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Steve McQueen

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This article is about the actor Steve McQueen. For the artist, see Steve McQueen (artist).
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Steve McQueen in The Great Escape

Steve McQueen (March 24, 1930 – November 7, 1980) was an 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 a combative and archetypal "difficult movie star" who disliked working with directors or producers. To compensate, he would work only if paid a higher-than-average "movie star" salary for his films.

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 the age of 12 McQueen moved with his mother to Los Angeles. When he was 14, his mother sent him to a reformatory school, Boy's Republic, in Chino, 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-1950's, McQueen gained both regular employment and his 'break-out' role with the 'Western' series Wanted: 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 the U.S.'s 'small screen' in those days. The character had been introduced the previous year in an episode of Trackdown featuring Robert Culp, another western TV series.

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 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 James Garner). (Quentin Tarantino has called the film the shortest three hour movie he's ever seen.)

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, largely because of his incomparable popularity in Asia [citation needed]. 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. The film was little-seen.

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.

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 one of his riding buddies for insurance purposes.

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 but this was not accepted.

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 [1]).

Death

After 1978 he appeared in two films, Tom Horn and The Hunter before he died in November of 1980, in Juárez, Mexico from a heart attack following an effort (using alternative therapies such as amygdalin) to fight 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

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Steve McQueen as depicted on page 135 of William Claxton's photographic essay Steve McQueen: Photographs by William Claxton.
  • McQueen's height was 5' 10½", many people think he was 5' 9", but because of his small frame he would hunch, making him appear to be shorter.
  • 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 Wanted: 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.
  • He had a daily two-hour exercise regime, involving weightlifting and at one point running five miles, seven days a week.
  • 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 Boys Republic, a reformatory school for displaced youth, where McQueen spent timeduring 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 Steve 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 the 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 GT-40 at Willow Springs raceway to simulate Le Mans, and being chased by NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr in a Bullitt Mustang.
    • 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 off of 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.
    • An episode of the TV series House features the show's main character, House, naming a rat after McQueen.
    • 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 movie Cars main character is named "Lightning McQueen".
    • 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 fasion to Bullit). 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.

Filmography

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