--- name: "Mark Stevens" canonical: "https://film.one/person/mark-stevens-87390" roles: ["Actor"] born: "13 December 1916" died: "15 September 1994" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-20T01:53:18.700908+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Mark Stevens Actor. Born 13 December 1916 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Died 15 September 1994. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 13 December 1916, Cleveland, Ohio, USA - **Died:** 15 September 1994 - **Also known as:** Richard William Stevens, Stephen Richards - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Stevens_(actor), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q537892, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0828594/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/87390 ## Fi1m on Mark Stevens > Mark Stevens was the man Hollywood stood next to the interesting person. Earnest, decent and steady in the film noirs and dramas of the late 1940s, he was almost never the reason to watch one, and almost never the problem either. A woman sits on a bench in the grounds of a state hospital and a man arrives to tell her she is his wife. In *The Snake Pit* (1948) the man is Mark Stevens, the woman is Olivia de Havilland, and she does not believe him. It is the position he was given in film after film: the decent husband, the honest man with a badge, the person whose job is to hold the ground so that somebody more vivid can move about on it. We felt for Robert Cunningham in that scene, because Stevens is playing a man who has all the facts and no way to make them land, in a film that has already decided the story belongs to the woman on the bench. De Havilland carries the picture; he is part of what she carries. He arrived at Warner Bros in 1943 as Stephen Richards, playing servicemen small enough to go uncredited, and became Mark Stevens in 1945 when he moved to 20th Century-Fox and Darryl Zanuck renamed him. Fox gave him leads, in *Within These Walls* (1945) and *From This Day Forward* (1946), then put him at the centre of *The Dark Corner* (1946), a film noir the studio hoped would do for it what *Laura* had done. It did not make him a star, and the complaint that has followed him since was already there: the people around him were more interesting than he was. *The Street with No Name* (1948) sent him undercover against Richard Widmark in the semi-documentary FBI manner, and the villain took the picture. He never stood higher than that year. The straight-arrow parts suited him because he did not fidget in them. He is a believable policeman and a believable husband, and there is a use for actors who can be believed without being watched. The trouble was that Fox kept building films around him as though he were the attraction, and he was not built to be looked at for ninety minutes; put him beside a stronger co-star and the eye leaves him every time. Henry Hathaway and William Keighley each directed him once. That steadiness is also why nobody remembers him much. From the 1950s he stopped waiting to be cast well and started directing himself, in low-budget crime films such as *Cry Vengeance* (1954), in which he is also Vic Barron. He turned up on television in *Big Town* and *Martin Kane, Private Eye*, then from the 1960s lived in semi-retirement in Spain, taking the occasional film or television guest part into the 1980s. You will most likely meet him now in *The Snake Pit*, standing at the edge of somebody else's film and doing the job. Watch de Havilland, as everyone does, and then, once, watch him, and notice how little he asks for. ## Biography Mark Stevens (born Richard William Stevens) was an American actor who appeared in films and on television from the 1940s to the 1980s. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, on 13 December 1916, he also worked under the names Stephen Richards and Richard William Stevens. He began as a contract player at Warner Bros. before moving to 20th Century-Fox, where he took leading roles in several films. Stevens is known for his performances in *The Dark Corner* (1946), *The Street with No Name* (1948) and as Robert Cunningham opposite Olivia de Havilland in *The Snake Pit* (1948). He also appeared in *Objective, Burma!* (1945) and later guested on television series including *Murder, She Wrote* and *Magnum, P.I.*. In addition to acting, he directed several films and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his television work. He died on 15 September 1994 in Spain. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *The Snake Pit* (1948), Fi1m 76, as Robert Cunningham — [page](https://film.one/film/the-snake-pit.md) ## Complete filmography (59) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Murder, She Wrote* (1984), series, as Nick Brody - *Scarecrow and Mrs. King* (1983), series, Actor - *Simon & Simon* (1981), series, Actor - *Magnum, P.I.* (1980), series, as Dennis Parker - *The Eddie Capra Mysteries* (1978), series, Actor - *Bronk* (1975), series, Actor - *S.W.A.T.* (1975), series, Actor - *Kojak* (1973), series, as Manny Steiner — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/tv/kojak.md) - *Police Story* (1973), series, Actor - *The Fury of the Wolf Man* (1972), as Bill Williams - *Lola, They Say She Does Not Live Alone* (1970), Actor - *Spain Again* (1969), as Dr. David Foster - *Sunscorched* (1965), as Sheriff Jess Kinley · Director - *Frozen Alive* (1964), as Dr. Frank Overton - *Fate Is the Hunter* (1964), as Mickey Doolan - *Escape from Hell Island* (1963), as Capt. James · Director - *Bus Stop* (1961), series, Actor - *September Storm* (1960), as Joe Balfour - *Rawhide* (1959), series, as John Shepard - *Gunsmoke in Tucson* (1958), as Jed "Chip" Coburn - *Decision* (1958), series, Director - *Gun Fever* (1958), as Luke Ram · Director, Screenplay - *Wagon Train* (1957), series, Director - *Gunsight Ridge* (1957), as Velvet Clark - *Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre* (1956), series, as Capt. John Hunter, Cort McConnell · Director - *Time Table* (1956), as Charlie Norman · Producer, Director - *Cry Vengeance* (1954), as Vic Barron · Director - *Torpedo Alley* (1953), as Bob Bingham - *Jack Slade* (1953), as Jack Slade - *Letter to Loretta* (1953), series, as Joe Navotnick, Sam Hart - *General Electric Theater* (1953), series, Actor - *The Big Frame* (1952), as Paul Smith - *Mutiny* (1952), as Capt. James Marshall - *Reunion in Reno* (1951), as Norman Drake - *Schlitz Playhouse of Stars* (1951), series, as Monte Clovis, Abraham Lincoln, Art Sears / Philip Cunningham · Director - *Little Egypt* (1951), as Wayne Cravat - *Target Unknown* (1951), as Capt. Jerome Stevens - *Katie Did It* (1950), as Peter Van Arden - *Big Town* (1950), series, as Steve Wilson #2 - *Between Midnight and Dawn* (1950), as Officer Rocky Barnes - *Please Believe Me* (1950), as Matthew Kinston - *Dancing in the Dark* (1949), as Bill Davis - *Oh, You Beautiful Doll* (1949), as Larry Kelly - *Martin Kane, Private Eye* (1949), series, Actor - *Sand* (1949), as Jeff Keane - *The Snake Pit* (1948), as Robert Cunningham — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/the-snake-pit.md) - *The Street with No Name* (1948), as Gene Cordell / George Manly - *I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now* (1947), as Joseph E. Howard - *The Dark Corner* (1946), as Bradford Galt - *From This Day Forward* (1946), as Bill Cummings - *Pride of the Marines* (1945), as Ainslee - *Within These Walls* (1945), as Steve Purcell - *Rhapsody in Blue* (1945), as Steve (uncredited) - *God Is My Co-Pilot* (1945), as Sgt. Baldridge - *Objective, Burma!* (1945), as Lt. Barker · pilot - *Hollywood Canteen* (1944), as Soldier on Deck (uncredited) - *Roaring Guns* (1944), as Lance Ferris - *Passage to Marseille* (1944), as Lt. Hastings (uncredited) - *Food and Magic* (1943), Actor ## Gallery - ![Photo of actor Mark Stevens. Stevens was narrating a special program sponsored by the Wonder Bread company. (1950)](https://film.one/media/person/1235963/gallery-2e55011e6864.jpg) Photo of actor Mark Stevens. Stevens was narrating a special program sponsored by the Wonder Bread company. (1950) — CBS Photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Mark_Stevens_1950.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Mark Stevens](https://film.one/media/person/1235963/gallery-8883220e7fa0.jpg) Mark Stevens — Trailer screenshot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Mark_Stevens_the_dark_corner.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Mark Stevens](https://film.one/media/person/1235963/gallery-c63440f191ff.jpg) Mark Stevens — Image via TMDB - ![Mark Stevens](https://film.one/media/person/1235963/gallery-64c84a3d272b.jpg) Mark Stevens — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/mark-stevens-87390