Steve Austin (born Steven James Anderson; December 18, 1964), better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American actor, producer, and retired professional wrestler who is signed to WWE under a legends contract.He gained significant mainstream popularity in the WWF in the late 1990s as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, a disrespectful, beer-drinking antihero who routinely defied the establishment and his boss, company chairman Vince McMahon; this persona of Austin's has been described as the "poster boy" of the Attitude Era, a boom period in WWF business in the late 1990s and early 2000s.Addressing his box office drawing power, McMahon and former WWE executives Jim Ross and Paul Heyman have declared Austin to be the most profitable wrestler in the history of the organization.