Lee Majors

Lee Majors (born April 23, 1939) is an American actor, primarily known for several high profile roles on television in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Majors is known for his roles as Victoria Barkley's (played by Barbara Stanwyck) husband's illegitimate son, Heath Barkley, in The Big Valley (1965–1969), as Owen Marshall's (played by Arthur Hill) law partner/friend, Jess Brandon, in Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law (1971–1974), as Colonel Steve Austin, in The Six Million Dollar Man (1974–1978), and as Colt Seavers in The Fall Guy (1981–1986). He also had a recurring role as Col. Seymour Kooze in Son of the Beach.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Television roles 2.1 The Big Valley 2.2 Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law 2.3 The Six Million Dollar Man 2.4 Feature film career 2.5 The Fall Guy 3 Health problems 4 Personal life 5 Recent activities 6 References 7 External links

Early life

Majors was born Harvey Lee Yeary on April 23, 1939, in the Detroit suburb of Wyandotte, Michigan. He was the child of Carl Yeary, who was killed in a work-related accident before Harvey was born, and Alice Yeary, who was killed in a car accident when he was a year old. At age two, Yeary was adopted by an uncle and aunt, Harvey and Mildred Yeary, and moved with them to Middlesboro, Kentucky, where they already had another son, Bill.

Since his adoptive older brother had been a football star in school, Yeary tirelessly committed himself to the sport. While a student at Middlesboro High School, he participated in sports, from track to football. He graduated in 1957, and earned a scholarship to Indiana University, where he competed in more sports. Yeary left Indiana in 1959 and transferred to Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky, after he got into a fight at a fraternity house. He played in his first game the following year, but suffered a severe back injury which left him paralyzed for two weeks, and ended his college football career.

He then turned his attention to acting and performed in plays at the Pioneer Playhouse in Danville, Kentucky. Yeary graduated from Eastern in 1962 with a degree in History and Physical Education.

After college, he received an offer to try out for the St. Louis Cardinals football team; instead, he moved to Los Angeles and found work at the Los Angeles Park and Recreation Department as the Recreation Director for North Hollywood Park. This was after a brief stint playing for the new football franchise Boston Patriots as a safety. There, Yeary met many actors and industry professionals, including Dick Clayton, who had been James Dean's agent. Clayton suggested he attend his acting school. It took one year of studying in order for Clayton to help the newly christened Lee Majors start his career. Lee also studied at Estelle Harmon's acting school at MGM. At 25, Majors landed his first role in Strait-Jacket (1964), which starred Joan Crawford.

Majors chose his stage surname because of his childhood hero Johnny Majors who was a runner-up for the Heisman Trophy at the University of Tennessee and was later the head football coach.

Television roles

In 1965 Majors starred as Howard White in a episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, “The Monkey’s Paw - A Retelling,” based on the short story by W. W. Jacobs.

The Big Valley

Majors got his big break when he beat out over 400 young actors, including Burt Reynolds, for the co-starring role of Heath Barkley in a new ABC western series, The Big Valley, which starred Barbara Stanwyck. Also starring on the show was another newcomer, Linda Evans, who played Heath's younger sister, Audra. Richard Long and Peter Breck played his brothers Jarrod and Nick, respectively. One of Heath's frequently used expressions during the series was "Boy howdy!" Big Valley was an immediate hit. Majors went on to do some films such as Will Penny (1968) with Charlton Heston. Majors got a lead role in “The Ballad of Andy Crocker”, a 1969 American made-for-television film which was first broadcast by ABC. The film is notable as being one of the very first films to deal with the subject matter of Vietnam veterans "coming home".That same year, he was offered the chance to star in Midnight Cowboy (1969), but The Big Valley was renewed for another season and he was forced to decline the role, which went to Jon Voight. When The Big Valley was finally cancelled in 1969, he signed a long-term contract with Universal Studios. In 1970, Majors joined the cast of The Virginian for its last season.

Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law

In 1971, he landed the role of Arthur Hill's partner, Jess Brandon, on Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, which garnered critical acclaim for three seasons on ABC. In one episode, his girlfriend, and future wife, Farrah Fawcett, guest-starred.

The Six Million Dollar Man

Majors' co-starring role on Owen Marshall led him to a starring role as Colonel Steve Austin, an ex-astronaut with bionic limbs in The Six Million Dollar Man, a 1973 television movie broadcast on ABC.

In 1974, the network decided to turn it into a weekly series. The series became a huge international success, being screened in over 70 countries, and made Majors a leading pop icon of the 1970s. Co-starring on the show was Richard Anderson as Steve Austin's boss, Oscar Goldman, and Martin E. Brooks as Austin's doctor, Rudy Wells (initially played by Alan Oppenheimer). Lee also invited his then wife, Farrah Fawcett, to guest-star in four episodes. By this time, Majors and Fawcett were a high-profile Hollywood couple and were on the cover of magazines everywhere. Majors also made his directorial debut in 1975, on an episode called "One of Our Running Backs Is Missing," which costarred pro football players such as Larry Csonka and Dick Butkus.

During the show's third season, the producers gave Steve Austin a love interest on the show, Jaime Sommers (played by actress Lindsay Wagner). Steve and Jaime are romantically linked before she is injured in a skydiving accident and is bionically rebuilt, comparable to him except with a bionic ear instead of a bionic eye. At the end of the two-part episode, Jaime dies. ABC received a flood of letters from upset fans who wanted Wagner's character brought back from the dead. This was done, and the character was given her own spin-off show, The Bionic Woman.

In 1977, with The Six Million Dollar Man still a hit series, Majors tried to renegotiate his contract with Universal Television. The studio in turn filed a lawsuit to force him to report to work due to stipulations within his existing contract that had not yet expired. When he did not report to work that June, studio executives relented and offered Majors a raise. However, ratings began to decline and The Six Million Dollar Man was canceled in March 1978 (as was The Bionic Woman). In November 2010, Time Life released a 45 DVD set featuring every episode and bonus features from the show.

Feature film career

Majors first major foray into feature films was a co-starring role in the 1968 Charlton Heston film Will Penny, where he received an "Introducing" credit. After his role as Steve Austin, Majors starred in several movies: The Norseman (1978), Steel (1979), Killer Fish (1979), Agency (1980), The Last Chase (1981), and also made cameo appearances in Scrooged (1988) Out Cold (2001) Big Fat Liar (2002) and The Brothers Solomon (2007) The Story of Bonnie and Clyde (2010)

The Fall Guy

In 1981, Majors returned to television. Producer Glen A. Larson (who had first worked with Majors on Alias Smith and Jones, where Majors had a one episode part, and later on The Six Million Dollar Man) asked him to star in the pilot of The Fall Guy. Majors played Colt Seavers, a Hollywood stuntman and part-time bounty hunter. The Fall Guy allowed Majors an opportunity to show off his comedic abilities, something audiences hadn’t yet seen. Majors was also a producer and a director on the show, and even sang its theme song, the self-effacing "The Unknown Stuntman." Majors also invited several longtime friends, Linda Evans, Peter Breck, Lindsay Wagner and Richard Anderson, to guest-star in various episodes. The series ran for five seasons until 1986. According to an interview on Sirius/XM's Opie & Anthony Show in November 2010, the studio wanted to do another season of The Fall Guy but Majors was getting burnt out on Hollywood and felt the audience might have been getting burnt out on him. He decided to drop out for almost 10 years. He went to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and played a lot of golf.

After The Fall Guy, Majors' career became more low-key, and he made a series of made-for-TV movies and several pilots for unsuccessful TV shows. Between 1987 and 1994, he and Lindsay Wagner reunited in three The Six Million Dollar Man/The Bionic Woman TV movies. In 1990, he had a recurring role in Tour of Duty, and a recurring role in the short-lived 1992 series, Raven.

Health problems

In the middle of 2003, Majors had single heart bypass surgery.^[1]

Personal life

Majors has been married to:

• Kathy Robinson (married 1961, divorced 1964); one child, actor Lee Majors II (born circa 1962), who would go on to appear as an OSI agent in the three The Six Million Dollar Man/The Bionic Woman reunion movies with his father.

• Farrah Fawcett, actress, whom he married on July 28, 1973; was separated from in 1979, and divorced on February 16, 1982. During the first six years of their marriage, she was billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors. In 1976, the couple made TV history by being a husband and wife who simultaneously starred in separate top-rated shows (The Six Million Dollar Man and Charlie's Angels). After they split, Fawcett famously said, "If he's the six-million-dollar man, I'm the ten-billion-dollar woman." When Fawcett died on June 25, 2009, after her three-year-long battle with anal cancer, Majors issued a statement which read, "She fought a tremendous battle against a terrible disease. She was an angel on earth and now an angel forever." Besides attending her funeral, several reports indicated that Majors reconnected with Fawcett before her death.^[2]

• Playboy Playmate Karen Velez, married 1988, divorced 1994; one daughter, Nikki Loren, and twin sons, Dane Luke and Trey Kulley.^[3]

• Faith Majors, an actress and model; the two, a couple since 1995, wed on November 1, 2002.

Recent activities

• He starred in a German Honda TV car commercial with his wife Faith Majors parodying the beginning of The Fall Guy, always refusing the challenges presented in the original.

• Majors played Jaret Reddick's disconnected father in Bowling For Soup's video, "When We Die."

• The football field on North 15th Street in his hometown of Middlesboro, Kentucky, was renamed in his honor.

• Majors voiced the character of "Big" Mitch Baker in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

• In The Simpsons episode "Burns' Heir", Marge has a fantasy about Lee Majors, in which she runs away with him after Bart graduates from Harvard in the future.

• In 2007 he voiced a character on the APTN stop motion animated children's program Wapos Bay: The Series parodying Steve Austin named "Steve from Austin".

• In 2007, he played a minor role in Stephen King's The Mist.

• In 2007, he played Grandpa Max in Ben 10: Race Against Time.

• On January 1, 2008, Majors appeared in the role of "God" on the 7th season premiere and series finale of According to Jim.

• Also in 2008, Majors played a member of the Minutemen (dedicated to preventing illegal border crossings) in Season Four of the Showtime series Weeds, where he recruits Kevin Nealon’s character.

• Majors also played Coach Ross on the CW Network's television series "The Game", which ran from October 1, 2006 to May 20, 2009.^[4]

• Endorses Lee Major's Rechargeable Bionic Hearing Aid

• Lee Majors also appeared on ITVs The British Comedy Awards 2009 on the 12th December 2009 alongside Claudia Winkleman.

• He played in Human Target (Season 1, Episode 12) as the mentor of Christopher Chance.

• Majors played the crusty sailing instructor on the Community episode "Beginner Pottery".

• He provides the voice of General Abernathy in G.I. Joe: Renegades.