Craig Stevens (actor)

Craig Stevens (born Gail Shikles Jr.; July 8, 1918 – May 10, 2000) was an American film and television actor, best known for his starring role on television as private detective Peter Gunn from 1958 to 1961.

Stevens was born in Liberty, Missouri, to mother Marie and father Gail Shikles, a high school teacher in Liberty and later an elementary school principal in Kansas City, Missouri.

Stevens initially studied dentistry at the University of Kansas, then majored in theatre at the University of Kansas at Lawrence.

Acting with the university's drama club prompted him to halt his studies to audition in Hollywood. Under the name Michael Gale (a play on his first name), his first screen role was as a sailor in Coast Guard (1939). After this small role, he adopted the stage name Craig Stevens. For the next period of his film career, he played mainly secondary parts.

He could be glimpsed in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); Alice in Movieland (1940), a short at Warner Bros; Those Were the Days! (1940); Argentine Nights (1940); Lady with Red Hair (1940) at Warner Bros; and I Wanted Wings (1941), at Paramount.

During World War II he served in the United States Army Air Corps' First Motion Picture Unit based in Culver City, California, acting in propaganda and training films. That unit came to be known as "The Culver City Commandos".

Stevens signed a contract with Warner Bros. They put him in Affectionately Yours (1941), then in Dive Bomber (1941); the latter starred his future wife Alexis Smith, although they shared no scenes in the film.

Stevens had a support role in Law of the Tropics (1941) and the lead in a short, At the Stroke of Twelve (1941). He was in The Body Disappears (1941) and was third billed in Steel Against the Sky (1941), with Smith top billed.