Steve Cochran: Fully Carpeted

I grew up in a house with a shag rug that was not as dense as the fur on Steve Cochran's chest. Even if he wasn't a compelling actor — which he was — all he would have to do was go shirtless in a film — which he often did — and his audience would be fully satisfied.

Steve's speciality was bad boy roles, playing dangerously sexy gangsters, con men, wife stealers, and the like. There was always plenty of his furry flesh on display. After all, you can't have too much of a good thing. Below, "Tomorrow is Another Day" (1951).

Steve's one directorial effort, the 1965 film "Tell Me in the Sunlight," was a noirish melodrama filmed on location in the Caribbean. Steve was also the writer, producer, and star of the film, and clearly was well aware of his own sex appeal, directing himself into various hairy and sensual positions, as shown below:

Steve definitely smokes in bed. The son of a lumberman, and himself a one-time Wyoming cow-puncher, he had a tumultuous private life in which he offered his carpet to a variety of lovers including Mae West, Jayne Mansfield, Ida Lupino, and Mamie Van Doren.

Before "Tell Me in the Sunlight" was released to theaters, Steve died under mysterous circumstances at the age of 48, aboard a yacht off the coast of Guatemala. The three women on board with him did not know how to pilot the boat, and languished, distraut, for 10 days at sea until the craft eventually drifted to shore. "Tell Me in the Sunlight" was released posthumously.

Below, Steve is the badboy of our dreams.