Oscar Profile #406: Steve McQueen

Born March 24, 1930 in Beech Grove, Indiana, Terence Steven (Steve) McQueen was the son of a stunt pilot who left McQueen’s mother six months after meeting her. Unable to cope with raising a child on her own, she sent the future actor to live with her parents in Slater, Missouri in 1933 at the height of the Great Depression. McQueen and his grandparents then moved in with his mother’s brother Claude on his farm. At eight, his mother took him to live her and her new husband in Indianapolis. At nine, after extensive beatings from his stepfather, McQueen left home to live on the streets where he was arrested for petty crimes. His mother sent him back to live with his uncle on his farm. At twelve, she sent for him to join her and her third husband in Los Angeles. After extensive beatings from that stepfather, he was sent back to his uncle’s farm for a third and final time.

The young boy left his uncle’s farm at fourteen to join the circus, after which he drifted back to his mother and stepfather’s home. In trouble with the police again, his mother declared him incorrigible at fourteen and he was remanded to the Boys Republic in Chino where he became a model citizen. At sixteen he rejoined his mother, now living in Greenwich Village. From there he joined the Merchant Marine on a ship bound for the Dominican Republic. He then found work in a brothel and eventually moved to Texas where he drifted from job to job until joining the marines in 1947. Rebellious at first, he eventually became a hero saving other marines from certain death when a tank broke through the ice in the Artic. He was honorably discharged in 1950.

McQueen studied acting under the G.I. Bill and made his Broadway debut in 1955 in A Hatful of Rain. He made his film debut in a bit part in 1956’s Somebody Up There Likes Me, the year he married Neile Adams with whom he had two children, Terry, bornin 1959 and Chad, born in 1960

The actor had his first lead role in 1958’s The Blob. A starring role in the TV series Wanted: Dead or Alive from 1958-1961 led to more important roles on screen in such films as 1960’s The Magnificent Seven, 1963’s The Great Escape and Love with the Proper Stranger and 1965’s The Cincinnati Kid. 1966’s The Sand Pebbles brought him his only Oscar nomination for Best Actor. He followed that with memorable performances in 1968’s The Thomas Crown Affair and Bullitt, 1969’s The Reivers, 1971’s Le Mans and 1972’s Junior Bonner. A highly publicized affair with Ali MacGraw while filming 1972’s The Getaway led to his divorce from Adams, MacGraw’s divorce from Bob Evans and their 1973-1978 marriage.

McQueen’s last two successful films were 1973’s Papillon and 1974’s The Towering Inferno. He was diagnosed with cancer in November 1979 during the filming of 1980’s Tom Horn. He married third wife Barbara Minty in January 1980 and died while seeking unorthodox treatment for his cancer in Mexico on November 7, 1980. He was just 50 years old.

McQueen’s granddaughter Molly McQueen by son Terry (born 1987) and grandson Steven R. McQueen by son Chad (born 1988) carry on the McQueen acting tradition.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963), directed by John Sturges

This rousing World War II adventure about an escape from a German POW camp turned McQueen into a superstar. Doing his own stunts, the top-billed actor kept co-stars James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasance and others from stealing the limelight. He even played one of the German soldiers chasing him on motorcycle in the final sequence so that he was chasing himself. Caught in a speed trap, he was caught by the local police who told him “Herr McQueen, we have caught several of your comrades today, but you have won the prize [for the highest speeding,]” for which he was briefly jailed.

THE SAND PEBBLES (1966), directed by Robert Wise

Wise’s dream project was so long in pre-production that he took on the direction of The Sound of Music as a fill-in while waiting for all the elements to come together. McQueen, who received his only Oscar nomination as the engineer assigned to a mission rescue on a gunboat in 1926 China, was so profoundly moved by his experience making the film that he did not make another film for two years. Nominated for eight Oscars including Best Picture, Director and Supporting Actor (Mako), the film failed to win any. Non-Oscar nominee Richard Attenborough won a Golden Globe for his supporting performance as McQueen’s nemesis.

BULLITT (1968), directed by Peter Yates

What McQueen did for motorcycles in The Great Escape, he does for Ford Mustangs in this absorbing San Francisco based police procedural in which he chases a Dodge Charger for almost ten minutes of screen time in the most exhilarating car chase ever filmed up to that time. Although McQueen’s driving in the scene is shared with stunt driver Bud Ekins, there are enough shots of McQueen leaning out the driver’s window to establish the fact that it was the actor driving during much of the scene. The film features good supporting turns from Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, Don Gordon, Simon Oakland and Robert Duvall.

PAPILLON (1973), directed by Franklin J. Schaffner

Sold as the true story of Henri “Papillon” Charriere, the book on which it is based was fabricated, the real-life Charriere may have served time in a French prison, but he was never on Devil’s Island where the film takes place. As one might expect, the differing acting styles of McQueen and co-star Dustin Hoffman made for some tense on-set drama, but the two got along surprisingly well. Although Hoffman was generally considered the better actor at the time, McQueen walked off with the critical huzzahs, receiving a Golden Globe nomination for his performance. The film’s only Oscar nomination went to Jerry Goldsmith’s score.

THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974), directed by John Guillermin

Papillon may have been McQueen’s last great screen role, but The Towering Inferno was his last great hit. The actor once again did most of his own stunts as the fire chief in this disaster classic that was produced by both 20th Century-Fox and Warner Bros. as a compromise as they both had competing skyscraper-on-fire projects in the works. McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden and Faye Dunaway were the film’s marquee names, but the only acting awards the film nabbed were for legends Fred Astaire who garnered an Oscar nomination and Jennifer Jones who received a Golden Globe nomination in supporting roles.