Steve Cochran: Noir and More Pt. II

Future Sigh Guy Robert Alexander Cochran

As I research Steve Cochran's life, I'm discovering that there was a lot more to it than just mysteries and scandals:

Steve Cochran was born Robert Alexander Cochran in Eureka, California, on May 25, 1917--95 years ago today. He was the youngest of two children born to Robert Alexander, Sr., and Jessie Emma (Rose) Cochran. His father was a lumberman, and the family later moved to the wide open spaces of Laramie, Wyoming, where Steve spent much of his youth.

Steve's older sister, Malvina Jane Cochran (1908-1971), became an accomplished artist who won renown under her married name, Vina Jane Cames. Vina's considerable artistic talents ranged from painting to lithography to sculpture, and her work has been exhibited in galleries all over the U.S.

Young Steve also had a creative streak. He became interested in acting while at Laramie High School. He was in a dramatics class taught by Ms. Velma Lindford and played the lead in Once There Was a Prince.

Following graduation, Steve began touring the US with various theater companies, as both an actor and stage manager. When acting work was scarce, he toiled at a number of other diverse jobs, including cowpuncher, railroad section worker, firefighter, and store detective in the ladies' lingerie and yardage departments at Macy's in New York City.  Steve later told a reporter that he could deter female shoplifters simply by scowling at them: 

"You'd be surprised at how expert a man can become with a menacing look. If a woman wandered by the yardage counter and I suspected she was about to slip some material into her purse, I'd give her the threatening brow. She'd get the hint and wander away. I probably saved a lot of people from arrest that way. And come to think of it, I probably lost the store a lot of customers by scaring off the innocent ones." 

While Steve's scowl would later become his on-screen trademark, it wasn't much help in his early twenties as he tried in vain to get a foothold in Hollywood films. Casting directors could picture the swarthy young actor only as a character player with little leading-man potential. 

Steve returned to the stage, and in 1944 made his Broadway debut in Hickory Stick, earning good reviews portraying a wounded soldier who returns home to become a teacher. 

While appearing in the play Without Love opposite Constance Bennett, Steve was noticed by famed Hollywood producer Sam Goldwyn, who put the actor under contract.  

Steve began appearing in Goldwyn films such as Wonder Man and The Kid From Brooklyn with Danny Kaye, and The Best Years of Our Lives starring Fredric March and Myrna Loy. He also showed up in noirish B-movies like The Chase, where he portrayed freaky gangster "Eddie Roman" who, among other bizarre traits, leaves his hat on while getting a haircut and owns a murderous pet dog. 

Even as a villain, Steve attracted the enthusiastic attention of the opposite sex. In 1946, newspaper writer Erskine Johnson described Steve as "dark and brawny, with shoulders like an oil boom and a jaw like granite," and revealed that women wrote on film preview cards that Steve reminded them of "a young Clark Gable", a "young James Mason", and even "a young Boris Karloff". 

Steve told Johnson, "It is much nicer being compared to Gable and Mason than to Karloff."

TO BE CONTINUED...

Steve Cochran: Noir and More

Steve Cochran lived his life with an exclamation point and his untimely death was punctuated by a question mark. As a result, Cochran is often remembered more for his off-screen escapades and for his macabre demise than for his legacy of acting roles. And, as an actor, he's often dismissed as a B-movie bad guy who appeared primarily in noir films, although he also played sympathetic roles in westerns, war dramas and even musicals. Cochran also guest-starred in episodes of TV classics such as The Twilight Zone, in addition to producing, writing and directing films for his own company.

I was always vaguely aware of Steve Cochran through my interest in classic films. However, what little I knew about him came mostly from sources like the campy Mysteries and Scandals show that used to air on the E! cable network. Since Cochran had a reputation as a "notorious womanizer" and had died mysteriously aboard his schooner in the Pacific at age 48, his story seemed tailor-made for Mysteries and Scandals, which employed interviews, public domain footage and cheesy filmed reenactments to examine the lives of tragic celebs.

"Steve Cochran stormed through life like a raging tempest. But even the strongest storms don't last long," was how the show's sardonic host, A. J. Benza, summed up Cochran's life.

And, for years, that's about all I knew of Steve Cochran, until I happened to see him in an episode of the classic TV series Naked City last summer.

Cochran played a self-possessed gambler who attracts the unwanted scrutiny of both a killer and the cops when he witnesses a murder at an after-hours poker game. He must also deal with the arrival of his new Italian bride, a spirited young woman whom he married by proxy only to settle a debt he owed to her father and so she could legally immigrate to the US.
Cochran quietly dominated every scene he was in. I suddenly discovered a "new" sigh guy.

Over the past year, I've tried to find out as much as I could about this arresting actor. Unfortunately, a lot of what I found online was of the lurid Mysteries and Scandals variety. However, I did finally locate an excellent overview of Steve's life and career here.
I also found the following excerpt from the autobiography of actress Virginia Mayo, who worked with Steve in several films:

"It was after Wonder Man that I met a man who would become a dear friend for all the rest of my life, and his life, too, right up until he died. His name was Steve Cochran and I loved him. (Like a brother.) He was tall, and in spite of the fact that he photographed as if he was a really big man, he wasn't. Steve was a man with a slight frame, had unusually dark, deeply smoldering eyes, thick, dark eyebrows, black hair, and was often cast as a gangster or a rough, hard man. Steve was none of those things in real life. He was polite and sensitive, and very kind. But, indeed, he was extremely sexy and women just couldn't get enough of him. I loved acting with him and we went on to make many films together, including the famous White Heat with Jimmy Cagney in 1949."

Next time: The gentler side of a tough guy.

What's a Sigh Guy? :)

Greetings!

And welcome to the inaugural posting of "Sigh Guys". 

What's a "sigh guy"?


I first encountered this term in vintage movie magazines from the late 1950's. They were filled with photos of handsome hunks with names like Rock, Tony, and Tab. There was also a couple of Clints (Walker and Eastwood) and a Gardner (McKay). Plus, there was a Jack (Kelly) and a "king" or two (Elvis and Gable). 

You get the picture. A sigh guy is a dreamboat, eye candy, a hottie. But--at least in my book--a sigh guy is more than just a photogenic mound of muscles.
There should also be a certain sparkle in the eyes, a glossy crown of hair, charm, wit, talent--and a megawatt smile doesn't hurt either. ;->

Our first sigh guy more than fills the bill. He was an electrifying actor whose colorful career--and life--was tragically brief. While he was here, he raised pulses...and eyebrows. He also left behind a legacy of vivid film and television performances. And sighworthy portraits like this one:

Stay tuned for more about sigh guy Steve Cochran.