: January 27, 2017

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Actor Mike Connors is best known for his leading role in TV’s acclaimed 1970s detective series, Mannix (CBS, 1967–1975). Actress Barbara Hale is best known for her role as Della Street on Perry Mason (CBS, 1957–1966). Early in his career, Connors starred in the 1964 Mason episode, “The Case of the Bullied Bowler.” Both he and Hale died on the same day: January 26, 2017. Here are their separate stories.

A Closer Look at Connors

Mike Connors was born Krekor Ohanian in 1925 into an Armenian community in Fresno. He served in the Air Force during World War II and played basketball for UCLA.

Connors later studied law for two years but turned to acting, initially as Touch Connors, utilizing his basketball nickname. He later changed it to Michael and finally, Mike.

Connors married his wife Mary Lou in 1949 and had a daughter Dana, and a son Matthew. Diagnosed with schizophrenia in his teens, Matthew later lived and died in a small residential care facility. His parents championed efforts to erase the stigma of mental illness.

In Addition to Mannix

In addition to Mannix, Mike Connors starred in the TV series Tightrope! and Today’s FBI, each of which lasted only one season.

Connors’ career spanned from the 1950s to 2007 when he made a guest appearance on Two and a Half Men. His feature films included his 1952 big-screen debut in Sudden Fear, Island in the Sky, The Ten Commandments, and a remake of Stagecoach.

A Closer Look at Hale

Barbara Hale was born in DeKalb, Illinois, the daughter of a landscape gardener and a homemaker. Her family relocated to Rockford when she was just four years old, and she later took part in a local theater, with aspirations of becoming a nurse or journalist.

She later changed her mind and studied art at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, where she also modeled. That led to a contract with RKO Studios in Hollywood.

Hale made her film debut, if ever briefly, in Gildersleeve’s Bad Day, and went on to make other movies such as The Iron Major, Higher and Higher, and Lady Luck.

The Two Bills In Her Life

Barbara Hale met actor Bill Williams (real name: William Katt) while making West of the Pecos and A Likely Story. They wed in 1946 and had three children, one of whom would become the actor William Katt (Jr.) the star of the 1980s TV superhero series The Greatest American Hero. Katt, Jr. also later reteamed with his mother in the initial Perry Mason reunion movies of the 1980s.

The father Bill Williams, who died in 1992, later found stardom on TV’s The Adventures of Kit Carson.

After her RKO contract ended, Hale worked at other studios, appearing in movies like Jolson Sings Again, and Jackpot, among others.