Immediately before taking on the Lucas McCain role, Chuck Connors made a great villain in William Wyler's epic Western, "The Big Country," released in 1958. Connors played the mean son of an equally mean Burl Ives. They engage in all sorts of mayhem in a conflict over water rights on a huge parcel of open land. Connors was an excellent heavy. Maybe even better as a bad guy than a good guy. He struck terror in the hearts of Jean Simmons and Carroll Baker in "The Big Country."