He appeared in three more films, An Enemy of the People, Tom Horn, and The Hunter, but after The Towering Inferno, he retreated from the public eye to focus on more personal pursuits, chief among them collecting vintage cars and motorcycles.Īs any true fan knows, McQueen was an avid motorcycle and racecar enthusiast. The Towering Inferno was a smash success and one of the highest-grossing films of all time. By this time, he was the world's highest paid actor, and he agreed to star in The Towering Inferno with Paul Newman. After Le Mans, McQueen starred in The Getaway with future wife Ali McGraw, and in Papillon he co-starred with Dustin Hoffman. The result, Le Mans, was not a box-office hit, but has grown into a cult classic and is considered the most authentic film ever made about auto-racing. He then starred in The Thomas Crown Affair with Faye Dunaway, in which his role as the wealthy, debonair art thief helped to cement his status as a sex-symbol and fashion-icon.Īfter the successes of Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair, McQueen pursued his dream of creating a film about his passion: auto-racing. McQueen himself did a good portion of the stunt driving (at least until the insurance agents showed up on set), and the green Ford Mustang in Bullitt became one of the many vehicles made famous by association with Steve McQueen. The film was a huge box-office success featuring Steve's cool, fashionable persona and the most famous car chase scene in film history. In 1968, McQueen starred as San Francisco PD Detective Frank Bullitt in Bullitt. Following this in quick succession, he starred in Love with the Proper Stranger with Natalie Wood, in the huge western hit Nevada Smith, as a poker player in The Cincinnati Kid, and as a sailor in The Sand Pebbles, a role for which he earned an Academy Award nomination. The images from The Great Escape of Steve McQueen bouncing the baseball off the wall of his cell and riding his motorcycle across the countryside are etched indelibly into the annals of Hollywood history. His next starring role, in 1963's The Great Escape, firmly established McQueen's box-office clout and secured his status as a superstar. His first major hit was in The Magnificent Seven along with Yul Brynner, Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson and James Coburn. #STEVE MEADE DESIGNS IMG TV#Steve McQueen became a star on TV and would soon replicate that stardom on the big screen. #STEVE MEADE DESIGNS IMG SERIES#However, his first big break came on the small screen, where he landed the starring role as the bounty hunter Josh Randall on the CBS Series Wanted: Dead or Alive. After nabbing bit parts in several films, he landed his first starring role in the 1958 horror cult classic The Blob. Later that year, at the age of 25, McQueen left New York and headed to Hollywood to further his acting career. He began his acting career with small roles on the stage and on live TV, and made his Broadway debut in 1955 in the play A Hatful of Rain. Bill, McQueen began taking acting lessons in New York. With financial assistance provided to him by the G.I. After some early rebelliousness, he served with distinction until 1950 when he was honorably discharged. To this day, the McQueen estate along with supporters of the Boys Republic, hold a major car show every year in Chino to raise funds for the school.Īt age 16, McQueen left Chino, traveling first to New York City and then across the country, working various jobs as a merchant marine, a lumberjack, a trinket salesman in a carnival, and an oil rigger. When he became famous, he would regularly visit the Boys Republic and he supported the organization with donations of clothes and money. It was here that Steve began to get his life under control and he later credited the Boys Republic with setting him on the right path. Eventually he was remanded to the care of the California Boys Republic in Chino. In his adolescence, his problems at home led him to take to the streets, and he was often in trouble. As a young boy, he was shuttled back and forth between his mother's care and his Uncle's farm in Missouri.
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