Tyler, Tom (Ttyle@herrick.com)
Thu, 17 Jun 1999 11:21:43 -0400
Ellroy's My Dark Places and some of his other works refer to
the movie actor Steve Cochran has having had "the biggest
dick in Hollywood."
Seeing Cochran's nearly eponymous name in Ellroy's work
jogged something in my memory about the actor, and a little
internet research turned up what that was: Cochran died in
the summer of 1965 at the age of 48. I was 14 then and having
one of the best summers of my life reading my way through my
uncle's paperback mystery collection. I read of Cochran's
death in the newspapers then and its details blended nicely
with my summer book list: Cochran died floating on his yacht
off the coast of Guatemala. The only others on the boat with
him were three females, unhappy about the corpse's
stench.
Cochran got his start as one of the stud muffins in Mae
West's stage shows, then moved into B-movies. I, Mobster and
The Beat Generation with Mamie van Doren are two of his more
interesting-sounding films, neither of which seem to be
available on video.
His last two films, one of which he directed, were
posthumously released and seem even less available than I,
Mobster and The Beat Generation.
My questions to list members are:
- Does anyone
know anything more about Cochran than what I've turned up on
the 'net?
- Does anyone
know where I could get videos of any of the films mentioned
above (I've already checked the obvious places - reel.com,
ccvideo, etc.)?
I have a feeling Cochran's life story must be a really
sleazy, noirish Hollywood one, and, to the best of my
knowledge, it's not been chronicled.
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