“I wasn’t the original bad boy of Hollywood, and I won't be the last, but I perfected the role.”
Caleb Steel
From interview with Dick Cavett November 12, 1968
Caleb Steel (born Wink Davis) was a boxer in his late teens and early twenties, but being KO'd in the first round in four successive bouts led him to switching over to bodybuilding and acting. At this point the bodybuilding aspect of his career trumped the acting part, as he started to compete in and won Muscleman contests. His acting was limited to small walk on parts in western and crime themed television shows. He typically did not have any speaking parts, but he was hired to look big and bad, which he did. While competing in Europe, he was discovered by Italian producer Aldo Antonini, who was looking for the right man to play Hercules in his new movie, 1960's AMORE PROIBITO DI ERCOLE aka FORBIDDEN LOVE OF HERCULES
PLOT: Hercules (Caleb Steel) falls in love with Princess Marzia, but as soon as the couple announce their wedding plans, Marzia is kidnapped by a band of rogue gladiators working for Ajak, who was Hercules' sworn enemy and main competition for Marzia's love. Hercules vows that he will rescue Marzia in time for their planned wedding date. In the end, it turns out that Ajak was working for the real mastermind of the kidnapping, Marzia's stepfather, who has designs on Marzia's inheritance.
Director Pietro Gigoli also directed PERSIUS' GREATEST ADVENTURE (1961) and COLOSSUS AGAINST THE CYCLOPS (1961).
Marzia was played by the beautiful Italian actress Beatrice Alari. Alari also starred in Director Gigoli's 1963 adventure film AVENGERS OF THE STOLEN CROWN.
Caleb Steel had originally signed a contract to star in three films for producer Antonini, but when Antonini came home to discover Steel in bed with his liquor cabinet, he tore up the contract and Steel returned to the United States, dejected, but with a hell of a buzz.
Steel was no stranger to controversy during his lifetime. With multiple messy divorces, paternity suits and arrests that went along with his hard drinking, rough n tumble lifestyle. It got to a point where he was spending more time pleading in front of a judge than acting in front of a camera.
One famous story involves Steel and Lawrence Tierney going out one night in Hollywood and literally painting the town red . . . With the blood of at least ten guys, that they beat up during an alcohol induced binge of mayhem, that practically destroyed a whole city block. When the law caught up to them, they resisted arrest, assaulted three officers and were finally apprehended when the SWAT team was called in, and the two were promised chocolate pudding at the police station.
Other run ins with the law included.
⦁ Defecating in a manger scene.
⦁ Attacking a department store Santa with a maple finished Expand-O-Rack
⦁ Toppling over three of the letters of the Hollywood sign
⦁ Setting fire to an already existing fire
⦁ Attempted strangulation of a Hare Krishna with a “Kiss the Cook” apron
⦁ Selling Christmas trees in July
⦁ Jaywalking on an airport runway
⦁ Impersonating the King of Siam's wife
⦁ Commandeering a window washer’s swinging lift for immoral purposes
Despite all of his problems, he did get a steady stream of acting roles, one of which was to play the lead in THE GENTLEMAN BLOODSUCKER (1966).
PLOT: Charles Alexander Jamison (Steel) is a member of the upper class. His wealth is vast, and he lives a jet set lifestyle, but he is also a descendant of Count Dracula, and the old family traits do show up now and again.
Director Noel Kelsey went on to helm DON'T GO NEAR THE LAZY SUSAN (1975) and SCREAM OF THE WITCH (1976).
Director Noel Kelsey: I knew full well of Steel’s reputation as a bad boy, but upon meeting with him, he was cordial, well-mannered and seemed generally enthused and grateful to play the part, so we hired him. The first two days on the set went well. . . but that was because his first day of shooting was on the third day. He was fine for most of the day, but was secretly hitting the sauce, and as the shooting day rolled on, he became belligerent to me, my crew and his fellow actors. Before the day was over, he had accidentally (?) set fire to part of the set, punched my lighting director and made the script girl cry when he called her a “carpet munching dike.” He showed up the next day, humbled and apologetic. He offered to pay for the damaged set, gave the lighting director a box of cigars and gave the script girl a vacuum cleaner, and he was a complete professional the rest of the way.
Caleb Steel: I was a drunk, 24-7 back then and when I drank, I was not a nice person. Why did I drink? That’s a good question. I think I drank to forget, and when I forgot why I was drinking, it made me angry that I couldn’t find the reason that I was drinking, so I drank more. It was a vicious circle. I managed to turn things around in the late sixties and was able to curtail my drinking a bit, but I could never give up completely.
THE GENTLEMAN BLOODSUCKER proved to be popular in the United States throughout the sixties and even popping up as late as 1980 at the bottom of a triple horror bill.
CALEB STEEL: I met with my manager, Irving “Dasher” Marx, one day to discuss any upcoming acting projects. He told me that things were “dryer than a female leper’s cunt” . . . I took that as a bad sign. I liked Irving. He only took 9% and shared a nickname with one of Santa’s reindeer. He was a straight shooter and he helped to get me out of many jams. . . including the time where I was smashed on vodka tonics and fell into an industrial sized vat of jam. . . Boysenberry jam, I believe.
Irving told me that he did receive an offer for me to be the spokesman for a new association that propagated the benefits of natural medicinals. The fee was extremely generous and the work that I had to do was minimal. So, I told him to accept post haste. Little did I know that I’d become the poster boy for drinking piss.
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