Lee Majors Movies
A football star at Eastern Kentucky State College,
Lee Majors came to Los Angeles armed with a physical education degree and possessed with a vague desire to break into films. He worked as a park recreation director for the City of Los Angeles before entering show business in 1963. Majors was promoted as "the New
James Dean," though he personally aspired to become a new
Steve McQueen or
Paul Newman (he also retained his permit to work as a recreation director, just in case the world wasn't holding its breath for a new
Dean,
McQueen or Newman). Majors achieved stardom on his own merits in a variety of television series, the most recent of which was 1992's Raven. His best-known TV roles included Heath Barkley on
The Big Valley (1965-69), bionic Steve Austin on
The Six Million Dollar Man (1973-78) and stunt man Colt Seavers on The Fall Guy (1981-86). In addition, he has headlined a number of made-for-TV movies, essaying the old
Gary Cooper part in the 1991 sequel to
High Noon and portraying U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers in a 1976 biopic. Majors would continue to act in the decades to come, memorably appearing in Big Fat Liar and on The Game. For several years,
Lee Majors was married to actress
Farrah Fawcett. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi