Steve McQueen

Terence Steven McQueen better known as Steve McQueen was born in Beech Grove, Indiana on March 24, 1930. He was the epitome of cool in the 1960s and came from a troubled childhood and youth spend in reform schools. To this day McQueen is an icon of popular cool culture.

His first film was The Blob in 1958 and he quickly filmed The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery in 1959 as well as Never so Few. In 1960 he appeared in the Magnificent Seven with Yul Brynner. His next film was Hell is for Heroes in 1962 and in The War Lover. He was the Cooler King in The Great Escape in 1963. His leap over barbed wire on a motorcycle while being chased by Nazi troops was actually performed by Bud Ekins.

McQueen's next films included Soldier in the Rain in 1963, Love with the Proper Stranger in 1963 and Baby the Rain Must Fall in 1965. He played US Navy sailor Jake Holman in The Sand Pebbles in 1966 and appeared with Faye Dunaway in the Thomas Crown Affair in 1968. The mega-hit Bullitt in 1968 put McQueen permanently on the top of acting lists. His chase sequence through San Francisco driving a Ford Mustang can never be copied.

His subsequent films include the western Junior Bonner in 1972 and The Getaway in 1972. He surprised audiences in Papillion in 1972 where he played a convict in prison camp in South Africa. The violence he receives when he tries and fails to escape many times is a classic.

McQueen's last role for many years was The Towering Inferno in 1974. He then took a sabbatical and began a long fight against cancer. He did come back to film in 1978 in An Enemy of the People. McQueen's last two films were Tom Horn in 1980 and The Hunter in 1980. He died on November 7, 1980 at 50 years of age. His ashes were scattered at sea.

McQueen was married to Neile Adams from November 1956 until April 1972. They divorced and had two children. He married Ali MacGraw in 1973 and they were divorced in 1978. He then married Barbara Minty in January of 1980 until his death in November 1980.