Al Martinez: Cowboy's story has Hollywood spin to it

HE comes across as the quintessential Hollywood cowboy in a 10-gallon hat, denims, boots, a silver belt buckle, even a droopy white mustache, looking every bit like an old ranch hand who's been herding cattle for a movie scene somewhere on an Arizona prairie.

But at 5-7 and 145 pounds, Steve Stevens isn't big enough to be a movie cowboy so he's had to settle for doing a lot of other things, like being an actor's agent, his current job, to palling around with mobster Mickey Cohen for a few years, about which he's written a book.

I met with him the other day in his Chatsworth tract house on what used to be a part of the old Iverson Movie Ranch, where more westerns were shot than maybe anywhere else in America in the boulder-strewn foothills of the Santa Susana Mountains.

Stevens is 71 and as trim as a 20-year-old. The walls of his garage and an adjoining den are papered with photographs of people he knew and movies he's been in, plus posters about the movies and about the Mickey Cohen book, "King of the Sunset Strip." There's a mounted rifle on one wall, a car license that says "I ropem" on another and a saddle slung over a rack in a corner.

He began an introductory e-mail to me by asking of himself "Who is this guy?" and I've got to tell you he's bigger than the space I have here. He began acting as a kid, played in teen-age and tough guy movies (it's what attracted Cohen) and was a member of the Mickey Mouse Club, co-starring with

Annette Funicello in a TV series "Annette."

His movie credits involve films you probably never saw like "Joy Ride" and "High School Caesar," and at some point he realized his acting career was going nowhere so he became a casting agent and then a theatrical agent, and he's been that ever since.

Did I mention that he owns a horse ranch in Texas? It's just south of Fort Worth, run by one of his two grown sons. He's managed to be happily married for 38 years too and serve in the Marines and work as a team roper for charity rodeos. But you know what activity impressed him most, and may be the measure of the kind of guy he is? Being an equestrian coach for the Special Olympics.

"Doing that meant everything to me," he said as we wound up the interview. "A hug from one of those kids is true love. That's the upside of working with them. The downside is" - he choked back tears - "some of them die of their ailments. When that happens you bury your face in a saddle, get it all out and then go back to work."

In the varied biography of his life, even cowboys cry.

Al Martinez writes a column on Mondays and Fridays. He can be reached at almtz13@aol.com.

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