Career
Born Richard William Stevens in Cleveland, Ohio, 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.
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.
Stevens emerged as a film noir leading man in such films as Within These Walls (1945) and The Dark Corner (1946), the latter pairing him with Lucille Ball. In 1946 exhibitors voted him the fifth-most promising "star of tomorrow".
He played an FBI man going undercover to arrest a gangster played by Richard Widmark in The Street With No Name (1948), and appeared as Olivia de Havilland's loyal husband in The Snake Pit (1948). Stevens also performed in musicals including I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now? (1947) and Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949).
In 1951, he starred in the DuMont series News Gal which was later syndicated on ABC in 1957. From 1954-1956 he played a newspaper managing editor in the CBS Television series Big Town, having replaced Patrick McVey, who starred in the role from 1950-1954. Reruns of Big Town began airing on DuMont under the title City Assignment while new episodes of the series were still appearing on CBS.
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. and Murder, She Wrote.
Read more about this topic: Mark Stevens (actor)
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