Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Stevens first studied to become a painter before becoming active in theater work. He then launched a radio career as an announcer in Akron, Ohio.
Warner Bros - as Stephen Richards
Moving to Hollywood, he became a Warner Bros. contract actor at $100 a week in 1943. The studio darkened and straightened his curly red hair and covered his freckles. At first he was billed as Stephen Richards. They gave him small parts, often uncredited, in films like Destination Tokyo, Passage to Marseille, The Doughgirls, Hollywood Canteen, Objective, Burma!, God Is My Co-Pilot, The Horn Blows at Midnight, Rhapsody in Blue and Pride of the Marines. He usually played soldiers. Eventually the studio let him go.
He was then signed to 20th Century Fox who changed his name to Mark Stevens at the suggestion of Darryl Zanuck. His first movie for the studio was Within These Walls, fourth-billed, playing the romantic male lead. Stevens was borrowed by RKO to play the lead role in From This Day Forward with Joan Fontaine. Back at Fox Stevens was in The Dark Corner with Lucille Ball and Clifton Webb, a film noir that attempted to repeat the success of Laura. In 1946 exhibitors voted him the fifth-most promising "star of tomorrow". Fox put him in a musical with June Haver, I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now, playing Joseph E. Howard. It was a big hit. So too was The Street With No Name, where Stevens played an FBI man going undercover to arrest a gangster played by Richard Widmark, and The Snake Pit, where he played Olivia de Havilland's loyal husband. Stevens was in a Western, Sand and another musical biopic with Haver, Oh, You Beautiful Doll, playing Fred Fisher. He supported William Powell in Dancing in the Dark. Stevens was borrowed by MGM to play Matthew Kinston, one of Deborah Kerr's three suitors in Please Believe Me. For Columbia he starred in the film-noir Between Midnight and Dawn.
Universal
Stevens then signed a contract at Universal: Target Unknown, a war film; Katie Did It, a romantic comedy; Little Egypt with Rhonda Fleming; Reunion in Reno. In 1951, he starred in the DuMont series News Gal which was later syndicated on ABC in 1957. Stevens made Mutiny for the King Brothers and went to England for The Lost Hours. He was in Torpedo Alley. Stevens took over the lead role in Martin Kane, Private Eye from 1953-54. From 1954 to 1956 he played a newspaper managing editor in the CBS Television series Big Town, having replaced Patrick McVey, who starred in the role from 1950-54. Reruns of Big Town began airing on DuMont under the title City Assignment while new episodes of the series were still appearing on CBS.
Director
In the 1950s and 1960s he directed several features: Cry Vengeance ; Time Table ; Gun Fever ; Man on a Raft ; The Man in the Water and Sunscorched. As an actor only, he was in Gunsight Ridge, September Storm and Fate is the Hunter.
Later career
From the 1960s Stevens lived in semi-retirement in Spain. His occasional film credits include Spain Again and The Fury of the Wolfman. In the 1980s he made guest appearances Magnum, P.I., Murder, She Wrote and other television shows.
Death
On September 15, 1994, Stevens died of cancer in Majores, Spain, at the age of 77. For his contribution to the television industry, Mark Stevens has a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, located at 6637 Hollywood Boulevard.
