My childhood hero turns 70!

From the time I was in first grade until third grade, I literally worshipped a guy on TV called The Six Million Dollar Man. In fact, for my seventh birthday I received the Col. Steve Austin action figure!! I was so elated in receiving this gift that I brought it to my 1st grade show-and-tell that week!





When I was in 2nd grade I had a plain metal lunch box which I brought to school every day. That thing was plastered with stickers of my hero.














Obviously I had no clue about the technology that went in to creating a “bionic man.” All I knew was that Col. Austin could run fast, crush boulders with his bare hands and jump on top of a house in a single leap. My Dad had been living in California for a few years at that time. So whenever he’d call I’d ask him how close he lived to the hometown of Steve Austin, which was Ojai, CA.

And even though I didn’t have the faintest idea what the dialogue meant, the opening TV theme to The Six Million Dollar Man was an absolute must see.





I often woke up in an excited state on Sunday mornings knowing that my favorite TV show would be on that evening.

Today, the actor who portrayed my hero (Lee Majors) turns 70 years old! That means he was around my age at the time he portrayed the bionic superhero. He’s also well known for his work in the 80s TV series The Fall Guy. Because he starred alongside the very fetching Heather Thomas, he was also a hero of mine in the 80s…but for a whoooolllle different reason!

Happy birthday “Colonel”.

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