Sensational Seniors – March 2020

This March’s “Sensational Seniors” article features Jacksonville resident, Steve Carlson, who spent 38 years in the entertainment business, most as a Hollywood actor. Steve’s beginning came on May 24, 1943 in Columbus, Mississippi, but he was only there the first six weeks of his life as his Air Force-pilot father was transferred to Cheyenne, Wyoming where Steve was to spend his formulative years.

Steve went through the Cheyenne school system as an engaged high school student. He was on the school swim team and was a member of the Cheyenne High School Thespians Club, eventually serving as president of this organization. His favorite class was chorus which led him to become a member of a student barbershop quartet, the “Short Cuts.” They became popular and competed and performed across Wyoming and other states. This experience led to Steve performing in school operettas, often as the lead. The fact that he could play the guitar and had an excellent voice didn’t hurt. Moving from operettas to major school drama productions was an easy transition and, when Steve graduated from Cheyenne High School in 1961 and enrolled at the University of Wyoming, it was only natural that he chose Theater Arts as his major with a minor in Music.

During his senior year, Steve noticed an article in a Colorado newspaper placed by a Denver talent agency, ironically called Illinois Talent. Steve remembers, “Well, Denver was only 100 miles away, and I thought, ‘What do I have to lose’. It turned out to be a good move.” The talent agency tapped Steve and started booking him for Denver musical gigs, billing him as a folk singer, accompanying himself on the guitar.

Steve Carlson

Steve was enjoying the life as an entertainer and mostly forgot about the University of Wyoming, especially when another door opened for him through the talent agency. In 1965, the rugged Rockies had been discovered as a great place to make commercials, and Steve was hired for a part in a television commercial for the 1965 Plymouth automobile. When Steve was required to join the Screen Actors Guild, his acting career was launched. The assistant director of the commercial was impressed by Steve’s performance and, when the commercial was finished, said to Steve, “What are you doing here in Denver wasting your time. If you come to LA, look me up and I will help you get started.” Steve laughs when remembering this event, saying, “Well, that, of course, is the oldest line in the book, but, coming from Cheyenne, I’d never heard it before.” Steve convinced a University of Wyoming fraternity brother to make the trek with him to Los Angeles. He looked up the car commercial director who was also the assistant director of the “Mr. Novak” television show and he put Steve in contact with the MGM studios. Two days later, Steve started filming the first show where he played a high school kid… even though he was 24.
“I was fortunate all my acting career to have a youthful-looking face, so I was able to play roles much younger than my age.”

His MGM career came to an end when the MGM Contract School ended, but he quickly was picked up by the Universal Studios Contract System, obtained an agent and was groomed for his first movie, “The Young Warriors,” where he played “Hacker,” a young platoon sergeant. Work came steadily for Steve after this first movie experience and in a variety of roles. For example, he had a recurring role in the “Virginian” television series, made guest appearances on “Gunsmoke” “Dragnet,” “Wild, Wild, West” and about 50 others over the years. In addition, he was a frequent actor on several soap operas, being part of the original cast of “The Young and the Restless” and a series regular for years on “General Hospital.”

He remembers with special fondness his second movie, “Deadlier Than a Male,” starring Elke Sommer and filmed in England and Italy. “This movie was great fun and for the first time, I was taken by the moment, realizing that this was actually happening to me. At the end of the filming in Italy, the cast was invited to an all-out yacht party, surrounded by celebrities, with the entire town of Leriche, Italy watching, and I remember saying to myself, ‘this is little Stevie Carlson from Laramie, Wyoming, wow!’ I had the same experience and feeling when I was in the cast of the last episode of “Seinfeld” where I walked to work with the four most famous people on the planet at the moment… Fun stuff.”

To supplement his work and income, Steve went back to his beginning in the industry, making commercials, totaling some 600 in his career. Steve relates, “Commercials were a constant throughout my professional life. I found I could earn more money in a short period of time in commercials, and I could do it without being a star. I always said that the commercials paid the mortgage.”

Mr. Carlson refutes the notion that acting is a glamorous and easy occupation. “Auditioning was the key to everything, and it was common to audition three to four times a day. Acting the role was the fun part, but hard. A soap shoots a full hour show every day. A TV show would shoot an episode every week while a movie could take two to three months and often considerably longer. The cameras started rolling at 8:00am sharp every morning, but I had to be in the studio by 7:00 for makeup and wardrobe. Often the day’s filming would not end until 8:00-10:00pm.”

Steve met his wife, Mary Ann, after she had retired from 19 years as a professional stage dancer which had her performing on stages throughout the United States. Now married for 27 years, they spent fifteen of those years in Los Angles with Mary Ann working in the telecommunications business and Steve continuing his acting career. Steve retired at 58 happy that he “managed to avoid major stardom but was able to work in the acting business for 38 years.”

Weary of the pace of life in Los Angeles, Steve and Mary Ann moved to Denver as they loved to ski and relished the Rockies. Steve planned on a semi-retired life, enjoying his hobbies but still doing some commercial work and writing, while Mary Ann became a licensed Pilates instructor. The time in Denver was short-lived as Steve relates, “The traffic was terrible, but Denver had the same problem because the traffic was confined to such a small area. Getting around Denver became a nightmare.” This disillusionment with Denver precipitated a move back to Los Angeles, but only for a year, as they put their house up for sale, and it sold immediately.

Steve and Mary Ann’s eventual move to Jacksonville came about serendipitously through the cruise ship business. For 25 years Steve, as part of his commercial acting business, had been the voice of the cruise ship industry. When people boarded the cruise ship and first turned on their televisions, Steve was onscreen promoting all the opportunities that the ship had to offer its passengers. Mary Ann occasionally joined Steve when filming was done on board a cruise and on one of those junkets, they met an executive from Holland America cruise lines…Anne McAlpin of Jacksonville. Knowing that the Carlson’s were anxious to move from the Southern California area, she said they should look at Jacksonville, and that is what they did. Steve remembers, “From the beginning we knew we loved Jacksonville, but not wanting to jump into purchasing a home, we were able to rent a guest house that was surrounded by five acres of forest. This was the first time we had lived in a house that was not on a street. It was wonderful, so that is what we started looking for in a home.” They eventually found just what they wanted on 2 1/2 acres of forested land off of 3rd Street. It was a small home that they totally remodeled, doubling the size. Once again, Steve’s retirement is only partial because as he says, “There is only so much golf a person can play. I always wanted to try my hand at writing. To date I have written five books but, while my four fiction books have sold mainly to friends and family, my “Hitting Your Mark” book on acting is considered the Bible for new film actors.”

The newest adventure for Steve has been producing audio books. In relating how this new work came about, Steve says, “I really got the idea from my long-time work doing commercials where I often did voice-overs. Some of you who are old enough might remember,” ‘Aren’t you glad you used Dial? Don’t you wish everyone did.’ Well that was me, and I thought, if I can do that, why can’t I make audio books.” As this column goes to print, Steve will have completed his 100th book for Amazon. He has created a recording studio in a spare room of their home where he is his own boss, does all the characters in his reading and does his own editing. He laughs when saying, “One of my best sellers for Amazon was reading the part of a sixteen-year-old girl.. At the end of the interview with Steve, he had me sit in his recording studio and do a short reading of a book he is currently recording. Both Steve and I quickly realized that I do not have a future in the audio book industry!

In reflecting on the move to Jacksonville, he believes that it has been a perfect fit for him and Mary Ann. “I love to play golf and here I can play year-round and, ironically, we have found that Jacksonville is culturally more diverse than LA. It is a fun and interesting place to live.” Steve’s 37 year-old son, from a previous marriage, Quinn, opted out of acting and instead is a police detective in Ohio. Quinn and his wife, Meagan, recently presented Steve and Mary Ann with, “Crew,” their first grandchild. Steve succinctly sums it up, “Life is good.”