Bob Steele was born Robert Adrian Bradbury in Portland, Oregon. Bob Steele was born in 1907 and died in 1989. In 1920, Bob Steele and his twin brother Bill were cast as juvenile leads for a series of adventure movies titled The Adventures of Bob and Bill. In the late 1920s, 1930s and 1940s Bob Steele starred in B-Westerns for almost every minor film studio. Bob Steele also appeared in John Steinbeck's movie adaptation of his novel, Of Mice and Men from 1939. Bob Steele also was in The Big Sleep, and the John Wayne movies Island in the Sky, Rio Bravo and Rio Lobo.