Lee Majors

01 / The Detroit story

The Detroit story

Lee Majors was born Harvey Lee Yeary in Wyandotte, a Downriver industrial city on the Detroit River, in 1939. His early life there was marked by loss: his father died five months before he was born, and when he was about seventeen months old his mother was killed by a drunk driver while waiting for a bus. At two he was adopted by his uncle and aunt, Harvey and Mildred Yeary, and moved with them to Middlesboro, Kentucky, where he played football and ran track. After Eastern Kentucky University he turned to acting in California. He became a television fixture for three decades: the rancher's son Heath Barkley in The Big Valley (1965–1969), the bionic astronaut Col. Steve Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man (1973–1978) and the stuntman-bounty hunter Colt Seavers in The Fall Guy (1981–1986). His Detroit-area tie is his birth and first two years.

Highlights

1. Col. Steve Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man (1973–1978)
2. Colt Seavers in The Fall Guy (1981–1986)
3. Heath Barkley in The Big Valley (1965–1969)
4. Born in Wyandotte, raised from age two in Kentucky