Poseidon Quickies: It's Really Cole in Here Today!

A few years ago I made a passing remark that I doubted I would ever be doing a tribute to Dennis Cole and there was a hearty round of disappointed sighs as a result! I don't know if I changed my perception of him or if I am running out of people (!) or if I just wanted an excuse to inject a little tan, blond hunkitude into the blog to celebrate recently passing the 12-year mark (on August 24th.) I never had anything against Mr. Cole, he just had not, for whatever reason, risen to the top level of my celebrity obsessions. But I was recently looking him over and thought I would share some photos of him with you today.

Born on July 19th, 1940 in Detroit, Michigan, Cole was the son of two alcoholic parents. (His father eventually committed suicide after the couple had divorced.) He sought escape in athletic pursuits and developed a strong, lean physique. Later, after moving to Los Angeles, Cole's body would be his first step on the way to notoriety.

Cole supplemented his income by posing in almost nothing for famed homoerotic photographer Bob Mizer.

The young man appeared in Physique Pictorial magazine. He also began to earn money as an extra in movies. In 1961, he was seen a young man attending a dance in The Comancheros. Married in 1960 and father to a boy the following year, it was time to make it for real.

Things began to come together for Cole in 1965 when he won a role on the daytime serial Paradise Bay, which starred Keith Andes and Marion Ross. His hair, almost white blond from the California sun, was darkened for the part.

It was with this same darkened hair color that Cole won his next role after the serial folded. In 1966, he costarred with Howard Duff on The Felony Squad. The series premiered in black & white.

Squad, which ran until 1969, eventually shifted to color and Cole reverted to his towhead of blond locks.

Cole swung from Squad right into a new prime-time series called Bracken's World, all about the inner turmoils of a fictional Hollywood studio. Seen with him here is Linda Harrison (known best as Nova from Planet of the Apes, 1968.) Note the way her dress echoes the pattern of the tree bark next to her!

Handsome Cole played not an actor on the show, but a stuntman. The series underwent creative tweaks (and the departure of its star Eleanor Parker) causing its cancellation after a season and a half. It remains, however, a sought-after collectors' item due to the people involved in it and the fashionable era in which it was made.

Ever able to land a job on TV, Cole next costarred with Rod Taylor in Bearcats!

The title referred to their vehicle, a Stutz Bearcat, while the adventuresome story took place prior to WWI. Unable to sustain a consistent audience, it was canned after 14 episodes.

Now in the early-'70s and with a few short-lived TV series under his mod belt, Cole tried a new tack with his career...

He starred in the Broadway romp All the Girls Came Out to Play in 1972.

In it, he played a composer living with a buddy named Angel. When neighbors hear him referring to his roommate as "Angel" they mistake the pair for homosexuals. This causes a stir in the apartment complex, but also leads to Cole seducing several nearby wives! His bare chest looming over some snug trousers couldn't help the piece play beyond a handful of performances.

Despite this setback, Cole epitomized the bronze California stud, with clingy polyester pants, gold necklace and shirts open to the waist. He was a busy guest star on multiple TV series like The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, Police Story and Medical Center.

During a guest spot on Charlie's Angels, Cole (who'd gotten divorced in 1965) met and fell for Jaclyn Smith. The telegenic couple dated for over a year before walking down the aisle in 1978.

Most of the wildly popular Angels experienced severe marital difficulty while on the show and Smith was no exception. This magazine cover (trumpeting Jaclyn Smith "and her husband") illustrates the way Cole was paling career-wise next to his spouse.

By 1981, their wedded bliss was completely over. His career limping along, he tried yet another shift to reignite it.

In 1980, the hit daytime drama The Young and the Restless expanded to an hour. Popular hunk John McCook, who played Lance Prentiss, exited the show and Cole was hired to take his place in the Y&R firmament.

Though Cole's participation received plenty of promotion, his stint there was over by 1982.

Cole appeared as a guest on many 1980s series such as Fantasy Island, The Fall Guy, Trapper John, M.D., The A-Team and Simon & Simon. He also took starring parts in straight-to-video action flicks which did nothing to raise his position in Tinseltown. But he was soon to be dealt an even more horrible blow from which there was little chance of fully recovering.

In 1991, Cole's only son Joe, who was a sometime actor and a roadie with the band Hole, was living with his close pal Henry Rollins. One night, the two were held up and as Rollins attempted an escape, Joe Cole was fatally shot at close range in the face. It was a crushing experience for Rollins, but a near-crippling one for Cole.

He landed the James Garner role in the national tour of Victor/Victoria, which starred Toni Tennille, but received little to no promotion or publicity for it. In an unfortunate turn of events, he sustained an injury during the tour which took years from which to recover and called for several surgeries. I was in the second row of this show when it came to Cincinnati and it was interesting to see him (and her), but he had by then receded from the screen and his acting career was nearing its halt.

He married for a third time in 2004 and was working in Florida real estate, generally outside the world of show business, but unfortunately had slid into a period of heavy drinking. A DUI arrest in 2007 put his name in the headlines for a brief while again and this last marriage dissolved in 2008. In 2009, Mr. Cole died of liver failure at only age 69.

The fresh-faced youth who'd made a splash in L.A. had faded from the limelight. But he remains an object of interest for many lovers of classic TV. Part of the reason is his early physique pictorials, but there was also a memorable 1977 spread in the magazine Ultra.

Cole was shown showering, exercising and applying aftershave, wearing revealing white bottoms or sometimes even less than that! These tennis shorts show off plenty...

...but a little dark tint over the pic makes things even more obvious. I recently saw Mr. Cole in a season two episode of Medical Center and he was just plain striking to behold... all golden skin, pale hair and while teeth. Time (and gravity) are rarely kind to hunks of that type, and he surely dealt with some significant disappointments and tragedy along the way. Hopefully he also knew of the pleasure he provided to many fans as well.

The End!