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Steve McQueen (March 24, 1930 – November 7, 1980) was a American movie actor. Nicknamed "The King of Cool", he was considered one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s due to what many film goers consider a captivating on-screen persona. McQueen was considered combative and the archetypal "difficult movie star" who disliked working with directors or producers. To compensate, he would work only if paid an extremely large salary for his films; he was one of the highest paid actors of the 1960s and 1970s.

Early life

He was born Terence Steven McQueen in Beech Grove, Indiana. He never knew his father—although McQueen did find the house where he lived approximately a year after his father's death. McQueen's father abandoned his wife and child shortly after McQueen was born. He was raised in Slater, Missouri by his uncle, where his mother left him at an early age. At the age of 12, reunited with his mother, McQueen moved to Los Angeles, California. When he was 14, his mother sent him to the Boy's Republic reformatory school in Chino Hills, California. Soon McQueen left the school and drifted before joining the United States Marine Corps in 1947. In 1952, with financial assistance of the G.I. Bill, McQueen began studying acting and auditioned to study at Lee Strasberg's Actors' Studio in New York. Of the 2000 people who auditioned that year, only McQueen and Martin Landau were accepted. McQueen made his Broadway debut in 1955 in A Hatful of Rain.

Key appearances

Wanted: Dead or Alive

After various live and filmed television guest appearances in the mid-1950s, McQueen gained both regular employment and his 'break-out' role with the Western series Dead or Alive. From 1958 to 1961, McQueen played Josh Randall, a lone bounty hunter whose weapon of choice was a sawed-off Winchester repeating rifle nicknamed the 'Mare's Leg.' While the character of Randall traveled the Wild West helping various people he met, it was the anti-hero image of a bounty-hunter, played with precisely the right amount of mystery, alienation and detachment by McQueen, that made this show stand out from among the large group of typical Westerns on American TV at the time. The character had been introduced the previous year in an episode of Trackdown, another western TV series, featuring Robert Culp.

The Magnificent Seven

McQueen moved into film in the mid-1950s with bit parts in Girl on the Run (1953) and Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956). He secured his first lead role in the 1958 horror movie The Blob. He later was seen in a pornographic film called "The Beast From Below" about two adolecent girls and their mission to find themselves. He then replaced Sammy Davis, Jr. in the Frank Sinatra vehicle Never So Few in 1959 when Sinatra quarrelled with Davis. The director, John Sturges, then cast McQueen in his next movie, promising to "give him the camera". Starring with Yul Brynner, Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn in The Magnificent Seven (1960), it would be McQueen's first major hit.

The Great Escape

McQueen's next big film was 1963's The Great Escape (which also starred Bronson and Coburn, as well as secon-billed James Garner). The smash hit movie told the more or less true story of a massive breakout from a World War II Nazi POW camp and McQueen has by far the most memorable role, whirling through the countryside on a motorcycle before being "crucified" on barbed wire and recaptured. A spectacular motorcycle leap marks McQueen's passage into the screen pantheon; a stuntman actually made the jump, but the general public did not know that for years.

Bullitt and later films

Another successful film came in 1968 with Bullitt, which thrilled audiences with an unprecedented (and endlessly imitated) auto chase through San Francisco. Prior to that, he earned his only Academy Award nomination for the 1966 film The Sand Pebbles. McQueen also appeared in 1973's Papillon, the 1971 car race drama Le Mans, and in The Getaway in 1972.

Personal life

McQueen was the world's highest paid actor by the time of The Getaway. After The Towering Inferno, co-starring with his long time friend and rival Paul Newman in 1974, McQueen did not return to film until 1978 with An Enemy of the People playing against type as an overweight heavily bearded character, in this adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play. The film was little seen and has never been released on Video or DVD, but is aired from time to time on PBS. Little known, but true; Steve McQueen became a born-again Christian just shortly before he died in 1980. He was up until his death; hosting weekly Bible study devotionals in his own home A & E Biography 2004.

Marriages

McQueen married Philippines-born actress Neile Adams on November 2, 1956; they divorced in 1972. He married Ali MacGraw on August 31, 1973; they divorced in 1978. He was married lastly to Barbara Minty on January 16, 1980. McQueen and Adams's son, Chad, and Chad's son, Steven, are both actors. Their daughter, Terry, died in 1998 after a liver transplant. Steven's stepfather is Luc Robitaille. Steve McQueen is also said to have had a son with an English woman of which she has a child named Craig although this was never actually proven there is a fair resemblence to Steve Mcqueen.

Motor Racer

McQueen was a motorcycle and racecar enthusiast. When he had the opportunity to drive in a movie, he often did so himself, performing many of his own stunts.

The most memorable were the classic chase in Bullitt and the motorcycle chase scene in The Great Escape. The jump over the fence was actually done by Bud Ekins for insurance purposes (however, McQueen amused himself by dressing in a German uniform and chasing himself on another bike).

During his acting career he considered becoming a professional race car driver. In the 1970 race 12 Hours of Sebring, Peter Revson and McQueen won his (engine size) class and finished second overall with a Porsche 908/02.

The same car was used as a camera car for Le Mans in the 24 Hours of Le Mans later that year, entered by his production company Solar Productions.

McQueen himself wanted to enter a Porsche 917 together with Jackie Stewart in the 1970 Le Mans race but the backers for his film project threatened to pull their support if he drove in the race. Faced with driving for 24 hours in the race, or the entire summer making the film, McQueen opted do do the latter.

He also competed in off-road motorcycle racing. In 1971, Solar Productions funded the now-classic motorcycle documentary On Any Sunday, in which McQueen himself is featured, along with racing legends Mert Lawwill and Malcolm Smith.

He owned several luxurious and exotic sportscars including:

To his dismay, McQueen never was able to own the legendary Ford Mustang GT that he drove in Bullitt. There were two cars used for filming. It is rumored that both models of the car mysteriously disappeared after the film wrapped (similar to the Easy Rider bikes).

The film's director Peter Yates recently stated in a radio interview that both vehicles are still extant (BBC Radio 4, 7 January 2006) (see *).

Death

McQueen died in November of 1980, in Juárez, Mexico from a heart attack. McQueen had traveled to the Santa Rosa Clinic there for alternative treatments for mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer caused by asbestos exposure. It is unclear whether the asbestos exposure came from his racing career or from an experience in the United States Marine Corps.

In 1999, McQueen was posthumously inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

Trivia

  • McQueen's height was reportedly 5' 10½" (1.79 m), although some sources have listed him slightly shorter than that.
  • Served in U.S. Marine Corps 1947–1950.
  • Was offered the lead role in Breakfast at Tiffany's but was unable to accept due to his Dead or Alive contract. The role went to George Peppard.
  • If McQueen had attended the house of actress Sharon Tate as planned on August 9, 1969, instead of going on a date, he could have been murdered along with five others by the followers of Charles Manson. After that close call and hearing that he was on Manson's death list, he began carrying a gun.
  • The real Great Escape began on March 24, 1944, Steve McQueen's fourteenth birthday.
  • He had a daily two-hour exercise regime, involving weightlifting and at one point running five miles, seven days a week. However, he was also known for his prolific drug use (William Caxton claimed he smoked marijuana almost every day; others said he used a tremendous amount of cocaine), in addition, like most actors of his era, he was a heavy smoker.
  • He had a reputation for demanding free items from studios when agreeing to do a film, such as electric razors, jeans and several other products. It was later found out that McQueen requested these items because he was donating them to the Boy's Republic reformatory school for displaced youth, where McQueen spent time during his youth. McQueen was later said to have made occasional visits to the school to spend time with the students and play pool with them.
  • Chuck Norris taught Steve McQueen's son karate, and later McQueen convinced Chuck to attend acting classes.
  • Turned down Ocean's Eleven, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Apocalypse Now, Dirty Harry.
  • Was interested in starring in First Blood, but could not due to his illness/death.
  • Was offered the Kevin Costner role in The Bodyguard when it was first proposed in 1976.
  • Almost was a co-driver in a British Leyland rally team Triumph 2500 PI in the 1970 London-Mexico, but had to turn it down due to movie commitments.
  • He is mentioned as Bart Simpson's hero by Homer in The Simpsons "Saturdays of Thunder". Though Marge corrects Homer "That's your hero".
  • McQueen appeared in a commercial for the 2005 Ford Mustang which used scenes from Bullitt, and showed McQueen racing the new car around a race track built in a corn field, à la baseball field in Field of Dreams. An earlier (circa 1997) advert, for the Ford Puma used a similar technique by splicing the Puma (with McQueen driving) into scenes from Bullitt all to the popular theme tune from that film.
  • McQueen also posthumously appeared in another ad for beer in the UK. Scenes from The Great Escape were used in this commercial.
  • He was mentioned in various songs and quotes:
    • Prefab Sprout released an album entitled Steve McQueen in 1985.
    • McQueen was the subject of the 2002 Sheryl Crow song called "Steve McQueen" off the album C'mon C'mon — the video has her riding a motorcyle like in "The Great Escape", driving a Ford GT40 at Willow Springs Raceway to simulate Le Mans, and being chased by NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr in a Bullitt Mustang. Including the lyrics "Just like Steve McQueen all I need is a fast machine".
    • The Harpo song "Moviestar" starts with the lyrics "You feel like Steve McQueen when you're driving in your car".
    • The comedy duo of Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong (aka "Cheech & Chong") in a skit entitled "The Continuing Adventures of Pedro and Man" (on the album Cheech and Chong's Greatest Hit), "Man" (Chong) says Pedro (Marin) drives, "Just like Steve McQueen", meaning he is driving well.
    • Rock group Clutch claims "Steve McQueen's got nothing on me" in their song "The House that Peterbilt."
    • Along with Martin Sheen and James Dean, he is mentioned in the R.E.M. song "Electrolite".
    • In the song "Gene by Gene" by Blur, on their album Think Tank, the narrator claims to "...ride a bullet like Steve McQueen".
    • Beastie Boys mention McQueen in their song "High Plains Drifter", "I feel like Steve McQueen, a former movie star".
    • In the 1996 film Beautiful Girls, Willie's girlfriend comments about how his father and brother took a liking to her upon their first meeting, which Willie remarks "They haven't felt this strongly about anyone since Steve McQueen died".
    • In the Divine Comedy song "Absent Friends", Neil Hannon sings: "Steve McQueen jumped the first one clean/ But the great escape/ He tried to make/ Was not to be/ Maybe next time, Steve".
    • Steve McQueen figures heavily in the 2000 film The Tao of Steve. The soundtrack includes a song titled "(I Just Wanna Be) Your Steve McQueen".
    • In his song "Beautiful Life", Shy Nobleman sings "Greet the neighbor, Steve McQueen".
    • A large section of the film Heat was closely based on the ending of McQueen's biggest hit, Bullitt.
    • The Drive-By Truckers have a song called "Steve McQueen" on their 1998 album "Gangstabilly" (re-released in 2005).
    • In an episode of Arrested Development a reference to McQueen is used when Lucille says to Buster, "...and now you think you're Steve McQueen" referencing to Buster's first date.
    • The Supergrass track Prophet 15, from their 2002 release of Life on Other Planets, features the line "Che Guevara and Steve McQueen, right there, Oh Yeah".
    • On the album Goats Head Soup by The Rolling Stones, McQueen is mentioned in the final song, "Star Star": "Yeah, Ali McGraw got mad at you / For givin' head to Steve McQueen".
    • In the Lupin III episode "I Left My Mind in San Francisco", there is a scene where Jigen, Lupin, and Goemon are chasing Zenigata through San Francisco (in very similar fashion to Bullitt). After narrowly missing hitting a truck in an alleyway by making the car go on 2 wheels, Jigen says, "Sorry, I must have been possessed by the spirit of Steve McQueen".
    • In the Feeder song "Under The Weather" off the 2001 album "Echo Park", McQueen's name is mentioned ("I wish that I was still fifteen, Debbie Harry and Steve McQueen").
  • January 17, 2006, Absolut Vodka released a commercial that features McQueen from stock footage. The theme of the commercial is styled as a montage revolving around a slogan that says "The Absolut ________", and set against a techno-rock music riff. The blanks are filled in with things that are regarded as supreme in their respective categories. It begins by showing footage of an astronaut driving a four-wheeled vehicle on the surface of the Moon and saying "The Absolut Road Trip". Various other things are shown such as a clip from Akira, with the slogan "The Absolut Anime"; the Statue of Liberty, to which the slogan says "The Absolut Welcome"; and the entrance to CBGB's as "The Absolut Rock Club". Finally, the commercial ends dramatically showing McQueen stepping out of a car in Bullitt, the slogan saying "The Absolut Man".
  • Legendary New England DJ/Entertainer Russ McQueen chose his stage name as an homage to Steve McQueen.
  • In House, the pet rat of Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) is named "Steve McQueen".
  • The Movie "The Tao of Steve" starring Donal Logue is about a group of middle-aged men who combine the ideas of famous intellectuals to make the foolproof theory of dating-The Tao of Steve. Their idol in the movie is Steve McQueen who represents the essence of cool.
  • Frequently cited the "All Guts No Glory" Detective Frank Bullitt as his favorite character he ever played.
  • In Disney and Pixar's film Cars, the main character, Lightning McQueen, is named after Steve and former Pixar animator Glenn McQueen.

Filmography

External links

1930 births | 1980 deaths | American actors | American motorcycle racers | Best Actor Academy Award nominees | Cancer deaths | Deaths by lung cancer | Entertainers who died in their 50s | Film actors | Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute alumni | People from Indiana | United States Marines | Motorcyclists

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