Wissenswertes

In the late 1940s and early 1950s he was, along with Dirk Bogarde, the Rank Organisation's (and the UK's) highest paid actor.

By the early 1960s, the war films that had made him famous had gone out of fashion and his career went into decline. He continued acting on TV and stage until 1989, after which he withdrew from public life. He lived in near-poverty in a council flat in Middlesex until 1997, when his agent, David Daly, tracked him down and had him admitted to Denville Hall, the actors' home in west London, where he spent the last few years of his life.

While filming Der Freibeuter (1953), Errol Flynn ran his epee through Steel's hand.

Distantly related to actor Raymond Massey.

Westlich Sansibar (1954) gave him the hit song Jambo. In 1954, British cinemagoers rated Steel and Jack Hawkins as their favourite actors.

Educated in Ireland, then at Cambridge University, he joined the Grenadier Guards at the outbreak of the Second World War and was thus ideally cast in post-war films such as The Wooden Horse (1950) and Malta Story (1953).

While filming Schwarzes Elfenbein (1951), Steel crashed into a tree & damaged his knee. It later needed surgery.

Son of Edward Steel

He reputedly was the biological father of two children, a son in 1952 and a daughter in 1954, both born to women he did not marry and raised by their respective mothers.

Harry Watt, the director of his biggest hit, "Where No Vultures Fly", was forced by the studio to use Steel - very much against his will. After filming, Watt said "He was just a stiff beefcake bum, and a drunk at the same time". Steel was also disliked by Michael Powell, who similarly didn't want him for "Honeymoon", and referred to him (years later) as "the all-British shit".

Was in the film The Man Inside with his then wife Anita Ekberg.