Mike Connors of Mannix fame is dead.
I know a lot of Dopers say at a celebrity’s death, “I thought he died years ago.” That’s not me, I keep a tight watch on these things.
But in this case, believe me, I am sincere when I say, “I thought he died years ago.”
Last series by Desilu Studios, Mannix was. Interesting.
Yep, 2017 is off to a great start.
RIP, Joe! 
he was 91.
look, a lot of the famous people from the “golden age” got old at the same time. blaming a calendar year for old people passing away is getting a bit silly and tiring.
I used to like Mannix, even back in its original incarnation, when Joe wasn’t his own agency, but worked for a computerized detective group called InterTec). * I don’t recall anything he did after that (although according to imdb he had plenty of roles), except for showing up on The Tonight Show when I had an Armerian roommate, still looking the same as in his Mannix days, and I learned that he was Armeriian (“Connors” was a stage name. his birth namne was Krekor llevado Ohanian). My roommate was delighted to learn this, especially with Connors taklking about his Armerian heritage.
Since then I’ve seen him in some old films on MST3K and Svengoolie (as “Touch” Connors). He managed to pull off even the worst roles with some panache.
*I didn’t realize it until I saw the movie Hail, Caesar! that there had been a Hollywood producer and executive and famed “fixer” named Eddie Mannix (fictionalized in that film). He was legendary, and anyone in Hollywood would have recognized the name and its implications instantly. It’s only us rubes out of the Hollywood loop who wouldn’t have known that, and not seen the subtext. Eddie Mannix - Wikipedia )
We didn’t see Gail (“Peggy Fair”) Fisher near enough, but she was a welcome addition to the show–the Lt. Uhura of “Mannix.”
Rest easy, Touch.
All I know is if TCM doesn’t show Swamp Diamonds in the next few days, I, for one, will be immensely disappointed.
MST3K’s version was a stone riot.
I remember him subbing for Lyle Waggoner’s Lyle Perfect character on the Carol Burnett show - complete with diamond encrusted front teeth.
I’m surprised Mike Connors lasted as long as he did, seeing that he was the all-time network TV leader in concussions (someone bashed Mannix in the head on virtually every show).
You do know that Kenny didn’t really die in every episode of South Park, right?
We’ve been watching the Mannix DVDs from the beginning. They hold up very well. And, yes, they are very violent! More than I remember. Mannix wasn’t above slugging a woman and knocking her out, if she’s trying to kill him. Other shows shied away from that, and I thought that was a cop out.
Anyway, each episode has an introduction by Connors giving a synopsis, pointing out interesting things, and giving a perspective to modern audiences (such as the episode hunting Nazis). And we were surprised to see him still alive. 
But Connors for me was one of those actors I never noticed in anything else. For me, Mike. Connors. Is. Mannix. (and nothing else).
He reprised his Joe Mannix character in an episode of the 90s series Diagnosis Murder, starring Dick Van Dyke. He closed one of his old cases with the help of his friend, Dr. Sloan.
He did a pilot back in the '70s where he played an Armenian-American PI with an Irish-sounding name, ensuring lots of comedy-relief confusion. His co-star (named Julio, as I recall) was the nightclub musician from TOS’s “Wolf in the Fold” (the old dude with the big mustache).
I know. Also an episode of Nobody Knows Anything, to judge from the imdb:
But I haven’t seen either
Any additional info? I find this puzzling. “Mannix” was a series about an Armenian-American PI with an Irish/Gaelic surname, and I can’t find any evidence that Joseph Bernard and Mike Connors ever appeared together in “Mannix” or anything else, or that Bernard every played a character named “Julio.”
Or am I being WHOOSHED?
Joseph Campenella is still with us.
No, you are not being whooshed. I’m not 100% certain, but I think they used Connor’s real name for the character and the pilot: Ohanian. I can even tell you what the plot was: The good guys knew an assassination was in the offing, but they didn’t know the target. All they had to work with was a date, which they interpreted in the American fashion (e.g., March tenth). “Julio” pointed out that in the rest of the world, it’s ten March, and they knew then that the target was a Red Chinese diplomat. The assassination was foiled, and the diplomat (played by Keye Luke?) expressed his gratitude in person:
“I’m told your name is Ohanian. You are … Irish?”
“No, sir. Armenian.”
FWIW, I haven’t been able to find a reference to this either. But I assure you, I am not hallucinating. I’d place it sometime between 1977 and '79.
Clarification: They interpreted the date 10/3 (let’s stick with that) as October 3rd rather than 10 March, which was the next day. That’s what tipped them off, since the arrival of the diplomat on 10 March was big news. It was an offhand remark by sidekick “Julio” that provided the clue.
The only other thing I seem remember is that “Julio” worked on a boat at a marina. Whether this was his vocation or an avocation, I can’t say.
Possibly worth noting that aside from Gail Fisher as ‘Peggy,’ there was another recurring character for most of the series, Lt. Art Malcolm, played by Robert Ward Wood.
According to an interview with Connors some years ago, Wood kept a dirty *coat of some sort. The reason, according to Connors, was that Wood had confided that he had spent a number of years as an alcoholic, and had basically nothing as the result, except for the old coat. He did eventually get clean, but kept the coat as a reminder of how down he had been.