Why Twilight Zone’s Lee Marvin Kept Getting Punched in the Face While Filming Classic Episode

Sometimes make-believe can become very real...even in the fifth dimension.

Lee Marvin learned that the hard way as a boxing glove made repeated contact with his face during production on the classic Twilight Zone episode, "Steel."

Adapted by Richard Matheson from his short story of the same name, the season five installment takes place against the backdrop of an alternate version of 1974 where traditional prizefighting has been outlawed by the government. As a result, human boxers have been replaced by powerful androids. Marvin plays Tim "Steel" Kelly, a former boxer and current manager of an antiquated, broken-down robot called Battling Maxo.

Rather than admit defeat and lose out on a prearranged fee from an upcoming bout against a newer model dubbed Maynard Flash (stuntman and boxer Chuck Hicks), the hard-headed Kelly pretends to be Maxo in the ring. Much to the chagrin of his defeatist business partner, Pole (Joe Mantell), he gets absolutely pummeled as a result.

Android boxer Maynard Flash (Chuck Hicks) flanked by his trainers in the classic Twilight Zone episode, "Steel."

Photo: Courtesy of CBS

"'Steel' was his nickname and that was his character, his backbone, that he was so determined," Matheson explained in Marc Scott Zicree's The Twilight Zone Companion. "When you have a monomaniacal character like that, it's easier to handle. Captain Ahab is like that, too. He has no grays; he just wants to kill the whale."

"I saw the...character as the sort of man who never liked to ask anyone for help," he added, "but chose, in the old-fashioned way, to take care of things for himself, however mad."

The fight was fictional, but not all of the blows were.

Why Lee Marvin Was Punched for Real in Twilight Zone Episode, "Steel"

To play Maynard Flash, Hicks was fitted with a thick mask (designed by legendary Twilight Zone makeup artist William Tuttle) that gave him the uncanny appearance of a lifeless machine. Marvin also wore makeup, albeit to a lesser extent.

"During the fight scenes while filming, we were both fighting the plastic that covered our faces," Hicks recalled in Martin Grams Jr.'s The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. "The eyes were getting fogged up and it was hard to see. I ended up hitting Lee a couple of times, but the tough Marine that he was, never complained. He always would say, 'Don't worry about it, Chuck, I know your problem.' Yeah, he was a drinker, but a real great man underneath that plastic and skin."

Hicks passed away in May 2021 at the age of 93.

Classic episodes of The Twilight Zone air regularly on SYFY. Click here for complete scheduling info!