Steve Austin

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Steve Austin
Aliases:	Colonel Steve Austin
Continuity:	The Six Million Dollar Man
Notability:	Main character
Type:	Secret agent
Gender:	Male
Race:	Cyborg
Location:	Washington, D.C.
Relatives:	Helen Elgin
Status:	Alive
Actor:	Lee Majors

"We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better, stronger, faster."

―Oscar Goldman

Steve Austin is a fictional cyborg and a secret agent featured in the 1970s sci-fi/action television series The Six Million Dollar Man. He was based on a character of the same name featured in the 1972 novel, Cyborg, by author Martin Caidin. Steve Austin was introduced as a television character in the 1973 TV movie, The Six Million Dollar Man, and also appeared in its sequel, Six Million Dollar Man, The: Wine, Women and War before branching off as the main character in The Six Million Dollar Man television series. The role of Steve Austin was played by actor Lee Majors.

Biography

Origin

Steve Austin was a pilot and astronaut who worked for NASA during the early 1970s, holding the rank of Colonel. Brash and cocky, he was considered one of the best by his peers, though he had little regard for those in positions of authority. In 1973, Steve was tapped to test fly a B-52 suborbital spacecraft. While running the plane through its paces, something malfunctioned and the craft crashed along the runway, gravely injuring Austin. He lost his right arm, his left eye and both legs were crushed, necessitating amputation. Surgeons labored around the clock to save Steve's life. He likely would have died if not for the medical genius of one Doctor Rudy Wells. A man named Oliver Spencer, who was a director for the Office of Strategic Services, offered Wells the resources required to save Austin, but in exchange, he would then become a special agent of the OSS. At the cost of more than six-million dollars, Doctor Wells and his benefactor outfitted Steve with state of the art cybernetic components, including a bionic eye, a bionic arm and bionic legs. Not only did Austin make a full recovery, but he could also perform fantastic feats of strength and speed. His bionic eye gave him visual acuity far in excess of normal men. As expected, Steve went to work as a secret agent for an adjunct of the OSS called the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI). His director at OSI was Oscar Goldman. Steve's missions required him to travel around the world, responding to various situations that threatened the security of the United States of America.

Missions

Oscar Goldman assigned Steve to serve as a bodyguard and chauffeur to a United States Air Force Major named Frederick Sloan, who also happened to be an old friend of Steve's. Sloan had developed an anti-missile defense circuit, which had been highly coveted by enemy agents. In addition to safeguarding the device's activation chip, Steve had to drive Sloan to the Red Canyon Military Testing Site. Along the way, hired guns working for Gavern Wilson secretly kidnapped Sloan and replaced him with a robotic duplicate dubbed Mister X. When the opportunity presented itself, Mister X attacked Steve in the middle of the desert and stole the activation chip. Austin used his bionic speed to chase after him and the two had a rematch in a canyon. The protracted battle proved exhausting as the robot was just as strong as Steve was. Despite suffering a slight injury to his living arm, Steve managed to destroy Mister X by impaling him with a piece of girder. The real Frederick Sloan surfaced shortly thereafter.

Steve adopted the alias of Steve Andrews - a stage magician in order to infiltrate a night club owned by Mark Wharton so he could recover some stolen classified documents. At his request, OSI partnered him up with Audrey Ross - a teen psychic whom Steve had worked with in the past. With Audrey's innate talents, Steve was able to gain access to Wharton's mansion compound. Wharton however, unveiled his plot and locked Steve within a freezer unit, which had an adverse effect on his bionic components. Audrey relied upon one of Wharton's men, who was secretly an informer for OSI, to save Austin, after which he apprehended Wharton and his goons by throwing them all into a swimming pool.

Abilities

• Enhanced vision: Left eye only; could see range of distance beyond normal human capability. Acute targeting and accuracy.
• Enhanced strength: Right arm only. Could lift approximately 2 tons without (or the weight of a mid-sized car) without undo strain.
• Super-speed: Due to his bionic legs, Steve Austin could run faster than a normal human. Visually, this was perceived in slow-motion effects in the series as it only applied to his legs.

Notes & Trivia

• The character of Steve Austin was created by director Richard Irving and writers Terrence McDonnell, Tom Greene, Melvin Levy and Henri Simoun based on a character originally developed by author Martin Caidin.

Appearances

1. Bionic Woman: Bionic Beauty (Behind the scenes only)

See also

The Six Million Dollar Man

Six Million Dollar Man Six Million Dollar Man media Six Million Dollar Man images Six Million Dollar Man seasons

Six Million Dollar Man episodes Six Million Dollar Man characters Six Million Dollar Man cast & crew Six Million Dollar Man miscellaneous

The Bionic Woman

The Bionic Woman The Bionic Woman media The Bionic Woman images The Bionic Woman episodes

The Bionic Woman characters The Bionic Woman appearances The Bionic Woman cast & crew The Bionic Woman miscellaneous

External Links

• Steve Austin at IMDB
• Steve Austin at Wikipedia
• Steve Austin at Comic Vine
• Steve Austin at the Bionic Wiki

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