Mark Stevens (actor)
Encyclopedia

Career

Born Richard William Stevens in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

, he first studied to become a painter before becoming active in theater work. He then launched a radio career as an announcer in Akron, Ohio
Akron, Ohio
Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...

.

Moving to Hollywood, he became a Warner Brothers contract actor at $100 a week in 1943. The studio darkened and straightened his curly ginger-colored hair and covered his freckles. At first he was billed as Stephen Richards, but it was changed to Mark Stevens at the suggestion of Darryl Zanuck when he moved to 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

.

Stevens emerged as a film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

 leading man in such films as Within These Walls (1945) and The Dark Corner
The Dark Corner
The Dark Corner is a 1946 film noir directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Lucille Ball, Mark Stevens and Clifton Webb. The film is an example of a classic film noir and features a rare dramatic role for Ball.-Plot:...

 (1946), the latter pairing him with Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...

. He played an FBI man going undercover to arrest a gangster played by Richard Widmark
Richard Widmark
Richard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage and television actor.He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death...

 in The Street with No Name
The Street with No Name
The Street with No Name is a black-and-white film noir. The movie, a follow up to The House on 92nd Street , tells the story of an undercover FBI agent, Gene Cordell , who infiltrates a deadly crime gang. Cordell's superior, FBI Inspector George A. Briggs also appears in The House on 92nd Street...

 (1948), and appeared as Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland
Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...

's loyal husband in The Snake Pit
The Snake Pit
The Snake Pit is a 1948 American drama film directed by Anatole Litvak. The film tells the story of a woman who finds herself in an insane asylum and cannot remember how she got there, and stars Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Beulah Bondi, and Lee Patrick.The film was...

. Stevens also performed in musicals including I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now? (1947) and Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949).

From 1954-1956, he played a newspaper managing editor in the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 series Big Town
Big Town
Big Town is a popular long-running radio drama series which was later adapted to both film and television and a comic book published by DC Comics.-Radio:...

, having replaced Patrick McVey
Patrick McVey
Patrick McVey was an American actor who starred in three television series between 1950 and 1961, Big Town, Boots and Saddles, and Manhunt.-Early life and career:...

, who starred in the role from 1950-1954.

In the 1950s Stevens was also a television actor, producer and writer. He worked in semi-retirement in the 1960s in Europe. In the 80's he appeared in television shows Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I. is an American television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....

 and Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...

.

Death

On September 15, 1994, Stevens died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

 in Majores, Spain, at the age of seventy-seven.

For his contribution to the television industry, Mark Stevens has a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, located at 6637 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1943 Destination Tokyo
Destination Tokyo
Destination Tokyo is a 1943 submarine war film. It was directed by Delmer Daves and written by Daves, Steve Fisher and Albert Maltz, and stars Cary Grant and John Garfield with featured performances by Dane Clark, Robert Hutton and Warner Anderson. Production began on June 21, 1943 and continued...

Admiral's aide Uncredited
1944 Passage to Marseille
Passage to Marseille
Passage to Marseille is a 1944 war film made by Warner Brothers, directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Hal B. Wallis with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. The screenplay was by Casey Robinson and Jack Moffitt from the novel Sans Patrie by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall...

Lieutenant Hastings Uncredited
Roaring Guns Lance Ferris as Stephen Richards
The Doughgirls Lt. Harry Kerry Uncredited
Hollywood Canteen Soldier on deck Uncredited
1945 Objective, Burma!
Objective, Burma!
Objective, Burma! is an Oscar-nominated 1945 war film which was loosely based on the six month raid by Merrill's Marauders in the Burma Campaign during the Second World War...

Lt. Barker as Stephen Richards
God Is My Co-Pilot
God is My Co-Pilot (film)
God is My Co-Pilot is a 1945 American propaganda film based on the autobiography of the same name by Robert Lee Scott, Jr. The film tells the story of Scott's association with the Flying Tigers and the United States Army Air Forces in China and Burma during World War II.-Plot:God Is My Co-Pilot was...

Sgt. Baldridge as Stephen Richards
The Horn Blows at Midnight
The Horn Blows at Midnight
The Horn Blows at Midnight is a comedy fantasy film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Jack Benny. Its biggest claim to fame, apart from its star, is its failure at the box office, and this fact was exploited often for laughs in Benny's popular radio and television comedy series The Jack Benny...

Angel Uncredited
Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue (film)
Rhapsody in Blue is a 1945 fictionalized screen biography of the American composer and musician George Gershwin . Starring Robert Alda as Gershwin, the film features a few of Gershwin's acquaintances playing themselves...

Steve Uncredited
Within These Walls Steve Purcell
Pride of the Marines
Pride of the Marines
Pride of the Marines is a 1945 biographical war film starring John Garfield and Eleanor Parker. It tells the story of U.S. Marine Al Schmid in World War II, his heroic stand against a Japanese attack during the Battle of Guadalcanal, in which he was blinded by a grenade, and his subsequent...

Ainslee as Stephen Richards
1946 From This Day Forward Bill Cummings
The Dark Corner
The Dark Corner
The Dark Corner is a 1946 film noir directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Lucille Ball, Mark Stevens and Clifton Webb. The film is an example of a classic film noir and features a rare dramatic role for Ball.-Plot:...

Bradford Galt
1947 I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now
I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (film)
I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now is a 1947 musical film in Technicolor, directed by Lloyd Bacon, and starring June Haver and Mark Stevens. I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now is a biograpical film about Joseph E. Howard, the writer of the popular song of the same title.-Plot:Set in the turn of the 20th...

Joe Howard
1948 The Street with No Name
The Street with No Name
The Street with No Name is a black-and-white film noir. The movie, a follow up to The House on 92nd Street , tells the story of an undercover FBI agent, Gene Cordell , who infiltrates a deadly crime gang. Cordell's superior, FBI Inspector George A. Briggs also appears in The House on 92nd Street...

Gene Cordell/George Manly
The Snake Pit
The Snake Pit
The Snake Pit is a 1948 American drama film directed by Anatole Litvak. The film tells the story of a woman who finds herself in an insane asylum and cannot remember how she got there, and stars Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Beulah Bondi, and Lee Patrick.The film was...

Robert Cunningham
1949 Sand Jeff Keane
Oh, You Beautiful Doll
Oh, You Beautiful Doll (film)
Oh, You Beautiful Doll was a 1949 musical film that starred the musical queen June Haver and Mark Stevens. Co-stars included S.Z. Sakall, Charlotte Greenwood, and Gale Robbins.- Plot :...

Larry Kelly
Dancing in the Dark Bill Davis
1950 Please Believe Me
Please Believe Me
Please Believe Me is a 1950 romantic comedy film directed by Norman Taurog, and starring Deborah Kerr, Robert Walker, Mark Stevens and Peter Lawford.-Plot:...

Matthew Kinston
Between Midnight and Dawn Officer Rocky Barnes
1951 Target Unknown Capt. Jerome 'Steve' Stevens
Katie Did It Peter Van Arden
Little Egypt Wayne Cravat
Reunion in Reno Norman Drake
1952 Mutiny
Mutiny (1952 film)
- Plot summary :During the War of 1812, Captain James Marshall has to run the blockade enforced by the British in order to collect a war loan obtained from France. His first mate is Ben Waldridge, who is a former Royal Navy captain cashiered by the navy. Waldridge brings his former gun crew along...

Capt. James Marshall
The Lost Hours Paul Smith
Torpedo Alley Lt. Bob Bingham
1953 Jack Slade Joseph A. 'Jack' Slade
Joseph Alfred Slade
Joseph Alfred "Jack" Slade, , was a stagecoach and Pony Express superintendent, instrumental in the opening of the American West and the archetype of the Western gunslinger....

1954 Cry Vengeance Vic Barron Also director
1956 Time Table Charlie Norman Also director
1957 Gunsight Ridge Velvet Clark
1958 Gun Fever Luke Ram Also director
Gunsmoke in Tucson Jedediah (Chip) Coburn
1960 September Storm Joe Balfour
1963 Escape from Hell Island Capt. James Also director
1964 Fate Is the Hunter
Fate Is the Hunter (film)
Fate Is the Hunter is a 1964 film about the crash of an airliner and the subsequent investigation released by 20th Century Fox. It was nominally based on the bestselling 1961 book of the same name by Ernest K. Gann, but the author was so disappointed with the result that he asked to have his name...

Mickey Doolan
Frozen Alive Dr. Frank Overton Original title: Der Fall X701
1965 Jessy Does Not Forgive... He Kills! Sheriff Jeff Kinsley Original title: Tierra de fuego
1966 Go with God, Gringo Smith Original title: Vaya con dios gringo
1969 Cry for Poor Wally Gaylord Blue - Radio DJ
Spain Again
Spain Again
Spain Again is a 1969 Spanish drama film directed by Jaime Camino. It was entered into the 1969 Cannes Film Festival. The film was also selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 41st Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.-Cast:* Manuela Vargas - María*...

Dr. David Foster Original title: España otra vez
1972 The Fury of the Wolfman
The Fury of the Wolfman
La Furia del Hombre Lobo, also known as The Fury of the Wolfman and The Wolfman Never Sleeps, is a 1972 Spanish horror film that is the fourth in a long series about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy...

Bill Williams Uncredited
Original title: La furia del Hombre Lobo

External links

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