Mark Stevens (actor)

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Mark Stevens (December 13, 1916 – September 15, 1994) was an American movie actor of the 1940s and 1950s.

He was born Richard Stevens in Cleveland, Ohio.

After studying to become a painter, Stevens became 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. 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. Stevens also performed in musicals including I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now? (1947) and Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949).

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.

He died in Majores, Spain, aged 77.

Stevens has a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, located at 6637 Hollywood Blvd.