With his blond, surfer-boy looks, Jan-Michael Vincent seemed destined to be a leading man, but with his tough demeanor and bad-boy eyes, he usually essayed men with an edge, misunderstood except by the women who love them. In real life, Vincent has lived up to his image, combining substance abuse and arrests for abusing his female companions to bring down a career that had begun with promise.

Born in Denver, Colorado, and raised in central California, Vincent began acting in films in 1967 with the Mexican "Los Bandidos" and found steady employment in American TV on episodic shows such as