Steven McQueen

McQueen married thrice in his lifetime. His first marriage was to Neile Adams in 1956. She bore him a son and a daughter. The two divorced in 1972 and McQueen later married his ‘The Getaway’ co-star Ali MacGraw in 1973. This marriage too did not work and they separated in 1978. He finally married his third wife, Barbara Minty, a model. Apart from his three marriages, he dated a couple of women including Barbara Leigh, Lauren Hutton and Mamie Van Doren.

McQueen was a drug addict. He smoked marijuana and cocaine and was a heavy cigarette smoker. He was also an alcoholic.

McQueen refreshed his childhood memories by visiting the Boy’s Republic school often. Therein, he played pool with the boys and spoke his heart out about his life and work.

Steve McQueen was born Terence Steve McQueen to William Terence McQueen and Julia Ann nee Crawford on March 24, 1930 in Beech Grove, Indiana. His father, a stunt pilot, left Julia six months after meeting her.

McQueen was mostly raised by his maternal grandparents and his uncle Claude at the latter’s farm in Missouri, as his mother was an alcoholic and prostitute and couldn’t care for young McQueen. He was raised as a Catholic.

When McQueen turned eight, his mother took him with her to his step-father’s place in Indianapolis. Adolescent McQueen faced tough time coping with the new environment, new place and new people.

Unable to bear the atrocities cast upon by his step father, McQueen left home at the age of nine. His mother sent him back to Claude only to call him again three years later to a new father and a new home in Los Angeles. However, history repeated itself and McQueen returned to his uncle a final time.

At the age of 14, he temporarily joined circus. He then returned to his step father and mother at Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the relation with his parents only worsened with time and McQueen was sent to the California Junior Boys Republic in Chino. At the Republic, McQueen rose to fame so much so that he was elected to the Boys Council.

Following his service in the Marines, McQueen returned to New York. In 1952, he enrolled himself at Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse, an acting school. The same year, he made his stage debut for a Yiddish play, delivering his first and only dialogue.

Alongside acting, McQueen rekindled his childhood interest in racing. He competed in weekend motorcycle races, emerging victorious almost each time. With the money earned, he bought himself the first of the many more to come Harley Davidson.

Between 1952 and 1955, McQueen took up minor roles in several plays. In 1955, he made his Broadway debut with the play ‘A Hatful of Rain’. The same year, he left for California, to make a place for himself in Hollywood.

McQueen’s Hollywood tryst began with B-movies. ‘Somebody Up There Likes Me’ marked his Hollywood debut. Soon to follow were flicks like ‘Never Love a Stranger’, ‘The Blob’ and ‘The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery’.

McQueen’s career breakthrough came in television for Dale Robertson’s western series, ‘Tales of Wells Fargo’. Immediately thereafter, he appeared as bounty hunter, Randall in the television show ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’.The show ran from 1958 until 1961 and was a major hit. It earned McQueen lot of attention and praise.

McQueen won huge accolades and appreciation for the scintillating military drama, ‘The Sand Pebbles’. He played a naval engineer on-board a boat in China in the 1920s. Such was the brilliance of his role play that it earned him an Academy Awards nomination for best actor.

His career’s best came with the flick ‘Bullitt’.The film was a power-packed package of what Steve McQueen was all about – acting and racing. The film had him play a San Francisco cop who is on a hunting spree of his suspects. It had some of the amazing car chases ever shot in Hollywood.