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Steve McQueen biography

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  • PLACE OF DEATH: Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
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One of the most popular actors of the 1960s and 70s, Steve McQueen had a cool, tough guy persona. One of his most famous films is The Thomas Crown Affair.

Synopsis

Steve McQueen was an American movie actor, nicknamed "The King of Cool" for his anti-hero persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture. In 1974, he became the highest-paid movie star in the world. Some of his popular films include The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, The Getaway and Papillon. He was an avid motorcycle and car racer.

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Actor. Born Steven Terrence McQueen on March 24, 1930, in Beech Grove, Indiana. One of the most popular film actors of the 1960s and 1970s, Steve McQueen was known for his rugged good looks and cool, tough guy persona. Some of most memorable films include The Great Escape (1963), Bullitt (1968), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and The Getaway (1972).

McQueen barely knew his father, Terrence, who abandoned Steve and his mother, Julian, when he was only a few months old. More interested in her own life, Julian soon left Steve in the care of his great-granduncle Claude Thompson. He stayed with his great-grand-uncle on his farm in Slater, Missouri, for many years, hearing from and seeing his mother from time to time.

When McQueen was around 12 years old, he reunited with his mother after she remarried. They eventually moved to Los Angeles, California, where he got involved with some local gangs. He got caught stealing hubcaps from cars twice, and his mother decided to send him to reform school.

Feeling abandoned once again by his mother, McQueen was sent to the California Junior Boys' Republic in Chino. He initially struggled in this new environment, frequently breaking the rules and even escaping several times. Befriend by a member of the staff, McQueen eventually settled down. He later believed that the experience changed his life, saying "I would have ended up in jail or something. I was a wild kid," according to My Husband, My Friend by McQueen's first wife Neile McQueen Toffel.

McQueen's mother never visited him during his time at Boys' Republic and rarely wrote to him. Despite his own hard feelings, McQueen agreed to join his mother in New York City in 1946. The 16-year-old arrived there to find out that his mother had put him up in another apartment instead of letting him live with her. McQueen soon took off, becoming a merchant mariner for a short time aboard the SS Alpha. The job didn't work out either and he left the ship while it was docked in the Dominican Republic.

Before making his way back to the United States, McQueen worked in a brothel as a towel boy for a time. He returned home and began a series of odd jobs around the country, including working on oil rigs and in a carnival. In 1947, McQueen enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and became a tank driver. Showing his rebellious streak, he ended up in the brig for extending a weekend pass into a two-week holiday. McQueen was far from the model soldier. "I was busted back down to private about seven times. The

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