Steve Cochran Is Dead

June 26, 1965 - Police in Guatemala reported today that a yacht with the body of Steve Cochran, the Hollywood actor, had been towed into Port Champerico. 

They said he had been dead about 10 days and that an autopsy would be performed.

The police said two women and a girl aboard the boat were being held in preventive detention. Cochrane had reportedly recruited them in Acapulco, Mexico, to accompany him on a sailing trip from Acapulco to Costa Rica, ostensibly to take part in an upcoming film. They were identified as Eva Monteros, 25; Eugenia Zacarias, 19, and Lorenza de la Rosa, 14.

The yacht lost one of its two masts in a storm a few days into the trip. Cochran fell ill and died two days later. The women who were accompanying him did not know how to sail the boat and were trapped with the decomposing body for ten days before being rescued out at sea. 

Police said Cochran’s body was being flown to Guatemala City from the Pacific port in a Guatemalan Air Force plane.

Cochran, 48, a ruggedly handsome leading man, was a discovery of Mae West. He appeared with her on the stage in “Diamond Lil” and “Catherine Was Great.”

In the latter play, Miss West played a bawdy Catherine the Great of Russia. Cochran was one of the palace guard who engaged in a series of amorous adventures with his czarina.

His appearance in that show got him a Warner Brothers contract. Later, he started his own company and had been filming abroad in recent years.

His movies include “The Damned Don’t Cry,” “Storm Warning,” “Private Hell 36,” “Carnival Story,” “I, Mobster,” and “The Beat Generation.”

Cochran was a notorious womanizer and attracted tabloid attention for his tumultuous private life, which included well-documented affairs with numerous starlets and actresses, including Mamie Van Doren and Jayne Mansfield.

He was married three times. His wives were Florence Lockwood, an artist, Fay McKenzie, actress, and Jonna Jensen. He wed Miss Jensen in 1961 when she was 19 years old. He had been divorced 10 years earlier from Miss McKenzie.

He once had been linked romantically with Jayne Mansfield.

He started his acting career with the Federal Theater in Detroit during the depression and later studied at the Barter Theater in Virginia. He was rejected for military service in World War II because of a heart murmur, but he organized and directed shows for West Coast Army camps.

Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s