Steve McQueen was nicknamed the "King of Cool" and used the alias Harvey Mushman in motor races.
117 Facts About Steve McQueen
2.
Steve McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles.
3.
In 1974, Steve McQueen became the highest-paid movie star in the world, although he did not act in film for another four years.
4.
Steve McQueen was combative with directors and producers, but his popularity placed him in high demand and enabled him to command the largest salaries.
5.
Terrence Stephen Steve McQueen was born to a single mother on March 24,1930, at St Francis Hospital in Beech Grove, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis.
6.
Steve McQueen's mother married and when the boy was eight, she brought him from the farm to live with her and her new husband in Indianapolis.
7.
Dyslexic and partially deaf due to a childhood ear infection, Steve McQueen did not adjust well to school or his new life.
8.
Steve McQueen's stepfather beat him to such an extent that at the age of nine he left home to live on the streets.
9.
When Steve McQueen was 12, Julia wrote to her uncle Claude, asking that her son be returned to her again to live in Los Angeles, California, where she lived with her second husband.
10.
Steve McQueen recalls him being "a prime son of a bitch" who was not averse to using his fists on Steve McQueen and his mother.
11.
Steve McQueen was caught stealing hubcaps by the police and handed over to his stepfather, who beat him severely.
12.
Steve McQueen threw the youth down a flight of stairs.
13.
Steve McQueen was not popular with the other boys at first:.
14.
Steve McQueen gradually became a role model and was elected to the Boys Council, a group who set the rules and regulations governing the boys' lives.
15.
At age 16, Steve McQueen returned to live with his mother, who had moved to Greenwich Village in New York City.
16.
Later Steve McQueen made his way to Texas and drifted from job to job, including selling pens at a traveling carnival, and working as a lumberjack in Canada.
17.
Steve McQueen was arrested for vagrancy in the Deep South and served a 30-day assignment on a chain gang.
18.
In 1947, after receiving permission from his mother, Steve McQueen enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.
19.
Steve McQueen was sent to Parris Island for boot camp.
20.
Steve McQueen was promoted to private first class and assigned to an armored unit.
21.
Steve McQueen initially struggled with conforming to the discipline of the service, and was demoted to private seven times.
22.
Steve McQueen took an unauthorized absence, failing to return after a weekend pass expired.
23.
Steve McQueen was caught by the shore patrol while staying with a girlfriend for two weeks.
24.
Steve McQueen saved the lives of five other Marines during an Arctic exercise, pulling them from a tank before it broke through ice into the sea.
25.
Steve McQueen was assigned to the honor guard responsible for guarding the presidential yacht of US President Harry S Truman.
26.
Steve McQueen later said he had enjoyed his time in the Marines.
27.
Bill, Steve McQueen began studying acting in New York at Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse and at HB Studio under Uta Hagen.
28.
Steve McQueen reportedly delivered his first dialogue on a theatre stage in a 1952 play produced by Yiddish theatre star Molly Picon.
29.
Long enamored of cars and motorcycles, Steve McQueen began to earn money by competing in weekend motorcycle races at Long Island City Raceway.
30.
Steve McQueen purchased the first two of many motorcycles, a Harley-Davidson and a Triumph.
31.
Steve McQueen soon became an excellent racer, winning about $100 each weekend.
32.
Steve McQueen had minor roles in stage productions, including Peg o' My Heart, The Member of the Wedding, and Two Fingers of Pride.
33.
Steve McQueen made his Broadway debut in 1955 in the play A Hatful of Rain, starring Ben Gazzara.
34.
In late 1955 at the age of 25, Steve McQueen left New York and headed for Los Angeles.
35.
Steve McQueen moved into a house on Vestal Avenue in the Echo Park area, and sought acting jobs in Hollywood.
36.
When Steve McQueen appeared in a two-part Westinghouse Studio One television presentation entitled The Defenders, Hollywood manager Hilly Elkins took note of him and decided that B-movies would be a good place for the young actor to make his mark.
37.
Steve McQueen's first role was a bit part in Somebody Up There Likes Me, directed by Robert Wise and starring Paul Newman.
38.
Steve McQueen was hired for the films Never Love a Stranger; The Blob ; and The Great St Louis Bank Robbery.
39.
Steve McQueen appeared on Dale Robertson's NBC western series Tales of Wells Fargo as Bill Longley.
40.
Elkins, then McQueen's manager, successfully lobbied Vincent M Fennelly, producer of the western series Trackdown, to have McQueen read for the part of bounty hunter Josh Randall.
41.
Steve McQueen first appeared in Season 1 Episode 21 of Trackdown in 1958.
42.
Steve McQueen appeared as Randall in that episode, cast opposite series lead Robert Culp, a former New York motorcycle racing buddy.
43.
Steve McQueen appeared again on Trackdown in Episode 31 of the first season, in which he played twin brothers, one of whom was an outlaw sought by Culp's character, Hoby Gilman.
44.
Steve McQueen next filmed a pilot episode for what became the series titled Wanted: Dead or Alive, which aired on CBS in September 1958.
45.
Steve McQueen became a household name as a result of this series.
46.
The 94 episodes that ran from 1958 until early 1961 kept Steve McQueen steadily employed, and he became a fixture at the renowned Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, where much of the outdoor action for Wanted: Dead or Alive was shot.
47.
At 29, Steve McQueen got a significant break when Frank Sinatra removed Sammy Davis Jr.
48.
Sinatra saw something special in Steve McQueen and ensured that the young actor got plenty of closeups in a role that earned Steve McQueen favorable reviews.
49.
Steve McQueen's focused portrayal of the taciturn second lead catapulted his career.
50.
Steve McQueen's added touches in many of the shots annoyed top-billed Brynner, who protested that McQueen was stealing scenes.
51.
Brynner refused to draw his gun in the same scene with Steve McQueen, not wanting his character outdrawn.
52.
Steve McQueen played the top-billed lead role in the next big Sturges film, 1963's The Great Escape, Hollywood's fictional depiction of the true story of a historic mass escape from a World War II POW camp, Stalag Luft III.
53.
Insurance concerns prevented Steve McQueen from performing the film's notable motorcycle leap, which was done by his friend and fellow cycle enthusiast Bud Ekins, who resembled Steve McQueen from a distance.
54.
Also in 1963, Steve McQueen starred in Love with the Proper Stranger with Natalie Wood.
55.
Steve McQueen later appeared as the titular Nevada Smith, a character from Harold Robbins's novel The Carpetbaggers portrayed by Alan Ladd two years earlier in a movie version of that novel.
56.
Steve McQueen followed his Oscar nomination with 1968's Bullitt, one of his best-known films, and his personal favorite, which co-starred Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn, and Don Gordon.
57.
The rest of the driving by Steve McQueen's character was done by stunt drivers Bud Ekins and Loren Janes.
58.
In 1971, Steve McQueen starred in the poorly received auto-racing drama Le Mans, followed by Junior Bonner in 1972, a story of an aging rodeo rider.
59.
Steve McQueen worked for director Sam Peckinpah again with the leading role in The Getaway, where he met future wife Ali MacGraw.
60.
Steve McQueen followed this with a physically demanding role as a Devil's Island prisoner in 1973's Papillon, featuring Dustin Hoffman as his character's tragic sidekick.
61.
Steve McQueen did not return to acting until 1978 with An Enemy of the People, playing against type as a bearded, bespectacled 19th-century doctor in this adaptation of a Henrik Ibsen play.
62.
Steve McQueen was offered the lead male role in Breakfast at Tiffany's, but was unable to accept due to his Wanted: Dead or Alive contract.
63.
Steve McQueen turned down parts in Ocean's 11, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Driver, Apocalypse Now, California Split, Dirty Harry, A Bridge Too Far, The French Connection, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Sorcerer.
64.
Frankenheimer was unable to meet with Steve McQueen to offer him the role, so he sent Edward Lewis, his business partner and the producer of Grand Prix.
65.
Steve McQueen and Lewis instantly clashed, the meeting was a disaster, and the role went to Garner.
66.
Steve McQueen was originally slated to do that movie, but he couldn't get along with Frank Frankenheimer.
67.
Steve McQueen didn't talk to me for about year and half, and we were next-door neighbors.
68.
Steve McQueen didn't know where he wanted to be or what he wanted to do.
69.
Director Steven Spielberg said McQueen was his first choice for the character of Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
70.
Spielberg offered to take the crying scene out of the story, but Steve McQueen demurred, saying that it was the best scene in the script.
71.
Sorcerer was to be filmed primarily on location in the Dominican Republic, but Steve McQueen did not want to be separated from Ali MacGraw for the duration of the shoot.
72.
Steve McQueen then asked Friedkin to let MacGraw act as a producer, so she could be present during principal photography.
73.
Friedkin later remarked that not casting Steve McQueen hurt the film's performance at the box office.
74.
Spy novelist Jeremy Duns revealed that Steve McQueen was considered for the lead role in a film adaptation of The Diamond Smugglers, written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming; Steve McQueen would play John Blaize, a secret agent gone undercover to infiltrate a diamond-smuggling ring in South Africa.
75.
Steve McQueen expressed interest in the Rambo character in First Blood when David Morrell's novel appeared in 1972, but the producers rejected him because of his age.
76.
Steve McQueen was offered the title role in The Bodyguard when it was proposed in 1976, but the film did not reach production until years after McQueen's death.
77.
Steve McQueen was offered the lead in Raise the Titanic, but felt that the script was flat.
78.
Steve McQueen was under contract to Irwin Allen after appearing in The Towering Inferno and offered a part in a sequel in 1980, which he turned down.
79.
Steve McQueen died shortly after passing on The Towering Inferno 2.
80.
At one point, using editing, Steve McQueen is seen in a German uniform chasing himself on another bike.
81.
Steve McQueen had a one-off outing in the British Touring Car Championship in 1961, driving a BMC Mini at Brands Hatch, finishing third.
82.
Steve McQueen wanted to drive a Porsche 917 with Jackie Stewart in that race, but the film backers threatened to pull their support if he did.
83.
Steve McQueen competed in off-road motorcycle racing, frequently running a BSA Hornet and using alias Harvey Mushman.
84.
Steve McQueen was set to co-drive in a Triumph 2500 PI for the British Leyland team in the 1970 London-Mexico rally, but had to turn it down due to movie commitments.
85.
Steve McQueen's first off-road motorcycle was a Triumph 500 cc, purchased from Ekins.
86.
Steve McQueen raced in many top off-road races on the West Coast, including the Baja 1000, the Mint 400, and the Elsinore Grand Prix.
87.
Steve McQueen retired due to irreparable crash damage, and Ekins withdrew with a broken leg, both on day three.
88.
Steve McQueen was inducted in the Off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1978.
89.
Steve McQueen designed a motorsports bucket seat, for which a patent was issued in 1971.
90.
In spite of numerous attempts, Steve McQueen was never able to purchase the Ford Mustang GT 390 he drove in Bullitt, which featured a modified drivetrain that suited Steve McQueen's driving style.
91.
One of the two Mustangs used in the film was badly damaged, judged beyond repair, and believed to have been scrapped until it surfaced in Mexico in 2017, while the other one, which Steve McQueen attempted to purchase in 1977, is hidden from the public eye.
92.
Mamie Van Doren claimed to have had an affair with Steve McQueen and tried hallucinogens with him around 1959.
93.
In Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1973, Steve McQueen married actress Ali MacGraw, his co-star in The Getaway, but this marriage ended in a divorce in 1978.
94.
In 1973, Steve McQueen was one of the pallbearers at Bruce Lee's funeral along with James Coburn, Bruce's brother Robert Lee, Peter Chin, Dan Inosanto, and Taky Kimura.
95.
On January 16,1980, less than a year before his death, Steve McQueen married model Barbara Minty.
96.
Steve McQueen attended his local church, Ventura Missionary Church, and was visited by evangelist Billy Graham shortly before his death.
97.
Steve McQueen followed a daily two-hour exercise regimen, involving weightlifting and, at one point, running 5 miles, seven days a week.
98.
Steve McQueen sometimes drank to excess; he was arrested for driving while intoxicated in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1972.
99.
Steve 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 other items.
100.
Steve McQueen made occasional visits to the school to spend time with the students, often to play pool and speak about his experiences.
101.
Steve McQueen gave up cigarettes and underwent antibiotic treatments without improvement.
102.
Steve McQueen believed that asbestos used in movie sound stage insulation and race-drivers protective suits and helmets could have been involved but he thought it more likely that his illness was a direct result of massive exposure while removing asbestos lagging from pipes aboard a troop ship while he served in the Marines.
103.
Controversy arose over the trip because Steve McQueen sought treatment from William Donald Kelley, who was promoting a variation of the Gerson therapy that used coffee enemas, frequent washing with shampoos, daily injections of fluid containing live cells from cattle and sheep, massages, and laetrile, a reputed anti-cancer drug available in Mexico, but long known to be both toxic and ineffective at treating cancer.
104.
Steve McQueen paid for Kelley's treatments by himself in cash payments which were said to have been upwards of $40,000 per month during his three-month stay in Mexico.
105.
Kelley's methods caused a sensation in the traditional and tabloid press when it became known that Steve McQueen was a patient.
106.
In late October 1980, Steve McQueen flew to Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico to have an abdominal tumor on his liver removed, despite warnings from his US doctors that the tumor was inoperable and his heart could not withstand the surgery.
107.
On November 7,1980, Steve McQueen died of a heart attack at 3:45 am at a Juarez hospital, 12 hours after surgery to remove or reduce numerous metastatic tumors in his neck and abdomen.
108.
Steve McQueen was cremated, and his ashes were spread in the Pacific Ocean.
109.
In 2007,27 years after his death, Forbes said Steve McQueen remained a popular star and still the "king of cool" and was one of the highest-earning dead celebrities.
110.
In November 1999, Steve McQueen was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
111.
Steve McQueen was credited with contributions including financing the film On Any Sunday, supporting a team of off-road riders, and enhancing the public image of motorcycling overall.
112.
In 2012, Steve McQueen was posthumously honored with the Warren Zevon Tribute Award by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization.
113.
Steve McQueen appears as a character in Tarantino's novel of the same name.
114.
Archive footage of Steve McQueen was used to digitally superimpose him driving and exiting the car in settings reminiscent of the film.
115.
Steve McQueen's likeness was created using a body double and digital editing.
116.
Steve McQueen called on McQueen's granddaughter, actress Molly McQueen, to make the announcement.
117.
Steve McQueen's British racing green 1956 Jaguar XKSS is located in the Petersen Automotive Museum and is in drivable condition, having been driven by Jay Leno in an episode of Jay Leno's Garage.