Steve Sandor

The big, brawny, and imposing Steve Sandor was born on October 27, 1937 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up in that city's Greenfield neighborhood. He sold copy machines and trained sentry dogs while serving as an Air Policeman in the US Air Force prior to pursuing an acting career in the late 1960s. With his large, muscular build, ruggedly handsome looks, and often intense, aggressive, and intimidating screen presence, Steve was usually cast as mean and frightening villains in both movies and TV shows. His most noteworthy film roles include scruffy biker Apache in Hell's Angels '69 (1969); unstable drifter Billy Joe in The Only Way Home (1972); traumatized Vietnam veteran Ollie Hand in The No Mercy Man (1973); wishy-washy private eye Larry Evans in the gritty crime drama gem Bonnie's Kids (1972); arrogant heavyweight wrestling champion Jack "The White Knight" Braden in the offbeat made-for-TV movie Mad Bull (1977); Stanley, the hostile, scary biker who antagonizes Stacy Keach in a bar in the terrific cult favorite The Ninth Configuration (1980); the titular scrappy anti-hero in the low-rent post-nuke sci-fi/action dud Stryker (1983); and legendary frontiersman Jim Bowie in Alamo: The Price of Freedom (1988). In addition, he was the voice of mysterious heroic warrior Dark Wolf in Ralph Bakshi's animated fantasy adventure treat Fire and Ice (1983). Also, he did guest spots on such TV series as Star Trek (1966), Gunsmoke (1955), Ironside (1967), The Streets of San Francisco (1972), Baretta (1975), Starsky and Hutch (1975), Charlie's Angels (1976), Fantasy Island (1977), CHiPs (1977), Three's Company (1976), Vega$ (1978), T.J. Hooker (1982), The A-Team (1983), The Fall Guy (1981), Knight Rider (1982) and Hunter (1984). He retired from acting in the late 1990s and settled down in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he died at age 79 in 2017.