Holland was a male model turned actor. He was best known for portraying "Doc Savage" on the Bantam paperback series for artist James Bama. Bama called him,
"the world's greatest male model."
Holland portrayed
Flash Gordon in 39 episodes from October 1 1954 to July 15 1955. The syndicated television series was filmed in West Germany.
He also stood in for a
number of other heroes. He appeared on photo covers as Bob Colt Fawcett's
western comic book series. A series created because Fawcett Comics didn't want to have to license the likeness of a cowboy star.
You can see him on several of Gold Key's
Magnus,Robot Fighter 4000 A.D. covers as well as posing for a couple of
Phantom covers as the "Ghost who Walks".
On the covers
of Warner's revival of that popular 30s pulp hero, he portrayed the Avenger. He was The Man From
O.R.G.Y , The Executioner and judoka Jason Striker just to name a few.
Holland was probably best known as the
"manly man" on men's sweat magazines.One month you might find him as a
U.S.Marine in the Pacific rescuing nurses from fiendish Japanese
soldiers. The next he might be a British commando captured and tortured
by a Nazi dominatrix.
It was entirely possible to find him on several different covers in the same month. As a jungle explorer on safari, an
American soldier fighting Nazis or a private eye rescuing a comely co-ed
from white-slavers or bikers. And the titles for these stories were just
as much fun as the illustrations themselves.
"I Found the Pleasure
Geishas of Kamikaze Island and Death Cruise of the Cuban Cuties.
In
the alternate universe that I sometimes find myself inhabiting A.I.P
made a series of low-budget action movies adapted from these stories and
starring Steve Holland.The reason they cast Holland was because he
already appeared on the cover illustrations that saw double-duty as
movie posters.Starring opposite model/actress Eva Lynd who appeared with
him on several sweat mag covers,Ginger Grant,Starliss Knight and
several other B-Movie actresses he rose to cult movie stardom.
Graphic design and layout by Vance Capley
Interesting thing about the "men's sweat mag'covers is that sometimes Holland would be posing as a Nazi villain on the cover.What's really cool is finding covers where he's posing as both the hero and villain.
ReplyDeleteWarner Paperback Library did the Avenger reprints, not Bantam.
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DeleteYou're right.It's been corrected.
DeleteMy Dad bought a super cheap copy of the Flash Gordon TV series (well 4 eps) on VHS back in the 80s. Lot's of fun.
ReplyDeleteFun stuff.I had that set as well.Wanted t see how it compared to Buster Crabbe's serials.
DeleteThis piece isn't only Goode -- It's Great!
ReplyDelete