Stephen Young (actor)

Stephen Young (born May 19, 1939) is a Canadian actor.

Young was born Stephen Levy in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to a financier father. Directly following high school, he signed with the Cleveland Indians, but his professional bid ended when he seriously injured his knee playing ice hockey. He spent the next few years as a salesman, then wound up in radio and TV commercial production.

While traveling with a friend on a European excursion in the early '60s, Young by chance got a bit part in the epic Cleopatra, then landed similar minor assignments in such other European-filmed epics as 55 Days at Peking, The Leopard, The Fall of the Roman Empire and The Thin Red Line.

Upon returning to Toronto, Young decided to become a full-time actor, originally billing himself under his birth name and appearing in leads on both daytime and primetime TV dramas. He headed the cast of the Canadian adventure series Seaway.

Moving to Hollywood in 1966, he subsequently scored as young lawyer Ben Caldwell, assistant to high-profile criminal attorney Clinton Judd (Carl Betz) in the drama Judd, for the Defense. The series was abruptly canceled after only two seasons. Stephen Young also co-starred in the cult sci-fi TV series The Starlost (episode #11-'Astro-Medics') in 1973. Young progressed to high-ranking character actor, working in such films as Patton, Soylent Green, and The Silent Partner with appearances in lower-budget projects like The Mask of Sheba, Rage, and Lifeguard. A reliable player, he continued to return to Canada from time to time, where he was played leads in the low-budget horror thrillers The Clown Murders and Deadline. Young also briefly hosted a 1980s Canadian game show, Just Like Mom.

Into the millennium, he continues to play authority figures, exemplified by his recent work in the crime drama The Rendering, the teen horror film The Skulls II, and his output on Canadian television. In 2008, Young was featured as a child psychiatrist opposite Robert Downey, Jr. in Charlie Bartlett.