Editing Steve McQueen (section)

==Early life==
Terrence Stephen McQueen<ref name="Aaker 2017" />{{Rp|292}}<ref name="Laurie 2019" />{{Rp|233}} was born at [[St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers|St. Francis Hospital]] in [[Beech Grove, Indiana]], on March 24, 1930,<ref name="CineArtistes">{{cite web |url=http://www.cineartistes.com/?page=images&id=573&type=3 |title=Indiana State Board of Health Certificate of Birth |website=CineArtistes.com |access-date=January 8, 2019 |archive-date=September 5, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905231832/http://www.cineartistes.com/?page=images&id=573&type=3 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Terrill 1993" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Obituary |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=November 12, 1980 }}</ref> the son of Julia Ann (or Julianne) Crawford<ref name="CineArtistes" /><ref name="untold">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/mcqueenuntoldsto0000spie |url-access=registration |title=McQueen: The Untold Story of a Bad Boy in Hollywood |first=Penina |last=Spiegel |publisher=Berkley Books |date=1987 |via=[[Internet Archive]] |access-date=January 15, 2012 |isbn=978-0-425-10486-6 }}</ref>{{Rp|9}} and flying circus [[stunt pilot]] William McQueen.<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> He was of Scottish descent and grew up in a [[Catholic Church in the United States|Catholic]] household.<ref>{{cite web |last=Mackay |first=Kathy |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20077667,00.html |title=Steve McQueen, Stricken with Cancer, Seeks a Cure at a Controversial Mexican Clinic |work=[[People (magazine)|People]] |quote=Raised as a Catholic, he now feels he has, according to one friend, 'made his peace with God.' |date=October 20, 1980 |access-date=August 7, 2010 |archive-date=April 30, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100430175930/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20077667,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Leith |first=William |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200111260047 |title=Easy Rider |work=[[New Statesman]] |quote=Steve knew what it was like to be dyslexic, deaf, illegitimate, backward, beaten, abused, deserted and raised Catholic in a Protestant heartland. |date=November 26, 2001 |archive-date=June 8, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608154525/http://www.newstatesman.com/200111260047 |url-status=live |access-date=August 7, 2010 }}</ref> He was raised by his mother, who was abandoned by his father six months after they met.<ref name="Terrill 2020" />{{Rp|158}} Several biographers have stated that his mother was an alcoholic.<ref name="untold" />{{Rp|72}}<ref name="Eliot">{{cite book |first=Marc |last=Eliot |title=Steve McQueen: A Biography |publisher=[[Crown Publishing Group]] |date=2011 |isbn=978-0-307-45323-5 }}</ref><ref name="Nolan 1984" />{{Rp|7–8}}<ref>{{cite book |last=McQueen Toffel |first=Neile |title=My Husband, My Friend |publisher=Penguin Group |date=1986 |page=[https://archive.org/details/myhusbandmyfrien00toff/page/4 4] |isbn=978-0-451-14735-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/myhusbandmyfrien00toff/page/4 }}</ref> Unable to cope with caring for him, she decided in 1933 to leave him with her parents Lillian and Victor in [[Slater, Missouri]]. As the [[Great Depression]] worsened, McQueen and his grandparents moved in with Lillian's brother Claude and his family at their farm in Slater.<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> 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".<ref name="Terrill 1993" />

Claude gave McQueen a red tricycle on his fourth birthday, which McQueen subsequently credited with sparking his early interest in car racing.<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> His mother, who had since married, brought McQueen from the farm to live with her and his stepfather in Indianapolis when he was eight years old. He later recalled, "The day I left the farm, Uncle Claude gave me a personal going-away present—a gold pocket watch, with an inscription inside the case." The inscription read: "To Steve, who has been a son to me."<ref name="Nolan 1984" /> Dyslexic and partially deaf due to a childhood ear infection,<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> McQueen did not adjust well to school or his new life, and his stepfather beat him to such an extent that he left home to live on the streets at the age of nine.<ref name="Eliot" /> He later said, "When a kid doesn't have any love when he's small, he begins to wonder if he's good enough. My mother didn't love me, and I didn't have a father. I thought, 'Well, I must not be very good.{{'"}}<ref name="Terrill 2020" />{{Rp|7}} 

Julia wrote to Claude when McQueen was 12, asking that he be returned to her again to live in [[Los Angeles]], where she now lived with her second husband. By McQueen's own account, he and his new stepfather "locked horns immediately".<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> McQueen recalls him being "a prime son of a bitch" who was not averse to beating both McQueen and Julia.<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> McQueen began to rebel again and was sent back to live with Claude for a final time.<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> At age 14, he left Claude's farm without saying goodbye and joined a circus for a short time.<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> He drifted back to his mother and stepfather in Los Angeles, resuming his life as a gang member and petty criminal.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/S/bo52924796.html |title=Steve McQueen |publisher=Dalton Watson Fine Books |access-date=November 9, 2020 |archive-date=April 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416113238/https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/S/bo52924796.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He was caught stealing [[hubcap]]s by the police and handed over to his stepfather, who beat him severely and threw him down a flight of stairs. McQueen looked up at his stepfather and said, "You lay your stinking hands on me again and I swear I'll kill you."<ref name="Terrill 1993" />

After this incident, McQueen's stepfather persuaded his mother to sign a court order stating that McQueen was incorrigible, remanding him to the [[Boys Republic|California Junior Boys Republic]] in [[Chino Hills, California|Chino Hills]].<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> McQueen began to change and mature there, but was not popular with the other boys at first: "Say the boys had a chance once a month to load into a bus and go into town to see a movie. And they lost out because one guy in the bungalow didn't get his work done right. Well, you can pretty well guess they're gonna have something to say about that. I paid my dues with the other fellows quite a few times. I got my lumps, no doubt about it. The other guys in the bungalow had ways of paying you back for interfering with their well-being."<ref>{{cite book |last=McCoy |first=Malachy |title=Steve McQueen, The Unauthorized Biography |publisher=Signet Books |date=1975 |isbn=978-0-352-39811-6 }}</ref>

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.<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> He left the Boys Republic at age 16. When he later became famous as an actor, he regularly returned to talk to resident boys and retained a lifelong association with the center.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gehring |first=Wes D. |date=April 20, 2013 |title=Steve McQueen: The Great Escape |publisher=Indiana Historical Society |isbn=978-0-87195-309-4 |pages=15–16 }}</ref> At age 16, he returned to live with his mother, who had since moved to New York City's [[Greenwich Village]]. He met two sailors from the [[United States Merchant Marine|Merchant Marine]] there and decided to sign on to a ship bound for the Dominican Republic.<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> Once there, he abandoned his new post and was eventually employed at a [[brothel]].<ref name="Eliot" /> He later ventured to Texas and drifted from job to job, including selling pens at a traveling carnival and working as a lumberjack in Canada. Upon his arrest for vagrancy in the [[Deep South]], he served a 30-day assignment on a [[chain gang]].<ref name="Terrill 2020" />{{Rp|28}}

In 1947, after receiving permission from his mother since he was not yet 18 years old, McQueen enlisted in the [[United States Marine Corps|Marines]] and was sent to [[Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island|Parris Island]] for boot camp.<ref name="Laurie 2019" />{{Rp|106}}<ref name="Fried 2006" /><ref name="Zimmerman 2017" /> He was promoted to [[private first class]] and assigned to an armored unit.<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> He initially struggled with conforming to the discipline of the service and was demoted to private seven times. He 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. After resisting arrest, he was sentenced to 41 days in the [[Military prison#Brig|brig]].<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> After this, he resolved to focus his energies on self-improvement and embraced the Marines' discipline. He saved the lives of five other Marines during an Arctic exercise, pulling them from a tank before it broke through ice into the sea.<ref name="Terrill 1993" /><ref>{{cite web |last=Enk |first=Bryan |date=July 26, 2013 |title=Real Life Tough Guys |url=https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/photos/real-life-tough-guys-1374864278-slideshow/ |website=Yahoo |access-date=March 13, 2025 }}</ref> He was assigned to the honor guard responsible for guarding [[USS Williamsburg|USS ''Williamsburg'']], the presidential yacht of [[Harry S Truman|Harry S. Truman]].<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> He served until 1950, when he was [[Honorable discharge|honorably discharged]].<ref name="Laurie 2019" />{{Rp|106}}<ref name="Fried 2006" /><ref name="Zimmerman 2017" /> He later said he had enjoyed his time in the Marines,<ref>{{cite book |last=Gehring |first=Wes D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BzYHlGCGMgYC&pg=PA20 |title=Steve McQueen:The Great Escape |publisher=[[Indiana Historical Society]] |isbn=978-0-87195-333-9 |date=April 20, 2013 |access-date=January 10, 2020 |archive-date=April 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424215426/https://books.google.com/books?id=BzYHlGCGMgYC&pg=PA20 |url-status=live }}</ref> remembering it as a formative time in his life: "The Marines made a man out of me. I learned how to get along with others, and I had a platform to jump off of."<ref name="Terrill 2020" />{{Rp|39}}