Vintage Hunk: Sasha Mitchell

Twenty years ago Sasha Mitchell was the most beautiful man on television. This jaw-dropping hunk with the body of an Adonis was on the long-running television show Dallas, but before that Mitchell was a fashion model for Bruce Weber. These sexy ads for Calvin Klein were erotic works of art and led to Mitchell's acting career.

Born in Los Angeles, Mitchell's father was a garment manufacturer of Russian ancestry. Growing up in LA and New York with well-to-do parents led to a minor rebellion, military school, and then college where Mitchell had photos taken that eventually ended up with Calvin Klein and legendary photographer Bruce Weber. After becoming a CK jeans model he studied acting in New York and got his first good movie role as Spike Fumo in Spike of Bensonhurst. Playing a young Italian man living in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, Mitchell was an aspiring boxer who falls in love with a Mafia don's daugther. Directed by Paul Morrissey, Spike was a vastly entertaining movie and Mitchell was more than just gorgeous eye candy.

I remember wandering into this movie at a second run theater (they don't have many of these anymore) and being blown away by the gorgeous youth who I later found out was Mitchell. This sexy model in various stages of undress was mesmerizing, and he was so gorgeous that I really could not judge whether he had any talent or not. It didn't seem to matter. Part of the reason for going to movies in those days was to gaze at beautiful people, and men did not get any more beautiful than Sasha Mitchell.

While feature films followed, Mitchell's great success came on TV, starting with the fantastically popular TV soap opera Dallas. This great showcase led to him being seen by more people in one night than in all his feature films put together. (Mitchell most notably made three action films in the Kickboxer movie series— replacing Jean-Claude Van Damme— and though they featured his great black belt skills the last two movies went directly to video.) His next big TV hit was playing Cody Lambert on Step by Step for five years. This popular sitcom starred former Dallas cast member Patrick Duffy, and it also showcased Mitchell's comedic talent.

Things came crashing down in 1997 when Mitchell was accused of spousal abuse. The actor stated that his wife had a drug problem and was abusing their 4 children; a court did exonerate him, giving Mitchell full custody of their children. Unfortunately, this negative publicity pretty much derailed his career and it never really recovered. Mitchell came back for the final year of Step by Step but since then he's only been seen doing small TV guest appearances. Mitchell married a second time and currently lives with his family in the Los Angeles San Fernando Valley.

Scandal aside, for TV viewers of a certain age, Mitchell will always be the gorgeous young man who dazzled audiences in Dallas and Step by Step. However, watching Spike of Bensonhurst again, one wonders why this beautiful stud did not reach top movie stardom. People magazine even wrote in 1988 that he could have followed in the footsteps of such greats as Montgomery Clift, James Dean and Marlon Brando. If only he had gotten a great role or director like these icons.