Steve Cochran

Steve Cochran (born Robert Alexander Cochran, May 25, 1917 – June 15, 1965) was an American film, television and stage actor. He attended the University of Wyoming. After a stint working as a cowboy, Cochran developed his acting skills in local theatre and gradually progressed to Broadway, film and television.

For the radio personality, see Steve Cochran (radio host). For Country Music Singer and Songwriter, see Stephen Cochran.
Steve Cochran
Born
Robert Alexander Cochran

(1917-05-25)May 25, 1917
Eureka, California, U.S.[1]
DiedJune 15, 1965(1965-06-15) (aged 48)
Off the coast of Guatemala
Alma materUniversity of Wyoming
OccupationActor
Years active1944–1965
Spouse(s)
Florence Lockwood
​
​
(m. 1935; div. 1946)​

​
​
(m. 1946; div. 1948)​

Jonna Jensen
​
​
(m. 1961)​
Children1
RelativesAlex Johns (grandson)

Early life and career

Cochran was born in Eureka, California,[2] but grew up in Laramie, Wyoming, the son of a logger. While he appeared in high school plays, he spent more time delving into athletics, particularly basketball.

After stints as a cowpuncher and railroad station hand, he studied at the University of Wyoming, where he also played basketball. Impulsively, he quit college in 1937 and decided to go straight to Hollywood to become a star.[3]

Theatre

Working as a carpenter and department store detective during his early days, he gained experience appearing in summer stock and in the early 1940s was given the chance to work with the Shakespeare Festival in Carmel. There he played "Orsino" in "Twelfth Night", "Malcolm" in "Macbeth", "Horatio" in "Hamlet" and the ungainly title role of "Richard III".

Cochran performed in plays for the Federal Theatre Project in Detroit. He was rejected for military service in World War II because of a heart murmur but directed and performed in plays at a variety of Army camps.[4]

He was appearing with Constance Bennett in a touring production of Without Love in December 1943 when he was signed by Sam Goldwyn.[5]

On Broadway, Cochran appeared in Hickory Stick (1944).[6]

Hollywood

Sam Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn brought Cochran to Hollywood in 1945.[2] Goldwyn only made a few films a year, so he loaned Cochran to Columbia Pictures for Booked on Suspicion (1945), a Boston Blackie movie.

Goldwyn then put him in Wonder Man (1945) a Danny Kaye movie co-starring Virginia Mayo and Vera-Ellen in which Cochran played a gangster. Columbia then used him in another Boston Blackie film, Blackie's Rendezvous (1945), wherein he played a villain, and in The Gay Senorita (1945) with Jinx Falkenburg.

Goldwyn then used Cochran in another Danny Kaye movie with Mayo and Vera-Ellen, The Kid from Brooklyn (1946). After United Artists borrowed him to play a gangster in The Chase (1946), Cochran appeared in the prestigious drama The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), playing a man who has an affair with Virginia Mayo while her husband Dana Andrews was away at war. The movie was a huge critical and commercial success.

Cochran had a supporting role opposite Groucho Marx in Copacabana (1947) for United Artists. Goldwyn got him to play another gangster opposite Kaye and Mayo in A Song is Born (1948), directed by Howard Hawks. He made his TV debut in "Dinner at Antoine's" for The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse (1949) and followed this with "Tin Can Skipper" for NBC Presents (1949). He then returned to Broadway to support Mae West in a short-lived revival of her play Diamond Lil. This revived Hollywood's interest in him.[7]

Warner Bros.

In 1949 Cochran went over to Warner Bros., playing Big Ed Somers, a power-hungry henchman to James Cagney's psychotic mobster in White Heat (1949) opposite Virginia Mayo. Warner Bros. eventually took over Cochran's and Mayo's contracts from Goldwyn.

Cochran supported Joan Crawford in The Damned Don't Cry (1950), after which he was given his first lead role, in Highway 301 (1950), playing a gangster. He was a villain to Gary Cooper's hero in Dallas (1950) and played a Ku Klux Klan member in Storm Warning (1951) with Ginger Rogers and Doris Day.

Cochran was a villain in Canyon Pass (1951), a western, and then was given the lead in Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951), which inspired Johnny Cash to write his song "Folsom Prison Blues".

Warners gave him another lead in Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951), a film noir with Ruth Roman that was originally intended for Burt Lancaster.[8]

He returned to supporting parts in Jim Thorpe – All-American (1951) with Burt Lancaster.

Warners starred him in The Tanks Are Coming (1951) and The Lion and the Horse (1952), a rare sympathetic role.[9] He was announced for a film called Ski Trooper.[10]

He co-starred with Cornel Wilde in Operation Secret (1952) and supported Virginia Mayo in She's Back on Broadway (1953). In The Desert Song (1953), Cochran played Gordon Macrae's rival for Kathryn Grayson.[11] He then left Warners.

Post-Warners

Cochran starred in the low-budget action film Shark River (1953) for United Artists and was a villain to Rock Hudson in Back to God's Country (1953) at Universal.

He returned to television appearing in episodes of Lux Video Theatre ("Three Just Men" (1953)), and Studio One in Hollywood ("Letter of Love" (1953)). He reportedly made a film in Mexico called Embarcardero which he co wrote, directed and starred in it alongside Edward Norri.[12]

Cochran then went to Germany to make Carnival Story (1954) for the King Brothers. It was his first film in Europe.[13]

Back in Hollywood he costarred in Private Hell 36 (1954) with Ida Lupino for director Don Siegel. His TV roles included "Foreign Affair" (1954) for Robert Montgomery Presents; "The Role of a Lover" (1954) and "The Most Contagious Game" (1955) for Studio One; "Trip Around the Block" (1954) and "The Menace of Hasty Heights" (1956) for The Ford Television Theatre; "The After House" (1954), "Fear is the Hunter" (1956), and "Bait for the Tiger" (1957) for Climax!; and "The Seeds of Hate" (1955) for General Electric Theatre.

In 1955 it was announced he would play John C. Fremont in a 39 episode TV series but it does not appear to have been made.[14] That year he also said he had shot footage for a film about a beachcomber in Hawaii with Robert Krass.[15]

Republic Pictures hired him to play Ann Sheridan's love interest in Come Next Spring (1956).[16] Cochran then went to England to play the lead in The Weapon (1956).

Cochran supported Van Johnson in MGM's Slander (1957). He went to Italy to star in Il Grido (1957) for Michelangelo Antonioni alongside Alida Valli and Betsy Blair; filming took seven months.[17] He bought a story to be filmed, Evil Wind, but it does not appear to have been made.[18]

On TV he did "Outlaw's Boots" (1957) for Schlitz Playhouse, "Debt of Gratitude" (1958) for Zane Grey Theater, and "Strictly Personal" (1958) for The Loretta Young Show.

Cochran had the lead in Quantrill's Raiders (1958), an Allied Artists western, and I Mobster (1959), a Roger Corman gangster film. Albert Zugsmith used him for the lead in The Beat Generation (1959) and The Big Operator (1959).

Later career

After 1959, Cochran worked mostly in television, guest-starring in series such as Bonanza (S6, Ep. 26, "The Trap", airdate Mar. 28, 1965), The Untouchables, Route 66, Bus Stop, Stoney Burke, The Naked City, Shirley Temple's Storybook, The Dick Powell Theatre, The Virginian, Route 66, Death Valley Days, Mr. Broadway, Burke's Law and The Twilight Zone (S1, Ep. 12, "What You Need", airdate Dec. 25, 1959).

He had the lead in the TV movie The Renegade (1960) and was in Sam Peckinpah's debut feature, The Deadly Companions (1961). They had first worked together when Peckinpah was dialogue director on the film noir Private Hell 36 (1954).

In 1961 it was announced Cochran would make The Executioner for his own company.[19] Instead he went to the Bahamas to make a film.[17]

Cochran was Merle Oberon's co star in Of Love and Desire (1963), shot in Mexico. He had the lead in Mozambique (1964) for Harry Alan Towers.

Producer

In 1953 Cochran formed his own production company, Robert Alexander Productions. His production company attempted to make some television series[20] and other films such as The Tom Mix Story (with Cochran as Mix), Hope is the Last Thing to Die about the Mexican War, and Klondike Lou.[17][21] They were never produced, however, with the exception of Fremont the Trailblazer, a television pilot in which he played John C. Frémont.[22] He did, however, write, produce, direct and star in Tell Me in the Sunlight (1965).

Personal life

Cochran was a notorious womanizer and attracted tabloid attention for his tumultuous private life, which included well-documented affairs with numerous starlets and actresses. Mamie Van Doren later wrote about their sex life in graphic detail in her tell-all autobiography Playing the Field: My Story (New York: G.P. Putnam, 1987). He was also married and divorced three times, to actress Fay McKenzie, Florence Lockwood and Jonna Jensen. He and Lockwood had one daughter, Xandra,[23] through whom he is the grandfather of film and television producer Alex Johns, who was a co-executive producer for more than seventy episodes of the animated television series Futurama.[24] In the 2002 documentary The Importance of Being Morrissey, Steven Morrissey claims that his parents named him after Steve Cochran.

Cochran was in trouble with the police a number of times in his life, including a reported assault and a charge of reckless driving in 1953.[25][26]

Recognition

Cochran has a star at 1750 Hollywood Boulevard in the Motion Pictures section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was dedicated February 8, 1960.[27]

Death

On June 15, 1965, at the age of 48, Cochran died on his yacht off the coast of Guatemala, reportedly owing to an acute lung infection. His body, along with three Mexican females aged 14, 19 and 25,[28] remained aboard for 10 days since the girls did not know how to operate the boat. It drifted to shore in Port Champerico, Guatemala, and was found by authorities.[29] The newspaper report says that

"Cochran became ill on June 14 and died two days later"

according to the witnesses.[30] There were various rumors of foul play and poisoning, but reportedly no evidence was found.[31] Cochran's widow was given half of his estate of $25,000. She shared it with his daughter by another marriage.[32]

Filmography
YearTitleRoleNotes
1945Boston Blackie Booked on SuspicionJack HigginsAlternative title: Booked on Suspicion
1945Wonder ManTen Grand Jackson
1945Boston Blackie's RendezvousJimmy CookAlternative title: Blackie's Rendezvous
1945The Gay SenoritaTomas Obrion aka Tim O'Brien
1946The Kid from BrooklynSpeed McFarlane
1946The ChaseEddie Roman
1946The Best Years of Our LivesCliffAlternative titles: Glory for Me and Home Again
1947CopacabanaSteve Hunt
1948A Song Is BornTony CrowAlternative title: That's Life
1949White HeatBig Ed Somers
1950The Damned Don't CryNick Prenta
1950Highway 301George Legenza
1950DallasBryant Marlow
1951Storm WarningHank Rice
1951Raton PassCy Van CleaveAlternative title: Canyon Pass
1951Inside the Walls of Folsom PrisonChuck Daniels
1951Tomorrow Is Another DayBill Clark / Mike Lewis
1951Jim Thorpe – All-AmericanPeter AllendineAlternative title: Man of Bronze
1951The Tanks Are ComingFrancis Aloysius 'Sully' Sullivan
1952The Lion and the HorseBen Kirby
1952Operation SecretMarcel Brevoort
1953She's Back on BroadwayRick Sommers
1953The Desert SongCaptain Claude Fontaine
1953Shark RiverDan Webley
1953Back to God's CountryPaul Blake
1954Carnival StoryJoe Hammond
1954Private Hell 36Cal Bruner
1956Come Next SpringMatt Ballot
1956The WeaponMark Andrews
1957SlanderH.R. Manley
1957Il GridoAldo
1958Quantrill's RaidersCapt. Alan Wescott
1959I MobsterJoe Sante
1959The Beat GenerationDave Culloran
1959The Big OperatorBill GibsonAlternative title: Anatomy of the Syndicate
1961The Deadly CompanionsBilly Keplinger
1963Of Love and DesireSteve Corey
1965MozambiqueBrad Webster
1967Tell Me in the SunlightDaveFilmed in 1965; released posthumously (final film role)

References
  1. Geoff Mayer (2012). Historical Dictionary of Crime Films. Scarecrow Press. pp. 89–. ISBN 978-0-8108-6769-7.
  2. Monush, Barry (2003). Screen World Presents the Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors: From the silent era to 1965. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 136. ISBN 9781557835512. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  3. The Life Story of STEVE COCHRAN Picture Show; London Vol. 59, Iss. 1530, (Jul 26, 1952): 12.
  4. p. 70 Austin, John Tales of Hollywood the Bizarre SP Books, 1992
  5. "SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD". New York Times. Dec 3, 1943. p. 27.
  6. "("Steve Cochran" search results)". Playbill Vault. Playbill. Archived from the original on 29 April 2017. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  7. Actor Steve Cochran Believed to Be Dead in Boat Off Guatemala Shore: STEVE COCHRAN Los Angeles Times 27 June 1965: B.
  8. Steve Cochran Set for Dramatic Role Hopper, Hedda. Los Angeles Times 15 Dec 1950: 30.
  9. Steve Cochran Star in Sympathetic Role Los Angeles Times 11 Aug 1951: A8.
  10. Drama: Steve Cochran Will Go Straight in 'Ski Trooper;' East Indian Star Due Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times (1 Feb 1951: B13.
  11. "SHAVED DOWN". The Sun (2567). Sydney. 6 July 1952. p. 50. Retrieved 1 November 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. Steve Cochran Plans Directing Career; 'Space Station' Put on Roster Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times (1923-1995); Los Angeles, Calif. [Los Angeles, Calif]22 May 1953: B9.
  13. Steve Cochran to Do First Film in Europe Hopper, Hedda. Los Angeles Times 20 May 1953: 22.
  14. LIFE OF FREMONT TO BE SEEN ON TV: Steve Cochran Will Portray Title Role in Series of 39 Half-Hour Films Special to The New York Times. New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]02 Sep 1955: 37.
  15. Story of Bill Robinson Bought as Movie; Steve Cochran Shooting Film Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times 15 Aug 1955: b9.
  16. Ann Sheridan, Steve Cochran Starring in Arkansas Story By John Beaufort. The Christian Science Monitor 19 Mar 1956: 7.
  17. HOWARD THOMPSON (Oct 20, 1962). "PLANS DISCUSSED BY STEVE COCHRAN: Film Actor-Producer, Here on Visit, Talks of Future". New York Times. p. 13.
  18. 'Evil Wind' Bought by Steve Cochran Hopper, Hedda. Los Angeles Times 23 May 1957: C10.
  19. New Novel Has Its Own Music Score: Boylan Scoring 'Gabrielle'; Steve Cochran Executioner Scheuer, Philip K. Los Angeles Times (1923-1995); Los Angeles, Calif. [Los Angeles, Calif]11 Oct 1961: 25.
  20. Profile of Steve Cochran at Google Books
  21. p.142 Parrish, Robert & DeCarl, Lennard Hollywood Players: The Forties 1976 Arlington House Publishers
  22. http://briansdriveintheater.com/stevecochran.html
  23. O'Brian, Jack (March 15, 1970). "Goading Them A New Sport". Spartanburg Herald-Journal. South Carolina, Spartanburg. p. B 10. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  24. Cavna, Michael (2010-08-13). "Remembering 'FUTURAMA' producer Alex Johns, 43". Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
  25. "Shot stopped actor's car". The Argus (33, 443). Melbourne. 10 November 1953. p. 1. Retrieved 1 November 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  26. "FILM GOSSIP". The Sun (2618). New South Wales, Australia. 28 June 1953. p. 53. Retrieved 1 November 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  27. "Steve Cochran". Hollywood Walk of Fame. Archived from the original on 29 April 2017. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  28. Intermission by Anne Baxter
  29. "SEA PUZZLE Inquiry into actor's death". The Canberra Times. 39 (11, 194). 29 June 1965. p. 5. Retrieved 1 November 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  30. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/131830653
  31. http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/steve-cochran/
  32. Steve Cochran Widow Given Half of Estate Los Angeles Times 13 Oct 1965: 22.
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