McQueen: The Career
Since his death in 1980, there have been over a dozen books devoted to Steve McQueen. It should be of little surprise. McQueen topped audience polls in the 1960s and 1970s as the most popular actor around the world. Today, he is an international icon.
Yet, in all these books, the focus remains blurred. McQueen, the actor, has been grossly ignored. The McQueen that his legions of fans most admire, and would most want to read about, is the one they are denied, time after time, in book after book. What we get, instead, is an emphasis on his passion for motorcycle and car racing (McQueen: Star On Wheels), or his resentment of authority and the hell he raised in Hollywood (McQueen: The Untold Story of the Bad Boy in Hollywood and Steve McQueen: Portrait of An American Rebel), his affairs and drug use (My Husband, My Friend, by his first wife, and The Love Machine, by one of his lovers), his alleged death wish (A French Kiss With Death: Steve McQueen and The Making of Le Mans) and, on an opposing end, his determination to beat death, which came to him at age 50 from cancer (Steve McQueen: The Final Chapter). Even The Films of Steve McQueen failed to examine the work of this dedicated and meticulous actor, but, instead, devoted the majority of its page space to pictures.
Yet, in all these books, the focus remains blurred. McQueen, the actor, has been grossly ignored. The McQueen that his legions of fans most admire, and would most want to read about, is the one they are denied, time after time, in book after book. What we get, instead, is an emphasis on his passion for motorcycle and car racing (McQueen: Star On Wheels), or his resentment of authority and the hell he raised in Hollywood (McQueen: The Untold Story of the Bad Boy in Hollywood and Steve McQueen: Portrait of An American Rebel), his affairs and drug use (My Husband, My Friend, by his first wife, and The Love Machine, by one of his lovers), his alleged death wish (A French Kiss With Death: Steve McQueen and The Making of Le Mans) and, on an opposing end, his determination to beat death, which came to him at age 50 from cancer (Steve McQueen: The Final Chapter). Even The Films of Steve McQueen failed to examine the work of this dedicated and meticulous actor, but, instead, devoted the majority of its page space to pictures.
Creating an image - The Great Escape
The McQueen we see on screen makes for an image much stronger than the onslaught of unauthorized biographies and tabloid style reporting can ever unmake. Taped interviews reveal that McQueen was articulate, humorous, passionate about his work, serious about his environment, infused with a cause, devoted to his craft, and proud of his achievements. The people that truly knew him consistently describe him as a man filled with life, but a man who was also damaged by a dark past, a man who was therefore obsessively competitive, and how these conflicting aspects of his personality created an actor determined to take chances and to dig deep into his tortured soul in order to originate performances rich in complexity and raw with emotional honesty.
McQueen, the actor, was always at odds with McQueen, the super-star. He was the first man to become a million dollar movie star (for Bullitt!). Then the first to make three million, then five, then twelve. His movies were blockbusters. The Great Escape, Love With The Proper Stranger, The Cincinnati Kid, Nevada Smith, The Sand Pebbles, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt!, The Getaway, Papillon, and The Towering Inferno, among others. But, of greater interest is something that has been ignored: the reasons for the movies McQueen agreed to do, and the reasons for the ones he turned down.
McQueen, the actor, was always at odds with McQueen, the super-star. He was the first man to become a million dollar movie star (for Bullitt!). Then the first to make three million, then five, then twelve. His movies were blockbusters. The Great Escape, Love With The Proper Stranger, The Cincinnati Kid, Nevada Smith, The Sand Pebbles, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt!, The Getaway, Papillon, and The Towering Inferno, among others. But, of greater interest is something that has been ignored: the reasons for the movies McQueen agreed to do, and the reasons for the ones he turned down.
Consulting with director John Sturges over his role for The Great Escape
It was McQueen who dreamed up the sequence in The Great Escape where his character tries to jump the barbed wire fence on a motorcycle. In fact, he also created the character, not found in the book or the original screenplay, choosing to make motorcycle riding a passion for this man, and that he would be a loner … just like McQueen himself.
He often chose -- and even had a hand in creating – roles which depicted him as a man apart from others, solitary, on the run, in jail, competitive, even prone to violence, because he understood this personality type. But he would also take on roles that were foreign to
anything he had ever seen or anyone he had ever been, such as the millionaire thief in The
Thomas Crown Affair, and he would do this just for the challenge of doing what no one believed he could.
He often chose -- and even had a hand in creating – roles which depicted him as a man apart from others, solitary, on the run, in jail, competitive, even prone to violence, because he understood this personality type. But he would also take on roles that were foreign to
anything he had ever seen or anyone he had ever been, such as the millionaire thief in The
Thomas Crown Affair, and he would do this just for the challenge of doing what no one believed he could.
With Sam Peckinpah in The Getaway
McQueen was notorious for declining projects - and, for over a decade, from the mid 1960s until his death in 1980, nearly every major movie project in development was offered to and rejected by McQueen. The staggering amount of money being offered became irrelevant. The movie star who raced, who did his own stunts, who grew his hair long, with a full beard, and tried to hide from the public and reconnect with the real world, was constantly looking to satisfy himself as an artist. This has never been spoken of.
In 1969, McQueen turned down Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (the role that went to Robert Redford) for a small movie based on a book by William Faulkner. The Reivers was loved by the critics and made a good return for the studio that produced it. But The Reivers lived in the shadow of Butch & Sundance.
In 1970, after the mammoth success of Bullitt!, McQueen turned down the lead in Dirty Harry, a movie patterned after Bullitt! Same mood, same violence, same maverick cop walking the same turf in San Francisco. It could have been called Bullitt II! But McQueen,
not wanting to repeat himself, declined the project, and the giant paycheck that went with it.
Instead, he worked for free, and traveled to France to play a part he had never before done on screen, but had often played in real life, as a race car driver, for Le Mans.
In 1969, McQueen turned down Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (the role that went to Robert Redford) for a small movie based on a book by William Faulkner. The Reivers was loved by the critics and made a good return for the studio that produced it. But The Reivers lived in the shadow of Butch & Sundance.
In 1970, after the mammoth success of Bullitt!, McQueen turned down the lead in Dirty Harry, a movie patterned after Bullitt! Same mood, same violence, same maverick cop walking the same turf in San Francisco. It could have been called Bullitt II! But McQueen,
not wanting to repeat himself, declined the project, and the giant paycheck that went with it.
Instead, he worked for free, and traveled to France to play a part he had never before done on screen, but had often played in real life, as a race car driver, for Le Mans.
Shocking his fans and infuriating his studio, McQueen changes his image for An Enemy of the People.
In 1977 McQueen was offered 2.5 million dollars to act in Apocalypse Now!, and was even given the choice between the roles that eventually went to Martin Sheen and Marlin Brando. Instead he chose to once again work for free, this time in a small art-house film based on an Ibsen play. An Enemy of the People is superb. McQueen, hair long, with full beard, and bespectacled, is barely recognizable. Yet his performance is heartfelt and, some believe, close to brilliant. Executives at Warner Brothers, who was waiting for their star attraction to fulfill a three-picture deal he had begun with the mega-hit and were hoping for The Getaway II, were livid. In true Hollywood vindictive style, the studio refused to release the movie and has kept it locked up in a film vault to this day.
Due to DGA rules that the star of a film could not also serve as both producer and director, McQueen directed Tom Horn without credit.
In 1979 McQueen said yes to Tom Horn, a downbeat western, at a time when westerns of any beat were definitely out, therefore saying no to an obvious hit - The Bodyguard. Ten years would pass before the latter would find a new superstar to insure it s production - Kevin Costner.
Some movies were never made because of McQueen's refusal to participate. When Irwin Allen proposed The Towering Inferno II, McQueen's response was “Drop dead.” Instead he decided to devote his time and talent to emotionally honest material, like Junior Bonner, the story of an aging rodeo cowboy who learns the hard way that you can never go home. No book has attempted to get into the head of Steve McQueen, the actor, or to offer answers as to why he would say yes to some movie offers and “Drop dead” to others.
No book has examined McQueen’s work in television, as well as on the stage, and looked beyond the motorcycle jumps and the car chases of his biggest big screen hits.
Some movies were never made because of McQueen's refusal to participate. When Irwin Allen proposed The Towering Inferno II, McQueen's response was “Drop dead.” Instead he decided to devote his time and talent to emotionally honest material, like Junior Bonner, the story of an aging rodeo cowboy who learns the hard way that you can never go home. No book has attempted to get into the head of Steve McQueen, the actor, or to offer answers as to why he would say yes to some movie offers and “Drop dead” to others.
No book has examined McQueen’s work in television, as well as on the stage, and looked beyond the motorcycle jumps and the car chases of his biggest big screen hits.
Calling the shots on Bullitt!
No book has drawn parallels between McQueen s life, his brutal childhood, his sense of being unloved and abandoned, and the roles he would choose for himself, and the manner in which he would play them. Every single performance in McQueen’s 28 motion pictures and various television appearances is different, except for one linking thread: the characters he played were all loners. The refined Thomas Crown is a loner, but not the same loner as the half-breed Nevada Smith, or the cooler-king Virgil Hilts, or the China sea engine room officer Jake Holman, or the renegade cop Frank Bullitt, or the ill-fated gun for hire Tom Horn.
And no other book has put emphasis on the roles McQueen played behind the camera – that, once he achieved star status, as early as the late 1950s, he rewrote nearly every TV program or movie he appeared in. He produced more than a dozen of his own movies, plus movies he did not appear in. He chose the cast and the directors. And, on more than one occasion, he fired the directors and finished the movies himself. And all without screen acknowledgement. No book has emphasized any of this … but one soon will.
McQueen: The Career will be the first definitive study of the professional life of one of the biggest and most influential movie stars Hollywood has ever had a reluctant hand in making.
McQueen: The Career is currently in development for Jacobs/Brown Press by Marc Cushman, author of I Spy: A History and Episode Guide to the Groundbreaking Television Series and the trilogy These are the Voyages, the definitive documentation of the making of Star Trek: TOS.
Jacobs/Brown Press … where reading is believing.
And no other book has put emphasis on the roles McQueen played behind the camera – that, once he achieved star status, as early as the late 1950s, he rewrote nearly every TV program or movie he appeared in. He produced more than a dozen of his own movies, plus movies he did not appear in. He chose the cast and the directors. And, on more than one occasion, he fired the directors and finished the movies himself. And all without screen acknowledgement. No book has emphasized any of this … but one soon will.
McQueen: The Career will be the first definitive study of the professional life of one of the biggest and most influential movie stars Hollywood has ever had a reluctant hand in making.
McQueen: The Career is currently in development for Jacobs/Brown Press by Marc Cushman, author of I Spy: A History and Episode Guide to the Groundbreaking Television Series and the trilogy These are the Voyages, the definitive documentation of the making of Star Trek: TOS.
Jacobs/Brown Press … where reading is believing.
