Played by Lee Majors, Steve Austin, astronaut, A man barely alive, becomes who?
Lee Majors a starring role as Colonel Steve Austin, an ex-astronaut with bionic implants in "The Six Million Dollar Man", a 1973 television movie broadcast on ABC. In 1974, the network decided to turn it into a weekly series. The series became an international success, being screened in over 70 countries, turning Majors into a pop icon. Majors also made his directorial debut in 1975, on an episode called "One of Our Running Backs Is Missing" which co-starred professional football players such as Larry Csonka and Dick Butkus. In 1977, with "The Six Million Dollar Man" still a hit series, Majors tried
Steve Austin (character) than the literary counterpart, although numerous episodes show Austin being frustrated at being a "bionic lap dog" for the OSI. Austin's backstory is barely described by Caidin. The TV series, however, introduced his mother and stepfather (who live in Ojai, California), and eventually, a fiancée, Jaime Sommers, who later became bionic after a skydiving accident, leading to a spin-off series, "The Bionic Woman". Lee Majors made frequent guest appearances on the spin-off series, which springboarded from Jaime being brought back to life after her bionics failed; a consequence of this was she lost all memory of her relationship to Austin.