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Steve McQueen

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For other uses, see Steve McQueen (disambiguation).
Steve McQueen
Born
Terrence Steven McQueen
Years active1953 - 1980
Spouse(s)Neile Adams (1956-1972)
Ali MacGraw (1973-1978)
Barbara Minty (1980)
ChildrenTerry McQueen (1959-1998)
Chad McQueen (b.1960)

Steve McQueen (March 24 1930 – November 7 1980) was an Academy Award-nominated American movie actor, nicknamed "The King of Cool".[1] His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen was combative with directors and producers; regardless, he was able to command large salaries and was in high demand.

Early life

He was born Terrence Steven McQueen (although there is some doubt over the spelling of his first name, with various sources citing it as Terence or even Terrance) in Beech Grove, Indiana, a suburban community bordering Indianapolis. His father, William, was a stunt pilot for an aerial circus, who abandoned Steve and his mother shortly before the birth. His mother, Julian, was an alcoholic; unable to cope with bringing up a small child she sent him at an early age to be raised by his Uncle Claude on the latter's farm in Slater, Missouri. His time on the farm was a happy one, and when at the age of 12 he was taken back by his mother to live with her and her new husband in Los Angeles, California he retained a special memory of his leavetaking: "The day I left the farm Uncle Claude gave me a personal going-away present; a gold pocket watch, with an inscription inside the case." The inscription read: "To Steve-- who has been a son to me".[2]

Steve had a fractious relationship with his violent and abusive stepfather, whom he loathed. Within a couple of years he was running with a street gang, committing acts of petty crime. Unable to control his behaviour, his mother and stepfather sent him to the California Junior Boys Republic, optimistically described as "a home for wayward boys"[original research?] in Chino Hills, California. After McQueen left Chino, he drifted before joining the United States Marine Corps in 1947, serving until 1950.

In 1952, with financial assistance provided by the G.I. Bill, McQueen began studying acting and auditioned for a place at Lee Strasberg's Actors' Studio in New York. Of the 2000 people who tried out that year, only McQueen and Martin Landau were accepted. McQueen made his Broadway debut in 1955 in the play A Hatful of Rain, starring Ben Gazzara.

Key appearances

Wanted: Dead or Alive
After uncredited film roles in Girl on the Run (1953) and Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), and prominent parts in the 1958 films Never Love a Stranger and The Blob — interspersed with an assortment of live and filmed television guest appearances in the latter half of the Fifties — McQueen so successfully informed the character of the bounty hunter Josh Randall in a March, 1958, episode of the Western series Trackdown, that the part became McQueen's 'break-out' role in a series of his own, Wanted: Dead or Alive. The bounty hunter's holster held a sawed-off Winchester rifle nicknamed the "Mare's Leg," instead of the standard six-gun carried by the typical Western character. This added to the anti-hero image of a man infused with a mixture of mystery, alienation, and detachment that made this show stand out from the typical TV Western. Ninety four episodes, filmed at Apacheland Studio from 1958 till early 1961, kept McQueen steadily employed in television — until he withdrew from the series to focus his energy on the film career that began to sprout from the favorable attention this series had earned him.

Never So Few
At 29, Steve McQueen got his most significant break when Frank Sinatra removed Sammy Davis, Jr. from the film Never So Few, and Davis's role went to Steve McQueen. Sinatra saw something special in McQueen and ensured that the young actor got plenty of good shots and close-ups in a role that earned McQueen favorable reviews. McQueen's character, Bill Ringa, like future characters he would come to play, brought a new kind of cool to the screen and was never more comfortable than when driving at high speed — in this case, at the wheel of a jeep. John Sturges directed this film, and then used McQueen in The Magnificent Seven a year later, and in The Great Escape in 1963.

The Magnificent Seven
After Never So Few, director John Sturges cast McQueen in his next movie, promising to "give him the camera". The Magnificent Seven (1960), with Yul Brynner, Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn, became McQueen's first major hit, and led to his withdrawal from his own successful television series, Wanted, Dead or Alive.

The Great Escape
McQueen's next big film, 1963's The Great Escape, told the fictionalized "true story" of a mass escape from a World War II POW camp. A spectacular motorcycle leap in the film's climax highlighted McQueen's role in the film. While a very accomplished motorcyclist, insurance reasons did not allow McQueen to perform the actual jump. His friend and fellow cycle enthusiast Bud Ekins, who resembled McQueen from a distance, actually made the jump.

More information about this jump and the movie can be found by watching the special features documentary on The Great Escape DVD. McQueen always gave Ekins credit for performing the jump. In fact on his television show, when Johnny Carson had congratulated him for doing it, McQueen corrected him, "It wasn't me. That was Bud Ekins." In 1966 McQueen appeared as "Nevada Smith" in the movie of the same name. [2]

File:Bullitt mustang.JPG
Steve McQueen in Bullitt.

Bullitt and later films
Another successful film was 1968's Bullitt, with an unprecedented (and endlessly imitated) auto chase through San Francisco, with Bud Ekins again doubling for some of the more hazardous work. Prior to that, McQueen 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. He also played the leading role in Junior Bonner in 1972.

McQueen was the world's highest paid actor by the time of The Getaway. After The Towering Inferno, co-starring with his long time rival Paul Newman in 1974, McQueen did not return to film until 1978 with An Enemy of the People playing against type as a heavily bearded, bespectacled doctor, in this adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play. The film was little seen. His last films were Tom Horn and The Hunter, both released in 1980.

Marriages

McQueen was married three times. He married Manila-born actress Neile Adams on November 2 1956 (divorced 1972), by whom he had a daughter Terry (born June 5, 1959; died at 38 on March 19, 1998 as a result of hemochromatosis, a condition in which the body produces too much iron destroying the liver), and a son, Chad McQueen (born December 28, 1960 and now an actor—as is his grandson, Steven R. McQueen, born 1988). McQueen has 3 other grandchildren; Chase (born in 1995) and Madison (born in 1997) to Chad; and Molly Flattery (born 1987) to Terry[3].

On August 31 1973 he married his Getaway co-star, Ali MacGraw, with whom he had a passionate but tumultuous relationship (she left her husband, film producer Robert Evans for McQueen). They were divorced in 1978. His third wife was model Barbara Minty whom he married on January 16 1980, less than a year before his death.

Motor Racer

McQueen was an avid 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 did have a considerable amount of screen time while riding his motorcycle. According to the commentary track on The Great Escape DVD, it was difficult to find riders as skilled as McQueen and at one point in the film, due to clever editing, McQueen is seen in a German uniform chasing himself on another bike).

During his acting career, he considered becoming a professional race car driver. In the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring race, Peter Revson and McQueen (driving with a cast on his left foot from a motorcycle accident two weeks before) won in their (engine size) class and missed winning overall by a scant 23 seconds to Mario Andretti in a Ferrari 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. However, the film was a box office flop that almost ruined McQueen's career. In addition, McQueen himself admitted that he almost died while filming the movie. Nonetheless, today, Le Mans is considered to be the most historically realistic, accurate, and dramatic representation of one of the most famous periods in the history of the race, as well as being considered one of the greatest auto racing movies of all time.

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

He also competed in off-road motorcycle racing. His first off-road motorcycle was a Triumph 500cc that he purchased from stunt man Bud Ekins. McQueen raced in many of the top off-road races on the West Coast during the ‘60s and early-1970s, including the Baja 1000, the Mint 400 and the Elsinore Grand Prix. In 1964, he represented the United States in the International Six Days Trial, a form of off-road motorcycling Olympics. He was inducted in the Off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1978. 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. Also in 1971, McQueen was on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine riding a Husqvarna dirt bike.

McQueen was interested in collecting classic motorcycles. By the time of his death, his collection included over 100 motorcycles and was valued in the millions of dollars[4].

In a segment filmed for The Ed Sullivan Show, McQueen drove Sullivan around a desert area in a dune buggy at high speed. At the end of the trip, all the breathless Sullivan could say was, "That was a helluva ride!"

He owned several exotic sportscars, including:

To his dismay, McQueen was never able to own the legendary Ford Mustang GT that he drove in Bullitt, which featured a highly-modified drivetrain that suited McQueen's driving style. There were two cars used for filming. According to the October 2006 issue of "Motor Trend Classic", in its cover story on the film, one of the cars was so badly damaged during filming it was judged to be unrepairable, and scrapped. The second car still exists, but the owner has consistently refused to sell it at any price. The owner plans a "minimal restoration", to make the car roadworthy, yet still retain the original patina.

Death

McQueen died at the age of fifty in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico from two heart attacks following surgery to remove or reduce a metastatic tumor in his stomach. He had been diagnosed with mesothelioma in December 1979, and had travelled to Mexico in July 1980 for unconventional treatment after his doctors advised him that they could do nothing more to prolong his life.[5] McQueen was cremated, and his ashes spread in the Pacific Ocean.[citation needed]

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer usually caused by asbestos exposure. McQueen may have been exposed to asbestos during his service in the United States Marine Corps, or during his racing career.

Controversy arose over McQueen's Mexican trip, because McQueen sought a very non-traditional treatment that used coffee enemas and laetrile, a supposedly "natural" anti-cancer drug available in Mexico but not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Posthumously, McQueen remains one of the most popular stars, and his estate carefully manages the licensing activity to avoid the commercial oversaturation common to many deceased celebrities. McQueen's personality and trademark rights are managed by Corbis Corporation, the well-known media company owned by Bill Gates. In 1999, McQueen was posthumously inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

Personal information

McQueen's height is disputed - he was officially listed as 5'10" but was known to wear lifts in many movies. Some people, including film critic Barry Norman, have said McQueen's height was in fact only 5' 7". He had a daily two-hour exercise regimen, involving weightlifting and at one point running five miles, seven days a week. He also received personal martial arts training with Bruce Lee. 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 the early 1970s). In addition, like many actors of his era, he was a heavy cigarette smoker.

After Charles Manson incited the murder of five people including McQueen's close personal friends Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring at Tate's home on August 9, 1969, it was reported that McQueen was another potential target of the killers. According to his first wife, he then began carrying a handgun at all times in public, including at Sebring's funeral.[6]

McQueen had an unusual reputation for demanding free items in bulk 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 things because he was donating them to the Boy's Republic reformatory school for displaced youth, where McQueen had spent time during his youth. McQueen made occasional visits to the school to spend time with the students, often to play pool and to speak with them about his experiences.

Towards the end of his life McQueen became a Christian, in part to the influence of his flying instructor, Sammy Mason, and his wife, Barbara Minty. He regularly attended his local church, and was visited by the famed evangelist Billy Graham shortly before he died. In an interview recorded shortly before his death, and as chronicled in Christopher Sandford's biography of the star, McQueen publicly lamented the fact that he would never have time to share his faith.

After discovering a mutual interest in racing, James Garner and McQueen became good friends. Garner lived directly down the hill from McQueen and, as McQueen recalled, "I could see that Jim was very neat around his place. Flowers trimmed, no papers in the yard ... grass always cut. So, just to piss him off, I'd start lobbing empty beer cans down the hill into his driveway. He'd have his drive all spic 'n' span when he left the house, then get home to find all these empty cans. Took him a long time to figure out it was me".[2]

McQueen learned the martial art Tang Soo Do from ninth degree blackbelt Pat E. Johnson. McQueen served as one of the pall bearers at Bruce Lee's funeral in 1973. Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee taught McQueen's son Chad Taekwondo and Jeet Kune Do, (respectively). Later on, McQueen persuaded Norris to attend acting classes.

His name was not, as sometimes thought, on President Richard Nixon's infamous Enemies List; it was McQueen's Hollywood rival actor Paul Newman who was on the list. Ironically, in real life, McQueen was quite conservative in his political views, and often backed the Republican Party. He supported the Vietnam War, was one of the few Hollywood stars who refused numerous requests to back Presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy in 1968, and turned down the chance to participate in the 1963 March on Washington. When McQueen heard he had been added to Nixon's Enemies List, he responded by immediately flying a giant American flag outside his house. Reportedly, his wife Ali McGraw responded to the whole affair by saying "But you're the most patriotic person I know."

McQueen commanded such celebrity status in the UK that when visiting Chelsea Football Club to watch a game he was personally introduced to the players in the dressing room during the half-time break.

Missed roles

McQueen 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. He also turned down Ocean's Eleven, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Driver, Apocalypse Now, and Dirty Harry. He was also the first choice for director Steven Spielberg for his film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. According to Spielberg on a documentary on the "Close Encounters" DVD, Spielberg met McQueen at a bar, where McQueen drank beer after beer. McQueen, before leaving the bar, told Steven that he didn't want the role, which then went to Richard Dreyfuss.

He had been interested in starring in First Blood, but could not due to illness. He had also been offered the titular role in The Bodyguard when it was first proposed in 1976. He was to play the lead in Quigley Down Under, which was scheduled for production in 1980, but due to his illness, the project was scrapped until a decade later, with Tom Selleck in the starring role.

McQueen was also interested in making the film version of Waiting for Godot. During his time away from film he developed an interest in the classic playwrights. This led him to Beckett's Godot, but the playwright had never heard of McQueen.

Hobbies

High prices for memorabilia

The tinted sunglasses worn by McQueen in the 1968 movie The Thomas Crown Affair sold at a Bonhams & Butterfields auction in Los Angeles for $70,200 in 2006. [1] One of his motorcycles, a 1937 Crocker, sold for a world record price of $276,500 at the same auction. McQueen's 1963 metallic-brown Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso sold for $2.31 million USD at auction on August 16, 2007.[1]

  • An earlier song by Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers called "Steve McQueen" off of their first album is about the songwriter's childhood love of the actor and his movies. McQueen is also mentioned by name in the Rolling Stones' song "Star Star", and British band Prefab Sprout named its 1985 album Steve McQueen, although, for legal reasons, the title was altered to Two Wheels Good in the US.
  • There is also a reference by Spanish composer and singer Joaquín Sabina in his 1992 hit "Medias Negras" ("Black Stockings") in the line: "De noche piel de hada/A plena luz del dia Cruella DeVille/Maldita madrugada y yo que me creía Steve McQueen." ("By night fairy skin/At bare light Cruella DeVille/Cursed dawn and I started believing myself Steve McQueen.")
  • The philosophy of detached cool in the 2000 comedy The Tao of Steve centers on three men - the fictional Steve Austin and Steve McGarrett and McQueen. This film included a song by Eytan Mirsky entitled "(I Just Wanna Be) Your Steve McQueen," which features references to a number of McQueen's screen roles.
  • Swiss watch maker Tag Heuer has been marketing some of its automatic chronograph models as "Steve McQueen Monaco Editions" in tribute to him wearing a similar watch in the film Le Mans. In 2005, the watch maker's marketing campaign also reissued a special edition Monaco chronograph to celebrate what would have been Steve McQueen's 75th birthday. A second watch, the Rolex Explorer II reference 1655 manufactured in the 1970s and early 1980s, is also known as the Steve McQueen Explorer, although in candid pictures he usually wore a chronometer grade Rolex reference 5512 Submariner.
  • On the television show House, the main character, Gregory House, names his rat Steve McQueen. Claiming "He's just too young to die"
  • In the R.E.M. song "Electrolite", singer Michael Stipe sings "Hollywood is under me / I'm Martin Sheen / I'm Steve Mcqueen / I'm Jimmy Dean", identifying Mcqueen as an iconic actor.
  • On the television show Supernatural, (Folsom Prison Blues) Dean wishes he was Steve McQueen.
  • In 2006, the advertisement series for Absolut Vodka showed Steve McQueen alighting from a cab, with the tagline The Absolute Man
  • In the Disney film "Cars", the main character's name is Lighting McQueen.
  • In 2007, his image was used on t-shirts by the Italian fashion house Dolce and Gabbana.
  • When the Ford Motor Co. redesigned the Mustang with '60s "retro" styling cues, a commercial for the new model quoted "Field of Dreams" with the tagline "If you build it he will come". The "he" turned out to be Steve McQueen, digitally inserted into the ad.
  • Actor and comedian, Eddie Izzard, frequently refers to Steve McQueen in his shows. Izzard is a fan who claims to have read McQueen's biography many times and to have similarly watched The Great Escape numerous times as well.

Filmography


See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Steve McQueen's Ferrari up for auction by Caroline Valetkevitch, Reuters, April 27, 2007, retrieved April 28, 2007
  2. ^ a b c William F. Nolan. McQueen. 1984. Condon & Weed Inc. ISBN 0-312-92526-3.
    Cite error: The named reference "William F. Nolan" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ Howard Johns: Hollywood Celebrity Playground, Barricade Books, Fort Lee, NJ (2006). ISBN-13: 9781569803035 ISBN 156980303X
  4. ^ Howard Johns. Palm Springs Confidential: Playground of the Stars, Barricade Books, Fort Lee, NJ (2004). ISBN-13: 9781569802977 ISBN 1569802971.
  5. ^ "McQueen's Legacy of Laetrile". New York Times. 2005-11-15.
  6. ^ Dunne, Dominick. The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well Known Name Dropper. 1999. Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-609-60388-4.
  7. ^ The First Steve McQueen Site - FAQ/Trivia

Further reading

  • Beaver, Jim. Steve McQueen. Films in Review, August-September 1981.
  • Terrill, Marshall. Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel, (Donald I. Fine, 1993)


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