Steve Cochran
He is perhaps best remembered for his role of Big Ed Somers, the power hungry gangster pal of James Cagney in "White Heat" (1949). Born Robert Alexander Cochran in Eureka, California, he was the son of a California lumberjack, who moved the family to Wyoming in the 1920s, where Cochran grew to adulthood. After graduating from the University of Wyoming in 1939, Cochran began working steadily as a Wyoming cowboy, while developing his acting skills working in summer stock and regional theaters and gradually moving on to Broadway. In 1945, he signed with MGM, and for the next several years, played mostly secondary roles as gangsters or boxers. He made his film debut with "Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion" (1945) and quickly followed with "Wonder Man" (1945). Released from his contract in 1948, he returned to Broadway where he worked with Mae West; the next year he signed on with Warner Brothers, where he earned leading roles in such films as "The Damned Don't Cry" (1950), "Highway 301" (1950) and "Tomorrow is Another Day" (1951). Warner Brothers often had him playing the villain in several of its western films, such as "Dallas" (1950), and "Back to God's Country" (1953). With the end of his contract in 1953, he began his own film company, Robert Alexander Productions, while also freelancing for other studios and moving on to guest star roles on television shows. He would show up in such television shows as Death Valley Days, Burke's Law, The Untouchables, Naked City, The Twilight Zone, Route 66, and The Virginian. A notorious womanizer, Cochran was married and divorced three times, and was often in the Hollywood tabloids reportedly having affairs with such actresses as Mae West, Jayne Mansfield, Joan Crawford, Merle Oberon, Ida Lupino and Mamie Van Doren. Cochran died under mysterious circumstances. In May 1965, Cochran had revived his production company, and together with three women, whom he had hired as his assistants, boarded his 40-foot yacht to travel to Central and South America to look for filming locations. On June 25, 1965, the yacht drifted into Port Champerico, Guatemala, with three alive but very distraught women aboard and the body of Steve Cochran, who had died ten days earlier. The women did not know how to operate the boat, and were dependent upon its drifting to shore after his death. There were numerous rumors of murder and poisoning, and actress / former lover Merle Oberon used her influence to push for further police investigation, but no evidence of foul play was ever determined. The official cause of his death was given as Acute Infectious Edema (lung infection).
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 8.269 |
Birthday | 1917-05-25 |
Place of Birth | Eureka, California |
Also Known As | Стив Кокран, Robert Alexander Cochran, |
1946
The Best Years of Our Lives
7.8/622
It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrive...
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The Best Years of Our Lives
1951
Storm Warning
6.5/35
A fashion model (Rogers) witnesses the brutal assassination of an investigative journalist by the Ku Klux Klan while traveling to a small town to visi...
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Storm Warning
1957
Il Grido
7.551/136
A sugar-refinery worker flees his Northern Italy town after a woman refuses his marriage proposal.
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Il Grido
1946
The Chase
6.1/57
Chuck Scott gets a job as chauffeur to tough guy Eddie Roman; but Chuck's involvement with Eddie's fearful wife becomes a nightmare.
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The Chase
1956
The Weapon
5.9/17
A boy accidentally shoots a friend with a gun he found in the rubble of a destroyed building. The gun turns out to be a clue in a ten-year-old murder...
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The Weapon
1951
Tomorrow Is Another Day
6.5/21
A man who spent his formative years in prison for murder is released, and struggles to adjust to the outside world and escape his lurid past. He gets...
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Tomorrow Is Another Day
1950
Highway 301
6.5/21
The "Tri-State" gang goes on a successful bank robbing streak causing local authorities to turn up the heat on the daring career criminals.
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Highway 301
1954
Private Hell 36
6.2/37
In New York, a bank robbery of $300,000 goes unsolved for a year, until some of the marked bills are found in a Los Angeles drugstore theft. Police de...
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Private Hell 36
1950
The Damned Don't Cry
7.08/56
Fed up with her small-town marriage, a woman goes after the big time and gets mixed up with the mob.
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The Damned Don't Cry
1959
The Beat Generation
4.9/9
A group of beatniks unwittingly harbor a serial rapist. A cop goes after him after his wife is attacked.
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The Beat Generation
1949
White Heat
7.66/452
A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and then leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. After th...
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White Heat
1954
Carnival Story
4.6/11
In search of a better life, a German girl named Willi joins an American carnival passing through Munich. While traveling from town to town, she is tor...
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Carnival Story
1947
Copacabana
5.457/23
A talent agent sells his girlfriend to a nightclub – as two separate acts. The deception and constant costume changes are too much for his girl, and t...
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Copacabana
1961
The Deadly Companions
5.6/55
Ex-army officer accidentally kills a woman's son, tries to make up for it by escorting the funeral procession through dangerous Indian territory.
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The Deadly Companions
1945
Boston Blackie's Rendezvous
4.4/5
Blackie helps the police rescue hostage from an escaped maniac on a killing spree.
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Boston Blackie's Rendezvous
1951
Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison
6.4/8
A warden and his assistant clash over prison reform, triggering a violent riot.
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Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison
1965
Tell Me In The Sunlight
0/0
A sailor and a stripper fall in love on the beaches of Nassau in this romance. Unfortunately, the exotic dancer already has a lover.
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Tell Me In The Sunlight
1959
I, Mobster
7/5
The rise and fall of gang lord Joe Sante. A crime boss appears before a Senate subcommittee. A flashbacks tell his story.
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I, Mobster
1957
Slander
6.3/11
A tabloid magazine threatens to ruin a television performer's career.
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Slander
1946
The Kid from Brooklyn
6.2/11
Shy milkman Burleigh Sullivan accidentally knocks out drunken Speed McFarlane, a champion boxer who was flirting with Burleigh's sister. The newspaper...
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The Kid from Brooklyn
1951
The Tanks Are Coming
8.3/3
An American tank crew fights its way into Germany in World War II.
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The Tanks Are Coming
1964
Mozambique
5/5
An American pilot assists the Portuguese colonial police who are battling a gang of criminals involved in drug smuggling from Lisbon to Mozambique to...
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Mozambique
1950
Dallas
6.446/28
After the Civil War, Confederate soldier Blayde Hollister travels to Dallas to avenge the savage murder of his family. Discovering his enemy is now an...
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Dallas
1958
Quantrill's Raiders
4.5/2
A Civil War guerilla gang plans an attack on a Kansas arsenal.
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Quantrill's Raiders
1953
Back to God's Country
6/2
In a small village in the icy wilderness of Alaska Captain Peter Keith has to defend himself against two especially mean villains, who are after his w...
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Back to God's Country
1952
The Lion and the Horse
5.7/6
After selling it to a cruel rodeo owner, a cowboy attempts to buy back the wild stallion he snared.
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The Lion and the Horse
1953
The Desert Song
6.5/4
Shiek Yousseff, poses as a friend of the French while secretly plotting to overthrow them. Apposing Yousseff are the Riffs, whose secret leader, The R...
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The Desert Song
1952
Operation Secret
5/3
After assisting the French Underground during WWII, an American Officer is later accused of murder and subversive activities by former colleagues. Bas...
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Operation Secret
1951
Raton Pass
4.8/10
Raton Pass is a curious western based on the rules of Community Property. Dennis Morgan and Patricia Neal portray a recently married husband and wife,...
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Raton Pass
1959
The Big Operator
5.8/11
A power-mad union boss resorts to murder to eliminate witnesses scheduled to testify against him. The eclectic cast includes Mickey Rooney, Mamie Van...
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The Big Operator
1953
She's Back on Broadway
5.7/3
When Catherine Terris's career in Hollywood hits the skids, she heads back to the site of her first great triumphs...Broadway! She takes the lead in a...
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She's Back on Broadway
1945
Wonder Man
6.6/36
Boisterous nightclub entertainer Buzzy Bellew was the witness to a murder committed by gangster Ten Grand Jackson. One night, two of Jackson's thugs k...
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Wonder Man
1963
Of Love and Desire
5/1
American engineer Steve Corey comes to Mexico to work at one of the mining projects owned by Katherine Beckman and her half-brother Paul. He meets Kat...
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Of Love and Desire
1956
Come Next Spring
6/6
Matt Ballot has returned home after 12 years of hard-drinking in all 48 states. His wife has managed to raise their 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-o...
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Come Next Spring
1945
Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion
5.5/4
Blackie is implicated in a murder when he accidently sells a phony Charles Dickens first edition at an auction.
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Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion
1951
Jim Thorpe – All-American
6/15
The triumph and tragedy of Native American Jim Thorpe, who, after winning both the pentathlon and decathlon in the same Olympics, is stripped of his m...
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Jim Thorpe – All-American
1953
Shark River
0/1
Nobody has an easy time of it in the costume actioner Shark River. Wanted for murder, Clay Webley (Warren Stevens) and his wounded cellmate Curtis Par...
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Shark River
1948
A Song Is Born
6.5/39
The story of seven scholars in search of an expert to teach them about swing music. They seem to have found the perfect candidate in winsome nightclub...
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A Song Is Born
1945
The Gay Senorita
0/0
Romance with a lovely senorita convinces a contractor to abandon his plans to take over a Mexican housing district.
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The Gay Senorita
2007
Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains
6.5/6
A chronicle of the former president's tour recent for his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."
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Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains
1956
Fremont: The Trailblazer
0/0
Fremont: The Trailblazer was a television pilot episode that never aired.
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