Steve Austin

Steve Austin is a science fiction character created by Martin Caidin for his 1972 novel, Cyborg. The lead character, Colonel Steve Austin, became an iconic 1970s television science fiction action hero, portrayed by American actor Lee Majors, in American television series The Six Million Dollar Man, which aired on the ABC network for multiple television pilots in 1973, and then as a regular series for five seasons from 1974 to 1978. In the television series, Steve Austin takes on special high-risk government missions using his superhuman bionic powers. The television character Steve Austin became a pop culture icon of the 1970s. The Six Million Dollar Man TV series used the name Cyborg as its working title, during pre-production. Caidin's version of Steve Austin appeared in only four original novels unrelated to the television series continuity: Cyborg, Operation Nuke, High Crystal, and Cyborg IV. Following The Six Million Dollar Man television series, Lee Majors reprised the role of Colonel Steve Austin in several bionic-themed reunion television films in the late 1980s and 1990s. Background As originally conceived by Caidin, Austin is a former US Army helicopter pilot who served in Vietnam before transferring to the Air Force and then into NASA. As backup Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 17, he became one of twelve astronauts to walk on the Moon when the primary lunar module pilot broke an arm before launch.