Steve Austin is a science fiction character created by Martin Caidin for his 1972 novel, Cyborg. The lead character, Colonel Steve Austin, became an iconic 1970s television science fiction action hero, portrayed by American actor Lee Majors, in American television series The Six Million Dollar Man, which aired on the ABC network for multiple television pilots in 1973, and then as a regular series for five seasons from 1974 to 1978. In the television series, Steve Austin takes on special high-risk government missions using his superhuman bionic powers. The television character Steve Austin became a pop culture icon of the 1970s.