Steve Brodie

According to an article by Laura Wagner in "Films of the Golden Age", Spring 2014 issue, he was arrested in 1961 on drunk-driving charges.

He also provided voice work in commercials and showed up at nostalgia conventions, including The Knoxville Western Film Fair in 1991, less than a year before his death.

In 1973 Brodie married a third time, to Virginia Hefner, and they had a son Sean.

In the 1970s he made sporadic appearances, including a lead in the campy low-budget horror film The Giant Spider Invasion (1975) opposite Barbara Hale and a part in Delta Pi (1984) [aka "Mugsy's Girls"], which was written, produced and directed by son Kevin and was also his last film.

Steve's second marriage lasted until 1966. Interest in Brodie eventually waned at the studio and his contract was not renewed.

He married Barbara Savitt--the widow of bandleader Jan Savitt--in September of 1950 and the union produced son Kevin Brodie two years later (Kevin later became a producer/director).

In the late 1950s he had leads in the "C"-level films Spy in the Sky! (1958), Arson for Hire (1959) and Here Come the Jets (1959).

A familiar presence on 1950s and 1960s TV, he worked on such crime series as Public Defender (1954), Hawaiian Eye (1959), Surfside 6 (1960), Perry Mason (1957), Burke's Law (1963) and such western series as The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955) (recurring part), The Lone Ranger (1949), Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951), Laramie (1959), Sugarfoot (1957), Maverick (1957), Rawhide (1959), Gunsmoke (1955) and comedies including The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952), _"The Beverly Hillbillies" (1962)_ (qav). He also appeared in a touring production of "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" starring Paul Douglas and Wendell Corey. The company ended abruptly when the liberal-minded Douglas, in a North Carolina interview, strongly criticized the conservative state and the resulting backlash forced the production's closure. Brodie's later years were marred by drinking arrests.

Freelancing elsewhere, he appeared as a lead in Rose of the Yukon (1949) and another classic film noir, Armored Car Robbery (1950), and also earned good parts in Home of the Brave (1949), The Steel Helmet (1951) and Lady in the Iron Mask (1952) (as the Musketeer Athos).

Most of his post-RKO film work, however, would be in low-budgeters: I Cheated the Law (1949), The Great Plane Robbery (1950), Army Bound (1952), The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Donovan's Brain (1953) and Under Fire (1957).

He also appeared as the hero's nemesis in several Tim Holt / Richard Martin westerns, including The Arizona Ranger (1948), Guns of Hate (1948) and Brothers in the Saddle (1949).

In between those two pictures were strong roles in three film noir classics: Desperate (1947) (leading good guy), Crossfire (1947) and Out of the Past (1947) (both supporting baddies).

It wasn't long before he was signed by RKO and it was with studio that his reputation as a heavy in westerns grew, with such roles as notorious outlaws Bob Dalton in Badman's Territory (1946) and Cole Younger in Return of the Bad Men (1948).

A hard-living, hard-drinking actor, Brodie married "B" actress Lois Andrews in 1946 but the couple divorced four years later, not long after appearing together in the western programmer Rustlers (1949).

Loaned out for his first film, Universal's Ladies Courageous (1944), Brodie appeared in a few tough-guy bit parts in such MGM films as Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), The Clock (1945) and Anchors Aweigh (1945) before he was dropped.

Primarily known as a "B" movie bad guy of hundreds of films, husky actor Steve Brodie was born John Daugherty Stephens on November 25, 1919, in El Dorado, Kansas. Raised in Wichita, he dropped out of school and raced cars, boxed and worked on oil rigs to get by. He initially entertained a criminal law career but that interest quickly wore off after having to toil as a property boy. A passion for acting then was instigated and Brodie found early work in summer stock. Changing his stage name to "Steve Brodie", a move to New York did not pay off but a subsequent move to Los Angeles did. He broke into films after being spotted by an MGM talent scout in a Hollywood theatre production entitled "Money Girls".

Born John Stephens, he adopted the name of Brooklyn (NY) bookmaker and daredevil Steve Brodie (1863-1901), who in 1886 claimed to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge in a publicity stunt.