#SteveMcQueen

Terence Steven McQueen (Beech Grove, March 24, 1930 - Ciudad Juárez, November 7, 1980) was an American actor, racing driver and stuntman.
A student of the New York Actors Studio, he was one of the most famous actors between the sixties and the seventies. Famous for his reckless and anti-hero attitude, although he has always been a rather "difficult" actor for directors and producers, he always managed to get major roles and hefty rewards.
Nicknamed "King of cool", he represents a point of reference in the world of men's style, also for the clothes and accessories worn on the set and at the waist, which later became iconic.

The origins
He was of European descent. The son of a stuntman who abandoned his wife, at 14 he was already a member of a gang and his mother was forced to send the boy to a correctional school. Later, McQueen joined the Marine Corps. In 1952, thanks to a loan provided to former soldiers, he began taking acting classes at Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio in New York. In 1955 Steve McQueen made his Broadway debut.

Career
McQueen made his film debut in Robert Wise's Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), but his first starring film was The Blob (1958). The first great interpretation of him can be considered that of the cowboy Vin in the western The Magnificent Seven (1960) by John Sturges. The following year it was the turn of the war film Hell Is For Heroes (1961) by Don Siegel. The definitive consecration for McQueen came thanks to the blockbuster The Great Escape (1963), also directed by John Sturges. In 1965, director Norman Jewison cast him for Cincinnati Kid (1965). In 1966, directed by Robert Wise in the film The Sand Pebbles, McQueen earned his first and only Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Norman Jewison will return to direct McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). In the same year the actor was directed by Peter Yates in the crime drama Bullitt (1968). In the first half of the seventies McQueen consolidated his fame with Sam Peckinpah in the modern western Junior Bonner (1972) and then in the detective story The Getaway (1972). The following year it was the turn of Papillon (1973), a prison film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. The character of Henri Charrière, a real convict and author of the novel of the same name from which the film is based, is considered by many to be McQueen's best and most demanding interpretation. The following year John Guillermin directed him in the blockbuster The Towering Inferno (1974), alongside Paul Newman and William Holden. In the second half of the seventies the actor's career entered a phase of decline. In 1980 he played Tom Horn in the film of the same name directed by William Wiard. His last appearance on the big screen was in 1980 in The Hunter (1980), a detective story with comic undertones, directed by Buzz Kulik.

Sickness and death
In 1979 he was diagnosed with cancer associated with exposure to asbestos, traces of which were found in the racing suits of racing drivers. McQueen died in a Mexican clinic and his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

Private life
In 1956 he married actress Neile Adams, with whom he had two children: Terry who died at the age of 38 of hemochromatosis and Chad. In 1972 McQueen and Adams divorced. In 1973 McQueen married actress Ali MacGraw. Their relationship was quite tumultuous and ended in divorce in 1978. In 1980, ten months before his death, McQueen married model Barbara Minty. But his love life was rich and, often, romanticized and a source of gossip.
On August 8, 1969, he was supposed to be in the villa on Cielo Drive, to visit his friend Sharon Tate the night she was killed by the “family” of Charles Manson. For a last minute engagement, McQueen didn't show up and this probably saved his life.

Engines
McQueen is remembered not only for his acting talent, but also for his passion for racing, motorcycles and cars. When he had the chance, he loved to do without stunts and he himself appeared in the scenes that were usually entrusted to stuntmen. As in the famous motor scenes shot for the film Bullitt and the sequence of the final capture of his character, Hilts, in The Great Escape: only the scene of the last jump on the barbed wire was performed by a stuntman.

Participation in sports competitions
During his film career McQueen repeatedly considered the possibility of abandoning the cinema to devote himself completely to racing.
In 1970 he participated in the 12 Hours of Sebring together with Peter Revson with a Porsche 908 (driving it with a foot bandaged due to a previous motorcycle accident), finishing first in his category and second overall just 23" behind the winners Ignazio Giunti, Nino Vaccarella and Mario Andretti in a Ferrari 512 S.
In 1971 debuted on the screens Le Mans, strongly wanted, produced and interpreted by Mc Queen. The film was a flop, but is remembered as one of the best car racing films ever made.

The actor also participated in several motorcycle races during the sixties and seventies, mostly aboard a Triumph Bonneville and a Triumph 500cc. Among other competitions he also took part in the Baja 1000, the Mint 400, the Elsinore Grand Prix and in 1964 he was chosen to represent the USA at the International Six Days Enduro (ISDE).

Upon his death, his motorcycle collection included over 100 models worth several million dollars.
Steve McQueen was also lucky enough to own some of the most famous sports cars of the time.

We'll publish a biography on him on the occasion of his anniversary or when it will be reached a sufficient number of cars.

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