Editing Steve McQueen (section)

==Acting==
===1950s===
In 1952, with financial assistance under the [[G.I. Bill]], McQueen began studying acting in New York at [[Sanford Meisner]]'s [[Neighborhood Playhouse]] and at [[HB Studio]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=HB Studio – Notable Alumni |url=https://hbstudio.org/about-hb-studio/alumni/ |access-date=August 19, 2020 |website=HB Studio |archive-date=December 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171202154941/https://hbstudio.org/about-hb-studio/alumni/ |url-status=live }}</ref> under [[Uta Hagen]].<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> He reportedly delivered his first dialogue on a theater stage in a 1952 play produced by [[Yiddish theatre|Yiddish theater]] star [[Molly Picon]]. McQueen's character spoke one brief line: "''Alts iz farloyrn.''" ("''All is lost.''")<ref>{{cite book |last=Karlen |first=Neal |title=The Story of Yiddish: How a Mish-Mosh of Languages Saved the Jews |publisher=William Morrow |date=2008 |isbn=978-0-06-083711-2 }}</ref> During this time, he also studied acting with [[Stella Adler]], in whose class he met [[Gia Scala]].<ref name="GS1">{{cite book |last=Saint James |first=Sterling |date=December 10, 2014 |title=Gia Scala: The First Gia |publisher=Parhelion House |isbn=978-0-9893695-1-0 }}</ref>

Long enamored of cars and motorcycles, McQueen began to earn money by competing in weekend motorcycle races at Long Island City Raceway.{{Where|date=August 2023}} He purchased the first two of many motorcycles, a [[Harley-Davidson]] and a [[Triumph Engineering|Triumph]].<ref name="Terrill 2020" />{{Rp|158}} He soon became an excellent racer, winning about $100 each weekend ({{Inflation|USD|100|1952|r=-2|fmt=eq}}).<ref name="Terrill 1993" /><ref>{{cite web |date=August 17, 2011 |title=CPI Inflation Calculator |url=http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm |access-date=January 15, 2012 |publisher=U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics |archive-date=February 20, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130220000114/http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> He appeared as a musical judge in an episode of [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s ''[[Juke Box Jury|Jukebox Jury]]'', which aired in the 1953–1954 season.<ref>{{cite AV media |title=Jukebox Jury |type=Research Video |publisher=Music Footing Licensing Agency and Vintage Television Footage Archive }}</ref>

McQueen had minor roles in stage productions, including ''Peg o' My Heart'', ''[[The Member of the Wedding]]'' and ''Two Fingers of Pride''. He made his [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] debut in 1955 in the play ''[[A Hatful of Rain]]'' starring [[Ben Gazzara]].<ref name="Terrill 1993" />

In late 1955, McQueen left New York and headed for Los Angeles. He moved into a house on Vestal Avenue in the [[Echo Park]] area, and sought acting jobs in Hollywood.<ref name="oll">{{cite web |title=Our Lady of Loretto Elementary School: Local History Timeline |url=http://www.ollalumni.com/local-history.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715000634/http://www.ollalumni.com/local-history.php |archive-date=July 15, 2011 |website=OLL Alumni }}</ref>

[[File:Steve McQueen - The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959) - 2.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|McQueen in ''[[The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery]]'' (1959)]]

When McQueen appeared in a two-part ''[[Westinghouse Studio One]]'' television presentation entitled "[[The Defender (Studio One)|The Defender]]", Hollywood manager [[Hillard Elkins|Hilly Elkins]] took note of him<ref name="neile">{{cite book |last=McQueen Toffel |first=Neile |date=2006 |author-link=Neile Adams |title=My Husband, My Friend |publisher=Signet Books |isbn=978-1-4259-1818-7 }}</ref> and decided that [[B movie|B movies]] would be a good place for the young actor to make his mark. McQueen's first film role under Elkins' management was a bit part in ''[[Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956 film)|Somebody Up There Likes Me]]'' (1956), directed by [[Robert Wise]] and starring [[Paul Newman]]. McQueen was subsequently hired for the films ''[[The Blob]]'' (his first leading role), ''[[Never Love a Stranger]],'' and ''[[The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery]]'' (1959).

McQueen's first breakout role came on television. He appeared on [[Dale Robertson]]'s [[NBC]] [[Western (genre)|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 (TV series)|Trackdown]],'' to have McQueen read for the part of [[bounty hunter]] Josh Randall. He first appeared in Season 1, Episode 21, of ''Trackdown'' in 1958. He appeared as Randall in that episode, cast opposite series lead [[Robert Culp]], a former New York motorcycle racing buddy. 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.

[[File:Steve McQueen Virginia Gregg Wanted Dead or Alive 1959.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Virginia Gregg]] with McQueen in ''[[Wanted: Dead or Alive (TV series)|Wanted: Dead or Alive]]'', 1959]]

McQueen next filmed a pilot episode for what became the series, ''[[Wanted Dead or Alive (TV series)|Wanted Dead or Alive]]'', which aired on [[CBS]] in September 1958. It became his breakout role.

In interviews associated with the [[DVD]] release of ''Wanted: Dead or Alive'', Robert Culp of ''Trackdown'' claimed credit for bringing McQueen to Hollywood and landing him the part of Randall. He said he taught McQueen the "art of the fast-draw". Culp said that by the second day of filming, McQueen beat him at it.

McQueen became a household name as a result of the series.<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> Randall's special holster held a [[Sawed-off shotgun|sawed-off]] [[.44-40 Winchester|.44–40]] [[Winchester rifle]] (nicknamed the "[[Mare's Leg]]") instead of the [[Revolver|sixgun]] carried by the typical Western character, although the cartridges in the gunbelt were dummy [[.45-70]], chosen because they "looked tougher".

As noted in the three-part DVD special feature on the background of the series, the generally negative image of the bounty hunter added to the [[antihero]] image infused with mystery and detachment that made this show stand out from the typical TV Western. The 94 episodes that ran from 1958 until early 1961 kept McQueen steadily employed, and he became a fixture at the [[Iverson Movie Ranch]] in [[Chatsworth, Los Angeles|Chatsworth]], where much of the outdoor action for ''Wanted: Dead or Alive'' was shot.

At age 29, McQueen got a significant break when [[Frank Sinatra]] removed [[Sammy Davis Jr.]] from the film ''[[Never So Few]]'' after Davis supposedly made some mildly negative remarks about Sinatra in a radio interview, and Davis's role went to McQueen. Sinatra saw something special in McQueen and ensured that the young actor got plenty of closeups in a role that earned McQueen favorable reviews. McQueen's character, Bill Ringa, was never more comfortable than when driving at high speed—in this case in a [[Jeep]]—or handling a [[switchblade]] or a [[Thompson submachine gun|tommy gun]].

===1960s===
[[File:The Magnificent Seven cast publicity photo.jpg|thumb|left|[[Yul Brynner]], McQueen, [[Horst Buchholz]], [[Charles Bronson]], [[Robert Vaughn]], [[Brad Dexter]], and [[James Coburn]] in ''[[The Magnificent Seven]]'', 1960]]

After ''Never So Few'', the film's director [[John Sturges]] cast McQueen in his next movie, promising to "give him the camera". ''[[The Magnificent Seven]]'' (1960), in which he played Vin Tanner and starred with [[Yul Brynner]], [[Eli Wallach]], [[Robert Vaughn]], [[Charles Bronson]], [[Horst Buchholz]] and [[James Coburn]], became McQueen's first major hit and led to his withdrawal from ''Wanted: Dead or Alive''. McQueen's focused portrayal of the taciturn second lead catapulted his career. His added touches in many of the shots (such as twirling a shotgun around before loading it, repeatedly checking his gun while in the background of a shot, and wiping his hat rim) annoyed [[Billing (performing arts)|top-billed]] Brynner, who protested that McQueen was stealing scenes.<ref name="Terrill 1993" /> (In his autobiography,<ref>{{cite book |last=Wallach |first=Eli |date=2005 |title=The Good, the Bad and Me: My Anecdotage |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-15-101189-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/goodbadmeinmyane00wall }}</ref> Eli Wallach reports struggling to conceal his amusement while watching the filming of the funeral procession scene in which Brynner's and McQueen's characters first meet. Brynner was furious at McQueen's shotgun round-twirl, which effectively diverted the viewer's attention to McQueen. Brynner refused to draw his gun in the same scene with McQueen, knowing that his character would probably be outdrawn.<ref name="Terrill 1993" />)

McQueen played the top-billed lead role in the next big Sturges film, 1963's ''[[The Great Escape (film)|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 McQueen from performing the film's notable motorcycle leap, which was done by his friend and fellow cycle enthusiast [[Bud Ekins]], who resembled McQueen from a distance.<ref>Rubin, Steve. – Documentary: ''Return to 'The Great Escape''. – MGM Home Entertainment. – 1993.</ref> When [[Johnny Carson]] later tried to congratulate McQueen for the jump during a broadcast of ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson|The Tonight Show]]'', McQueen said, "It wasn't me. That was Bud Ekins." This film established McQueen's box-office clout and secured his status as a superstar.<ref>{{cite book |last=Maltin |first=Leonard |author-link=Leonard Maltin |title=Leonard Maltin's Family Film Guide |publisher=Signet |date=1999 |location=New York |page=225 |isbn=978-0-451-19714-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/leonardmaltinsfa00malt/page/225 }}</ref>

Also in 1963, McQueen starred in ''[[Love with the Proper Stranger]]'' with [[Natalie Wood]]. He later appeared as the titular ''[[Nevada Smith]]'', a character from [[Harold Robbins]]' novel ''[[The Carpetbaggers]]'', portrayed by [[Alan Ladd]] two years earlier in a [[The Carpetbaggers (film)|movie version]] of that novel. ''Nevada Smith'' was an enormously successful [[Western (genre)|Western]] action adventure prequel that also featured [[Karl Malden]] and [[Suzanne Pleshette]]. After starring in 1965's ''[[The Cincinnati Kid]]'' as a poker player, McQueen earned his only [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] nomination in 1966 for his role as an engine room sailor in ''[[The Sand Pebbles (film)|The Sand Pebbles]]'', in which he starred opposite [[Richard Crenna]] and [[Candice Bergen]] and [[Richard Attenborough]], with whom he had previously worked in ''The Great Escape''.<ref name="Nolan 1984" />

He followed his Oscar nomination with 1968's ''[[Bullitt]]'' – one of his best-known films, and his personal favorite – which co-starred [[Jacqueline Bisset]], [[Robert Vaughn]] and [[Don Gordon (actor)|Don Gordon]]. It featured an unprecedented (and endlessly imitated) car chase through San Francisco. Although McQueen did the driving that appeared in closeups, his was about 10% of what is seen in the film's car chase. The rest of the driving by McQueen's character was done by stunt drivers [[Bud Ekins]] and [[Loren Janes]].<ref name="Myers 2011" /> McQueen's character drove a 1968 [[Ford Mustang]] GT 390, while the antagonist's black [[Dodge Charger#First generation: 1966–1967|Dodge Charger]] was driven by veteran stunt driver [[Bill Hickman]]. McQueen, his stunt drivers and Hickman spent several days before the scene was shot practicing high-speed, close-quarters driving.<ref>{{cite AV media |title=I Am Steve McQueen |last=Renfroe |first=Jeff |date=2014 |type=DVD |publisher=Network Entertainment }}</ref> ''Bullitt'' went so far over budget that [[Warner Bros.]] canceled the contract on the rest of his films, seven in all.

When ''Bullitt'' became a huge box-office success, Warner Bros. tried to woo him back, but he refused, and his next film was made with an independent studio and released by [[United Artists]]. For the film, McQueen went for a change of image, playing a debonair role as a wealthy executive in ''[[The Thomas Crown Affair (1968 film)|The Thomas Crown Affair]]'' with [[Faye Dunaway]] in 1968. The following year, he made the Southern [[period piece]], ''[[The Reivers (film)|The Reivers]]''.

===1970s===
In 1971, McQueen starred in the auto-racing drama ''[[Le Mans (film)|Le Mans]]'', which received mixed reviews, followed by ''[[Junior Bonner]]'' in 1972, a story about an aging rodeo rider. He collaborated once again with director [[Sam Peckinpah]] in ''[[The Getaway (1972 film)|The Getaway]]'', where he met his future wife [[Ali MacGraw]]. McQueen then took on a physically demanding role as a prisoner on [[Devil's Island]] in the 1973 film ''[[Papillon (1973 film)|Papillon]]'', alongside [[Dustin Hoffman]] as his character's tragic companion.

By the time of ''The Getaway'', McQueen was the world's highest-paid actor.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barger |first1=Ralph |author-link=Ralph "Sonny" Barger |last2=Zimmerman |first2=Keith |last3=Zimmerman |first3=Kent |title=Ridin' High, Livin' Free: Hell-Raising Motorcycle Stories |date=2003 |publisher=Harper Paperbacks |isbn=978-0-06-000603-7 |page=37 }}</ref>

In 1974, with [[Paul Newman]], McQueen co-led [[John Guillermin]]'s disaster film, ''[[The Towering Inferno]]''. McQueen played a fire chief assigned to stop a fire in a skyscraper. He 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 McQueen requested more dialogue to even it out. McQueen was paid $1,000,000 plus a percentage of the gross, and he insisted on doing his own stunts. The film was a success, and its North American gross was $55,000,000.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Towering Inferno (1974) |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/54398-THE-TOWERING-INFERNO?cxt=filmography |website=[[AFI Catalog of Feature Films]] |publisher=[[American Film Institute]] |access-date=March 14, 2025 }}</ref>

After this, McQueen disappeared from the public eye to focus on motorcycle racing, traveling around the country in a [[motor home]] and on his vintage [[Indian Motocycle Manufacturing Company|Indian motorcycles]]. He did not return to acting until 1978 with ''[[An Enemy of the People (1978 film)|An Enemy of the People]]'', playing against type as a bearded, bespectacled 19th-century doctor in this adaptation of the [[Henrik Ibsen]] play. The film was never properly released theatrically, but it has appeared occasionally on [[PBS]].

McQueen's final two films, both released in 1980, were loosely based on true stories: ''[[Tom Horn (film)|Tom Horn]]'', a Western adventure about a former Army scout turned professional gunman who works for big cattle ranchers hunting down rustlers, and later hanged for murder in the shooting death of a sheepherder; and ''[[The Hunter (1980 film)|The Hunter]]'', an urban action movie about a modern-day [[bounty hunter]].

===Missed roles===
McQueen was offered the lead male role in ''[[Breakfast at Tiffany's (film)|Breakfast at Tiffany's]]'', but was unable to accept due to his ''Wanted: Dead or Alive'' contract (the role went to [[George Peppard]]).<ref name="Terrill 1993" /><ref name="JonesM-MS-1994-03-19">Jones Meg. – "McQueen Biography Is Portrait of a Rebel". – ''[[Milwaukee Sentinel]]''. – March 19, 1994.</ref> He turned down parts in ''[[Ocean's 11]]'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rahner |first=Mark |date=June 12, 2005 |title=New DVD collections remind us why McQueen was the King of Cool |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/new-dvd-collections-remind-us-why-mcqueen-was-the-king-of-cool/ |access-date=August 19, 2020 |website=The Seattle Times |archive-date=October 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021083836/https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/new-dvd-collections-remind-us-why-mcqueen-was-the-king-of-cool/ |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid]]'' (his attorneys and agents could not agree with Paul Newman's attorneys and agents on top billing),<ref name="Terrill 1993" /><ref name="JonesM-MS-1994-03-19" /> ''[[The Driver]]'',<ref>{{cite news |last=Burger |first=Mark |title=Walter Hill Crime Story from 1978 Led the Way in its Genre |newspaper=[[Winston-Salem Journal]] |date=June 9, 2005 }}</ref><ref>French, Philip. – Review: "DVD club: No 44 The Driver". – ''[[The Observer]]'' – November 5, 2006.</ref> ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'',<ref name="Nolan 1984" />{{Rp|172}} ''[[California Split]]'',<ref>Shields, Mel. – "Elliott Gould has had quite a career to joke about". – ''[[The Sacramento Bee]]''. – October 27, 2002.</ref> ''[[Dirty Harry]]'', ''[[A Bridge Too Far (film)|A Bridge Too Far]]'', ''[[The French Connection (film)|The French Connection]]'' (he did not want to do another cop film),<ref name="Terrill 1993" /><ref name="JonesM-MS-1994-03-19" /> ''[[Close Encounters of the Third Kind]]'' and ''[[Sorcerer (film)|Sorcerer]]''.

According to director [[John Frankenheimer]] and actor [[James Garner]] in bonus interviews for the DVD of the film ''[[Grand Prix (1966 film)|Grand Prix]]'', McQueen was Frankenheimer's first choice for the lead role of American Formula One race car driver Pete Aron. Frankenheimer was unable to meet with McQueen to offer him the role, so he sent [[Edward Lewis (producer)|Edward Lewis]], his business partner and the producer of ''Grand Prix''. McQueen and Lewis instantly clashed, the meeting was a disaster, and the role went to Garner.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

Later, in an interview, Garner said:

{{blockquote|Oh, McQueen. Crazy McQueen. McQueen and I got along pretty good. 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. He knew he could trust me to tell him just what I thought. A lot of people wouldn't do that. And then we had... it wasn't a falling out... as I did Grand Prix, Steve was originally slated to do that movie, but he couldn't get along with Frankenheimer. So that lasted about thirty minutes, and Steve was out, and I was in. And Steve went over to do Sand Pebbles, which went about a year longer than they wanted to go. Big production, spent a lot of money and stayed over in [Taiwan] too long. So, when I got the part in Grand Prix, I called him, in Taiwan. and I said, "Steve, I want to tell you, before you hear it from somebody else, that I'm going to do Grand Prix." Well, there was about a twenty dollar silence there, on the telephone. He didn't know what to say, and finally said "Oh, that's great, great, I'm glad to hear it." Because, he planned to do Le Mans, which was another title at the time, but we were going to be out, and Grand Prix released before he ever even got to that film. But he said, "Great, great, well, I'm glad to hear it; that's good. You know, if anybody's gonna do it, I'm glad, you're doin' it."

He didn't talk to me for about a year and half, and we were next-door neighbors, so it did get to him a little bit. Finally, his son, Chad, made him take him to go see Grand Prix. And from that time on, we were talking again. But Steve was a wild kid. He didn't know where he wanted to be or what he wanted to do.<ref>{{cite AV media |title=James Garner discusses Steve McQueen and 'Grand Prix' |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UIJbxskw1c |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/4UIJbxskw1c |archive-date=December 11, 2021 |url-status=live |access-date=November 16, 2021 }}{{cbignore}}</ref>}}

Director [[Steven Spielberg]] said McQueen was his first choice for the character of Roy Neary in ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''. According to Spielberg in a documentary on the film's DVD release, Spielberg met him at a bar, where McQueen drank beer after beer. Before leaving, McQueen told Spielberg that he could not accept the role because he was unable to cry on cue.<ref>, Clarke, Roger. – "The Independent: Close Encounters of the Third Kind 9 pm Film4". – ''[[The Independent]]''. – April 21, 2007.</ref><ref>Tucker, Reed, Isaac Guzman, and John Anderson. – "Cinema Paradiso: The True Story of an Incredible Year in Film". – ''[[New York Post]]''. – August 5, 2007.</ref> Spielberg offered to take the crying scene out of the story, but McQueen demurred, saying that it was the best scene in the script. The role eventually went to [[Richard Dreyfuss]].

[[William Friedkin]] wanted to cast McQueen as the lead in the action thriller film ''[[Sorcerer (film)|Sorcerer]]'' (1977). ''Sorcerer'' was to be filmed primarily on location in the Dominican Republic, but McQueen did not want to be separated from Ali MacGraw for the duration of the shoot. McQueen then asked Friedkin to let MacGraw act as a producer, so she could be present during principal photography. Friedkin would not agree to this condition, and cast [[Roy Scheider]] instead of McQueen. Friedkin later remarked that not casting McQueen hurt the film's performance at the box-office.

Spy novelist [[Jeremy Duns]] revealed that McQueen was considered for the lead role in a film adaptation of ''[[The Diamond Smugglers]]'', written by [[James Bond]] creator [[Ian Fleming]]. McQueen would play John Blaize, a secret agent gone undercover to infiltrate a diamond-smuggling ring in South Africa. There were complications with the project, which was eventually shelved, although a 1964 screenplay does exist.<ref>"From Johannesburg With Love", in ''The Sunday Times'', March 7, 2010.</ref>

McQueen and [[Barbra Streisand]] were tentatively cast in ''[[The Gauntlet (film)|The Gauntlet]]'' (1977), but the pair could not get along and both withdrew from the project<ref name="Eliot" />—though according to one biographer, they had briefly dated in 1971.<ref>{{cite book|first= Christopher|last=Andersen|title=Barbra: The Way She Is|year=2006|publisher= HarperCollins|isbn=9780061862519|page=[https://archive.org/details/barbrawaysheisande/page/206 206]}}</ref> The lead roles were filled by [[Clint Eastwood]] and [[Sondra Locke]].

McQueen expressed interest in the [[John Rambo|Rambo]] character in ''[[First Blood]]'' when [[David Morrell]]'s novel appeared in 1972, but the producers rejected him because of his age.<ref>Toppman, Lawrence. – "Will He or Won't He?". – ''[[The Charlotte Observer]]''. – May 22, 1988.</ref><ref>Morrell, David, Jay MacDonald. – "Writers find fame with franchises". ''[[The News-Press]]''. – March 2, 2003.</ref>

He was offered the title role in ''[[The Bodyguard (1992 film)|The Bodyguard]]'' (to star [[Diana Ross]]) 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.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Beck |first1=Marilyn |first2=Stacy Jenel |last2=Smith |title=Costner Sings to Houston's Debut |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Daily News]] |date=October 7, 1991 }}</ref>

''[[Quigley Down Under]]'' was in development as early as 1974, with McQueen in consideration for the lead, but by the time production began in 1980, McQueen was ill. The project was scrapped until a decade later, when [[Tom Selleck]] starred.<ref>Persico Newhouse, Joyce J. – "'Perfect Hero' Selleck Takes Aim at Action". – ''[[Times Union (Albany)|Times Union]]''. – October 18, 1990.</ref>