
He is perhaps best remembered for his role of Big Ed Somers, the power hungry gangster pal of James Cagney in "White Heat" (1949). Born Robert Alexander Cochran in Eureka, California, he was the son of a California lumberjack, who moved the family to Wyoming in the 1920s, where Cochran grew to adulthood. After graduating from the University of Wyoming in 1939, Cochran began working steadily as a Wyoming cowboy, while developing his acting skills working in summer stock and regional theaters and gradually moving on to Broadway. In 1945, he signed with MGM, and for the next several years, played mostly secondary roles as gangsters or boxers. He made his film debut with "Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion" (1945) and quickly followed with "Wonder Man" (1945). Released from his contract in 1948, he returned to Broadway where he worked with Mae West; the next year he signed on with Warner Brothers, where he earned leading roles in such films as "The Damned Don't Cry" (1950), "Highway 301" (1950) and "Tomorrow is Another Day" (1951). Warner Brothers often had him playing the villain in several of its western films, such as "Dallas" (1950), and "Back to God's Country" (1953). With the end of his contract in 1953, he began his own film company, Robert Alexander Productions, while also freelancing for other studios and moving on to guest star roles on television shows. He would show up in such television shows as Death Valley Days, Burke's Law, The Untouchables, Naked City, The Twilight Zone, Route 66, and The Virginian. A notorious womanizer, Cochran was married and divorced three ...more
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Movie | Tell Me In The Sunlight | Dave | 1965-01-01 |
Movie | Mozambique | Brad Webster | 1964-12-07 |
Series | Burke's Law | Unknown | 1963-09-20 |
Movie | Of Love and Desire | Steve Corey | 1963-09-11 |
Movie | The Deadly Companions | Billy Keplinger | 1961-06-06 |
Movie | I, Mobster | Joe Sante | 1959-02-01 |
Movie | The Beat Generation | Dave Culloran | 1959-07-03 |
Movie | The Big Operator | Bill Gibson | 1959-08-01 |
Series | The Twilight Zone | Fred Renard | 1959-10-02 |
Movie | Quantrill's Raiders | Captain Alan 'Wes' Westcott | 1958-04-27 |
Movie | Il Grido | Aldo | 1957-09-26 |
Movie | Slander | H.R. Manley | 1957-01-18 |
Movie | Come Next Spring | Matt Ballot | 1956-03-09 |
Movie | The Weapon | Mark Andrews | 1956-09-01 |
Movie | Private Hell 36 | Police Sgt. Cal Bruner | 1954-09-03 |
Movie | Carnival Story | Joe Hammond | 1954-04-16 |
Movie | The Desert Song | Captain Claude Fontaine | 1953-05-30 |
Series | General Electric Theater | Unknown | 1953-02-01 |
Movie | She's Back on Broadway | Rick Sommers | 1953-03-14 |
Movie | Shark River | Dan Webley | 1953-11-13 |
Movie | Back to God's Country | Paul Blake | 1953-11-01 |
Movie | The Lion and the Horse | Ben Kirby | 1952-05-16 |
Movie | Operation Secret | Marcel Brevoort | 1952-11-05 |
Movie | Raton Pass | Cy Van Cleave | 1951-04-07 |
Movie | Storm Warning | Hank Rice | 1951-02-10 |
Movie | Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison | Chuck Daniels | 1951-05-18 |
Movie | Jim Thorpe – All-American | Peter Allendine | 1951-08-24 |
Movie | Tomorrow Is Another Day | Bill Clark / Mike Lewis | 1951-08-08 |
Movie | The Tanks Are Coming | Francis Aloysius 'Sully' Sullivan | 1951-10-31 |
Movie | The Damned Don't Cry | Nick Prenta | 1950-05-13 |
Series | Robert Montgomery Presents | Unknown | 1950-01-30 |
Movie | Highway 301 | George Legenza | 1950-12-01 |
Series | Lux Video Theatre | Unknown | 1950-10-02 |
Movie | Dallas | Bryant Marlow | 1950-12-30 |
Movie | White Heat | 'Big Ed' Somers | 1949-09-02 |
Movie | A Song Is Born | Tony Crow | 1948-10-19 |
Series | Studio One | Unknown | 1948-11-07 |
Movie | Copacabana | Steve Hunt | 1947-05-30 |
Movie | The Kid from Brooklyn | Speed McFarlane | 1946-03-21 |
Movie | The Chase | Eddie Roman | 1946-11-16 |
Movie | Wonder Man | Ten Grand Jackson | 1945-06-08 |
Movie | Boston Blackie's Rendezvous | Jimmy Casey | 1945-07-05 |
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