Who is steve mcqueen

Steve McQueen was born in Indiana on March 24, Unable to cope with parenthood, by she left her young son with her parents in Missouri. Reunited in , mother and son moved back to Indiana with her new husband. After bouncing back and forth another time to Missouri, McQueen joined a gang in Los Angeles and, after getting caught stealing hubcaps and getting thrown down a flight of stairs by his stepfather, ended up in reformatory school.

During the 14 months he was enrolled at the California Junior Boys Republic at Chino, McQueen was put into solitary confinement five times. McQueen was 17 when he enlisted in the Marine Corps.

It was there that he learned to use a number of weapons utilized in fight scenes throughout his filmography—including guns, knives, and his hands for street-fighting. During his service, he was promoted to Private First Class but demoted to private seven separate times for various offenses including using a weekend pass to meet up with a girlfriend for two weeks. During a training exercise in the Arctic, the ship hit a sandbank and threw a number of people into the water where many drowned.

McQueen jumped in and rescued five Marines. He was honorably discharged in After being discharged from the Marines, McQueen kept a number of odd jobs, the strangest of which included serving as a getaway driver for robbers, working as a pimp, and selling illegal handguns. He decided to change tacks and headed to New York for acting school. He used money from the G.

Bill to enroll in at the famed Neighborhood Playhouse. The show became a big hit, and McQueen started to attract more attention from Hollywood. Around this time, he discovered a passion for race-car driving. McQueen was already a longtime fan of motorcycles. His television show ended shortly afterward, giving him the opportunity to take on more film roles.

With 's The Great Escape , McQueen earned top billing, showing the world that he was a bona fide movie star. More box office hits followed, including the gambling drama The Cincinnati Kid and the Western Nevada Smith McQueen received his only Academy Award nomination for his work on the military drama The Sand Pebbles , playing a Naval engineer stationed on a gunboat in China during the s.

He then scored another success with the romantic crime caper The Thomas Crown Affair , with Faye Dunaway as his love interest.

That same year, McQueen made waves as a San Francisco cop in Bullitt , particularly for his part in one of cinematic history's most celebrated car chases. Along that vein, he tried to tap into his love of car racing in 's Le Mans , with only limited success. Turning to more weighty material, McQueen had better success as the title character of Junior Bonner , a well-received family drama directed by Sam Peckinpah.

McQueen went on to garner accolades for his performance in the prison drama Papillon , opposite Hoffman, and played a hero in the disaster epic The Towering Inferno As his career progressed, the actor's personal demons began to eclipse his talent. The affair ignited a scandal, as the actress was married to film executive Robert Evans at the time, but McQueen and MacGraw married in Their relationship grew increasingly stormy, fueled in part by McQueen's use of alcohol and drugs, until their divorce in Both of his ex-wives later stated that the actor could be physically abusive and was often unfaithful.

He was almost unrecognizable in the film with his long hair, beard and heavier physique, and audiences did not know what to make of their action hero's portrayal of a scientist fighting against pollution.

He avoided a dishonorable discharge and later took advantage of the GI Bill's education benefits to study at the Actors Studio in New York. Had appeared with Eli Wallach in both his first major successful film, The Magnificent Seven , and his final film, The Hunter When he briefly left The Great Escape during filming, due to the fact that his character did not play as large a part as he would have liked, it was James Coburn and James Garner his friend and immediate next door neighbor in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA who convinced him to return.

Because of the huge success and continuing popularity of the film, it has become his best known role. Always resented the fact that Horst Buchholz was cast as Chico in The Magnificent Seven , the role he had initially wanted. Photographs of his desert racing also show him upon this model. He also visited Triumph's Meriden factory in and for collection and preparation of his motorcycles.

In the movie S. In real life, Farrell frequently cites McQueen as one of his idols and influences as an actor. In , with his growing success, he formed his own production company called Scuderia Condor Enterprises, which he ran until when he and his family moved to Solar Drive and he renamed his company Solar Productons, Inc. Of all the characters he ever played, he frequently cited Lt.

Frank Bullitt from Bullitt as his favorite. The last words he uttered on screen were "God bless you" in The Hunter He died shortly after the film's release. His only two appearances at the Academy Awards were as a presenter: in , he presented the Oscar for Best Sound, and in , holding hands with Claudia Cardinale , he presented the Oscar again for Best Sound. Shortly before filming began on Tom Horn , he had quit smoking cigarettes. His somewhat "squashed" appearance was due to a crash diet.

Former father-in-law of Stacey Toten. Grandfather of Steven R. McQueen and Molly McQueen. In reality, McQueen was conservative in his political beliefs, with a strong belief in self-help. In he had declined to participate in the March on Washington for civil rights and, in , refused to join many of his Hollywood peers in supporting Sen. Robert F. Kennedy 's presidential campaign. McQueen accepted the part, but on one condition. He wanted a co-starring role for his then wife, Ali MacGraw.

Friedkin would not accept his conditions, and McQueen dropped out of the film. Freidkin later went on record has having regretted not accepting McQueen's conditions. After The Towering Inferno he was offered several multi-million-dollar roles but refused them all.

Turned down a role for the sequel to The Towering Inferno in Felt ill during the filming of Tom Horn , and assumed he had pneumonia. However, towards the end of filming he began to cough up blood. On 22 December , after filming had finished, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, which often afflicts workers in ship-building and construction industries.

As in most cases, a tumor was discovered on the outside lining of a lung, and spread to other areas of the body. Although McQueen had been a heavy smoker, which may or may not have been a contributing factor, mesothelioma itself is not a smoking-related lung disease.

While the source of his exposure has been debated, McQueen himself pointed to two likely sources, including the time when he took part in replacing asbestos-based insulation in the ship's engine room during his stint in the Marines. He also believed he could have been exposed in his years as a film star, since soundstage insulation had also been made of asbestos.

Others have suggested sources as varied as automotive brake pads and the cloth used to bandage his broken foot during the 12 hours of Sebring race in He died from two consecutive heart attacks at am on November 7, , less than 24 hours after undergoing surgery at a Mexican clinic where he went to undergo a controversial "apricot pit" therapy that is still banned in the United States to remove the malignant tumors in his stomach and lungs.

According to the doctor present at the operation, his right lung was entirely cancerous. Following the release of Bullitt , McQueen found it hilarious that he was considered the coolest celebrity by teenagers, given that he was almost 40 years old. In November that same year he declared his support for the Vietnam War and voted for Richard Nixon in the presidential election.

Was offered the co-starring role in Breakfast at Tiffany's However, he was still under contract for his television series Wanted: Dead or Alive , which prevented him from appearing. The role eventually went to George Peppard. Suddenly, and with no apparent warning, he vomited over McQueen's shirt and trousers. Turned down Close Encounters of the Third Kind McQueen told director Steven Spielberg he couldn't play a character who was too emotionally oriented.

Posthumously inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers. He did not like gratuitous violence, swearing or nudity in movies. At one point he approached playwright Samuel Beckett with an idea for filming the play "Waiting for Godot", but Becket had never heard of him. Intended to retire after filming The Towering Inferno Turned down the starring roles in Dirty Harry and The French Connection because he didn't want to make any more cop movies after Bullitt His friend and co-star Richard Attenborough said that if McQueen had lived for longer he would have been regarded as the greatest film actor since Spencer Tracy.

British band Prefab Sprout used his name for the title of their second album, released in Due to objections from the late actor's estate, the album was issued with the alternative title of "Two Wheels Good" in the United States. He was considered for Glenn Ford 's role in Pocketful of Miracles McFarland, Kevin Costner has named McQueen as his favorite actor, and his main influence as an actor. He auditioned for Richard Harris ' role in Major Dundee Quigley Down Under was written for McQueen in the s.

However, his health declined and he died before the producers were able to raise the necessary capital for production.

It was eventually released six years after McQueen's death, with Bryan Brown in the lead. The role eventually went to Robert Redford. McQueen and Streisand did not get along due to a clash of egos and politics and refused to appear together although, according to Streisand biographer Christopher Andersen , the two did have an affair at one point.

Kris Kristofferson and Ali MacGraw were then a considered pair, before Clint Eastwood took over as director and cast himself and Sondra Locke in the lead roles. He had expressed interest in starring in Return of the Seven , but Yul Brynner vetoed the idea. Scott 's role in Islands in the Stream because he claimed to be completely retired from acting. Turned down lead roles in The Victors and King Rat because he didn't want to become typecast in war movies. Turned down Ocean's 11 on the advice of his friend Hedda Hopper , who told him to be his own man rather than Frank Sinatra 's "flunky".

On March 21, , three days before his 37th birthday, he became the rd star to put his handprints and footprints on the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater. Turned down a role in A Bridge Too Far because he only wanted top billing roles, not all-star assembled projects. A troubled teenager, he often ran away from home, working on ships, as an oil field laborer and fairground barker. Filmography by Job Trailers and Videos. Hollywood Icons, Then and Now.

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Come Under My Umbrella What did you want to be when you grew up? See more polls ». Nominated for 1 Oscar. See more awards ». Known For. Bullitt Bullitt.