BURBANK, Calif. -- Bob Steele, who appeared in nearly 400 movies and television shows and was a Western hero to millions of children, has died, hospital officials said Thursday. He was 82.
Steele, known in the 1960s as Trooper Duffy in the TV military farce 'F Troop,' died of respiratory complications on Wednesday, a week after being admitted to St. Joseph Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The character actor had thundered across the screen as one of 'The Three Mesquiteers,' a group of cowboy stars featured in about three dozen movies between 1935 and 1943, including 'Powdersmoke Range,' 'Riders of the Whistling Range' and 'Call of the Mesquiteers.' Among his co-stars were John Wayne, Roy Rogers and Duncan Reynoldo.
The movies were made inexpensively and became a staple on late night television beginning in the 1940s.
Born Robert North Bradbury Jr. in Pendleton, Ore., the son of a silent film director, his father first featured him as a teenager with his brother in a series of nature shorts 'The Adventures of Bob and Bill.'
Steele was a four-letter athlete in high school and trained as a boxer, which prepared him for his fighting roles when he became a full-blown cowboy star in the 1920s, first appearing in 'The Mohave Kid.' Often though, his icy stare was enough to chase the bad guys out of town without firing a shot or landing a punch.
He surprised critics in the role of Curly in the 1939 movie version of John Steinbeck's classic dark tale 'Of Mice and Men.' He played a sadistic bully who torments the simple-minded giant Lennie, played by Lon Chaney Jr.
Steele also appeared as Canino in 'The Big Sleep' in 1946.
