Steve Brodie

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". 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. It wasn't long before he was signed by RKO and it wa