120 Facts About Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen was nicknamed the "King of Cool" and used the alias "Harvey Mushman" when participating in motor races.

Steve McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles.

Steve McQueen became the world's highest-paid movie star in 1974; however, following this, he did not appear in a film for another four years.

Terrence Stephen Steve McQueen was born at St Francis Hospital in Beech Grove, Indiana, on March 24,1930, the son of Julia Ann Crawford and flying circus stunt pilot William Steve McQueen.

Steve McQueen was of Scottish descent and grew up in a Catholic household.

Steve McQueen was raised by his mother, who was abandoned by his father six months after they met.

Steve McQueen later said that he had good memories of living on the farm, noting that his great-uncle Claude was a "very good, very strong, [and] very fair" man from whom he "learned a lot".

Julia wrote to Claude when Steve McQueen was 12, asking that he be returned to her again to live in Los Angeles, where she now lived with her second husband.

Steve McQueen recalls him being "a prime son of a bitch" who was not averse to beating both Steve McQueen and Julia.

Steve McQueen began to rebel again and was sent back to live with Claude for a final time.

Steve McQueen drifted back to his mother and stepfather in Los Angeles, resuming his life as a gang member and petty criminal.

Steve McQueen was caught stealing hubcaps by the police and handed over to his stepfather, who beat him severely and threw him down a flight of stairs.

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.

Steve McQueen met two sailors from the Merchant Marine there and decided to sign on to a ship bound for the Dominican Republic.

Steve McQueen later ventured to Texas and drifted from job to job, including selling pens at a traveling carnival and working as a lumberjack in Canada.

In 1947, after receiving permission from his mother since he was not yet 18 years old, Steve McQueen enlisted in the Marines and was sent to Parris Island for boot camp.

Steve McQueen was promoted to private first class and assigned to an armored unit.

Steve McQueen initially struggled with conforming to the discipline of the service and was demoted to private seven times.

Steve McQueen took an unauthorized absence, failing to return after a weekend pass expired, and was caught by the shore patrol while staying with his girlfriend Barbara Ross for two weeks.

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.

Steve McQueen was assigned to the honor guard responsible for guarding USS Williamsburg, the presidential yacht of Harry S Truman.

Steve McQueen served until 1950, when he was honorably discharged.

Bill, Steve McQueen began studying acting in New York at Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse and at HB Studio under Uta Hagen.

Steve McQueen reportedly delivered his first dialogue on a theater stage in a 1952 play produced by Yiddish theater star Molly Picon.

Long enamored of cars and motorcycles, Steve McQueen began to earn money by competing in weekend motorcycle races at Long Island City Raceway.

Steve McQueen purchased the first two of many motorcycles, a Harley-Davidson and a Triumph.

Steve McQueen soon became an excellent racer, winning about $100 each weekend.

Steve McQueen had minor roles in stage productions, including Peg o' My Heart, The Member of the Wedding and Two Fingers of Pride.

Steve McQueen made his Broadway debut in 1955 in the play A Hatful of Rain starring Ben Gazzara.

In late 1955, Steve McQueen left New York and headed for Los Angeles.

Steve McQueen moved into a house on Vestal Avenue in the Echo Park area, and sought acting jobs in Hollywood.

When Steve McQueen appeared in a two-part Westinghouse Studio One television presentation entitled "The Defender", 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.

Steve McQueen's first film role under Elkins' management was a bit part in Somebody Up There Likes Me, directed by Robert Wise and starring Paul Newman.

Steve McQueen was hired for the films The Blob, Never Love a Stranger, and The Great St Louis Bank Robbery.

Steve McQueen appeared on Dale Robertson's NBC Western series Tales of Wells Fargo as Bill Longley.

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.

Steve McQueen first appeared in Season 1, Episode 21, of Trackdown in 1958.

Steve McQueen appeared as Randall in that episode, cast opposite series lead Robert Culp, a former New York motorcycle racing buddy.

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.

Steve McQueen next filmed a pilot episode for what became the series, Wanted Dead or Alive, which aired on CBS in September 1958.

Steve McQueen said he taught McQueen the "art of the fast-draw".

Culp said that by the second day of filming, Steve McQueen beat him at it.

Steve McQueen became a household name as a result of the series.

The 94 episodes that ran from 1958 until early 1961 kept Steve McQueen steadily employed, and he became a fixture at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, where much of the outdoor action for Wanted: Dead or Alive was shot.

At age 29, Steve McQueen got a significant break when Frank Sinatra removed Sammy Davis Jr.

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.

Steve McQueen's focused portrayal of the taciturn second lead catapulted his career.

Steve McQueen's added touches in many of the shots annoyed top-billed Brynner, who protested that McQueen was stealing scenes.

Brynner refused to draw his gun in the same scene with Steve McQueen, knowing that his character would probably be outdrawn.

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.

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.

Also in 1963, Steve McQueen starred in Love with the Proper Stranger with Natalie Wood.

Steve McQueen later appeared as the titular Nevada Smith, a character from Harold Robbins' novel The Carpetbaggers, portrayed by Alan Ladd two years earlier in a movie version of that novel.

The rest of the driving by Steve McQueen's character was done by stunt drivers Bud Ekins and Loren Janes.

Steve McQueen's character drove a 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390, while the antagonist's black Dodge Charger was driven by veteran stunt driver Bill Hickman.

In 1971, Steve McQueen starred in the auto-racing drama Le Mans, which received mixed reviews, followed by Junior Bonner in 1972, a story about an aging rodeo rider.

Steve McQueen collaborated with director Sam Peckinpah in The Getaway, where he met his future wife Ali MacGraw.

Steve McQueen then took on a physically demanding role as a prisoner on Devil's Island in the 1973 film Papillon, alongside Dustin Hoffman as his character's tragic companion.

In 1974, with Paul Newman, Steve McQueen co-led John Guillermin's disaster film, The Towering Inferno.

Steve McQueen was originally asked to play the architect who is the other hero of the story, but he requested to play the fire chief, thinking the part was "showier".

The role of the architect went to Newman, a part that had more lines, hence Steve McQueen requested more dialogue to even it out.

Steve McQueen was paid $1,000,000 plus a percentage of the gross, and he insisted on doing his own stunts.

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 the Henrik Ibsen play.

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.

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.

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.

Steve McQueen and Lewis instantly clashed, the meeting was a disaster, and the role went to Garner.

Steve McQueen looked at me kind of like an older brother, and he didn't want to have much to do with me, till he got in trouble, then he'd call.

Steve McQueen knew he could trust me to tell him just what I thought.

Steve McQueen didn't know where he wanted to be or what he wanted to do.

Director Steven Spielberg said McQueen was his first choice for the character of Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

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.

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.

Steve McQueen then asked Friedkin to let MacGraw act as a producer, so she could be present during principal photography.

Friedkin later remarked that not casting Steve McQueen hurt the film's performance at the box-office.

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 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.

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; the film eventually starred Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston in 1992.

At one point, using editing, Steve McQueen is seen in a German uniform chasing himself on another bike.

Steve McQueen had a one-off outing in the British Touring Car Championship in 1961, driving a BMC Mini at Brands Hatch, finishing third.

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.

Steve McQueen competed in off-road motorcycle racing, frequently running a BSA Hornet and using alias Harvey Mushman.

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.

Steve McQueen's first off-road motorcycle was a Triumph 500 cc, purchased from Ekins.

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.

Steve McQueen retired due to irreparable crash damage, and Ekins withdrew with a broken leg, both on day three.

Steve McQueen was inducted in the Off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1978.

Steve McQueen designed a motorsports bucket seat, for which a patent was issued in 1971.

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.

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.

Steve McQueen dated British-American actress Gia Scala whilst attending Stella Adler's school in New York.

On November 2,1956, Steve McQueen married Filipino actress and dancer Neile Adams, with whom he had a daughter named Terry Leslie and a son named Chad.

Mamie Van Doren claimed to have had an affair with Steve McQueen and tried hallucinogens with him around 1959.

Steve McQueen married his The Getaway co-star Ali MacGraw in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on July 12,1973, and they divorced on August 9,1978.

In 1973, Steve McQueen was one of the pallbearers at Bruce Lee's funeral, along with James Coburn, Lee's brother Robert, Peter Chin, Dan Inosanto, and Taky Kimura.

On January 16,1980, less than 10 months before his death, Steve McQueen married fashion model Barbara Minty.

Steve McQueen attended his local church, Ventura Missionary Church, and was visited by evangelist Billy Graham shortly before his death.

Steve McQueen followed a daily two-hour exercise regimen involving weightlifting and, at one point, running 5 miles, seven days a week.

Biographer Marc Eliot stated that Steve McQueen used a large amount of cocaine in the early 1970s.

Steve McQueen sometimes drank to excess; he was arrested for driving while intoxicated in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1972.

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.

Steve McQueen gave up cigarettes and underwent antibiotic treatments without improvement.

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.

Steve McQueen tried to keep the condition a secret, but on March 11,1980, the National Enquirer disclosed that he had "terminal cancer".

In July 1980, Steve McQueen traveled to Rosarito Beach, Mexico, for unconventional treatment after US doctors told him they could do nothing to prolong his life.

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 in treating cancer.

Steve McQueen paid for Kelley's treatments in cash, which were said to have been upwards of $40,000 per month during his three-month stay in Mexico.

Kelley's methods caused a sensation in the traditional and tabloid press when it became known that Steve McQueen was a patient.

In late October 1980, Steve McQueen flew to Ciudad Juarez in Mexico to have an abdominal tumor on his liver removed, despite warnings from his American doctors that the tumor was inoperable and his heart could not withstand the surgery.

Steve McQueen reportedly died in his sleep with his family at his bedside.

Steve McQueen was cremated and his ashes were spread in the Pacific Ocean.

In 2007,27 years after his death, Forbes said Steve McQueen remained a popular star, was still the "King of Cool", and was one of the highest-earning dead celebrities.

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

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.

In 2012, Steve McQueen was posthumously honored with the Warren Zevon Tribute Award by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization.

Steve McQueen appears as a character in Tarantino's novel of the same name.

Archive footage of Steve McQueen was used to digitally superimpose him driving and exiting the car in settings reminiscent of the film.

Steve McQueen called on McQueen's granddaughter, actress Molly McQueen, to make the announcement.

Steve McQueen drove a Porsche 917 Chassis 022 extensively in Le Mans.

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.