Steve McQueen
By
Brad Balog
“The King of Cool”, better known as Steve McQueen, was one
of the most popular actors of his time. He was an icon, respected
by men who wanted to be like him, and adored by women who found him
irresistible. The life of this high-profile American movie star, however,
did not have such a glamorous beginning. Born on March 24, 1930 in
the small town of Beech Grove, Indiana, Terance Steven McQueen was
raised by neither of his parents. His father left the family when
he was just six months old, and his mother left him to grow up on
a farm in Missouri with his uncle.
At the age of twelve, McQueen was reunited with his mother in Los
Angeles. After joining several gangs, and hanging out with the wrong
crowd, his mother decided to send him to a reformatory school, the
Junior Boys Republic. This school gave McQueen the direction he so
badly needed. A couple of odd jobs and several cities later, McQueen
decided to enlist in the Marines at age seventeen. Although not a
model marine, McQueen served his time and was honorably discharged
three years later. At the suggestion of an actress he was dating,
McQueen auditioned to study in the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York
City. After that, he was one of only two actors accepted into his
class at the famous Actor’s Studio in New York. His first Broadway
production, “A Hatful of Rain” soon followed.
Appearing in several low-budget films in Los Angeles paved the way
for Steve’s first big role in the television series, “Wanted:
Dead or Alive”. This hit western show made McQueen a notable
star amongst audiences, and his classic “rugged” style was
what made him so popular. This was to be his signature. McQueen’s
next big break was in the form of a 1960 movie, “The Magnificent
Seven”. Here he played opposite James Coburn and Charles Bronson
in his first box office hit. McQueen really broke out in the unforgettable
1963 smash hit “The Great Escape”. This film cemented McQueen’s
place among Hollywood’s elite, and by the time “The Getaway”
was released in 1972, Steve McQueen was the highest paid actor in
the world. The combination of his high-profile action movies and his
love for motorcycle and race car driving made McQueen one of the most
exciting movie stars and personalities of the 1970s. He was notorious
for his love of fast cars, partially because another one of his most
popular roles was in the 1968 car-chase movie, “Bullitt”.
Unfortunately after filming “The Hunter” in 1978, McQueen
became very ill. He had been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a lung cancer
caused by asbestos inhalation. He died in Mexico in 1980 from a heart-attack
caused by using alternative treatments. McQueen was one of Hollywood’s
first true action stars, and his persona made him one of the most
original, unforgettable “tough guys” of Tinsel Town.