Tyronne
Tash Jayasinghe
Cibbuano
Steve McQueen
June 24th 2008 23:09
The King of Cool
Terence Steve McQueen was born March 24, 1930, in Beech Gove, Indiana.
The early years were difficult. His father, a stunt pilot for a circus, abandoned his wife and child. His mother drank so heaviliy that she sent her son to live with his Uncle Claude. Claude lived on a farm in Slater, Missouri.
When Steve was 12 his mother returned for him, accompanied by her new husband, and they all moved to Los Angeles.
The Uncle who had given Steve McQueen a stable and happy life gave him a watch as they parted. It said, To Steve who has been a son to me.
Life in Los Angeles was neither happy nor stable. Reportedly the step father was violent. Steve had friends in street gangs, and his mother and step father sent him to a facility located in Chino, California called the California Junior Boys Republic. (Rumor in Hollywood has it that Steve McQueen always demanded additional perks on his movies, from jeans to shaving gear. Reportedly, the additional items were always passed on to the Chino facility, as well as a two hundred thousand dollar legacy from his estate after his death)
After leaving that institution McQueen joined the Marine Corps for three years. The G.I. Bill paid McQueen's tuition at Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio where he was accepted in 1952. Three years later he performed in a supporting role on Broadway in A Hatful of Rain.
From 1958 until1961 McQueen played the starring role in the television series Wanted
ead or Alive. Lead character, Josh Randall, earned his living as a bounty hunter.
Those who saw the series said that the character was an anti-hero, a style of character that was to be very popular in the 1960's and 1970's.
He was part of what made watching the original version of The Blob (1958) so enjoyable. In 1960 The Magnificent Seven was released, followed by films like The Great Escape
(1963), Love with the Proper Stranger (1963), The Cincinnatti Kid (1965), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Bullitt (1968), and The Getaway (1972).
In 2006 Paul Cullum in the Los Angeles Times reported on McQueen's hopes for making a movie he wrote, called Yucutan, before he died. But, Steve McQueen died of cancer in Juarez, Mexico on Novemeber 7, 1980, only 50 years old.
... McQueen closed his final mediatation on Yucutan:
He was parting the curtains on tomorrow
A commando on the liquid frontier...
The inheritors of that emerald planet
That jewel on the finger of the firmament
Ringed by its creator with sapphire seas
For the exaltation and the ultimate salvation of the Dominion of Man
.
Sources: wikipedia, Internet Movie Database,
The Thomas Crown Affair
Terence Steve McQueen was born March 24, 1930, in Beech Gove, Indiana.
The early years were difficult. His father, a stunt pilot for a circus, abandoned his wife and child. His mother drank so heaviliy that she sent her son to live with his Uncle Claude. Claude lived on a farm in Slater, Missouri.
When Steve was 12 his mother returned for him, accompanied by her new husband, and they all moved to Los Angeles.
The Uncle who had given Steve McQueen a stable and happy life gave him a watch as they parted. It said, To Steve who has been a son to me.
Life in Los Angeles was neither happy nor stable. Reportedly the step father was violent. Steve had friends in street gangs, and his mother and step father sent him to a facility located in Chino, California called the California Junior Boys Republic. (Rumor in Hollywood has it that Steve McQueen always demanded additional perks on his movies, from jeans to shaving gear. Reportedly, the additional items were always passed on to the Chino facility, as well as a two hundred thousand dollar legacy from his estate after his death)
After leaving that institution McQueen joined the Marine Corps for three years. The G.I. Bill paid McQueen's tuition at Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio where he was accepted in 1952. Three years later he performed in a supporting role on Broadway in A Hatful of Rain.
From 1958 until1961 McQueen played the starring role in the television series Wanted
ead or Alive. Lead character, Josh Randall, earned his living as a bounty hunter.
Wanted: Dead or Alive
The Magnificent Seven
He was part of what made watching the original version of The Blob (1958) so enjoyable. In 1960 The Magnificent Seven was released, followed by films like The Great Escape
The Great Escape
The Great Escape
(1963), Love with the Proper Stranger (1963), The Cincinnatti Kid (1965), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Bullitt (1968), and The Getaway (1972).
Bullit
In 2006 Paul Cullum in the Los Angeles Times reported on McQueen's hopes for making a movie he wrote, called Yucutan, before he died. But, Steve McQueen died of cancer in Juarez, Mexico on Novemeber 7, 1980, only 50 years old.
with Jacqueline Bisset
... McQueen closed his final mediatation on Yucutan:
He was parting the curtains on tomorrow
A commando on the liquid frontier...
The inheritors of that emerald planet
That jewel on the finger of the firmament
Ringed by its creator with sapphire seas
For the exaltation and the ultimate salvation of the Dominion of Man
.
Sources: wikipedia, Internet Movie Database,
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Comment by Cibbuano
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Comment by Theresa
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Penny Smart
I had no shame... When I was younger and he was on screen I melted like chocolate in summer sunshine....
Theresa
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
McQueen managed to do so much with his eyes and face he spoke volumes without dialogue. One of the few massive stars who actually used to cross out lines in the script because he knew a simple gesture could say the same thing.
His performance in The Sand Pebbles and Pappillon proved he was an actors actor. He stole the film with his breakout feature role in Never so Few but my favourite of his films is still Bullitt.
Always great to see the man get respect, have you ever seen the comedy film made in teh 90's called The Tao of Steve?
Comment by Theresa
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Penny Smart
I agree. One of my favorite scenes in Bullitt was when McQueen was at a murder scene, and Jacqueline Bisset comes to see him. She is standing there at the door, McQueen sees her, and steps in front of her, his body blocking her view of the victim. Nothing is said.
It's just a llittle scene, not more than a minute maybe, but it is such a protective moment between the characters. Well done.
No, I haven't seen the Tao of Steve. Yet.
I just finally saw Big Trouble in Little China, (per your suggestion). Twice. First time, rolling my eyes. Second time - mmm, my attitude toward everything was a little softer focus
Theresa
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Tao of Steve is not a brilliant film or anything but it does have an amusing premise and some entertaining scenes.
I love that scene in Bullitt too.
So you went all popcorn and testosterone for Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China. It ain't Shakespeare but its classic style B grade adventure with a Hong Kong style long before it was envogue.
Love the whole john Wayne/Jack Burton hero is a mucho idiot, his Asian sidekick actually being the force to rekon with. It's meant to be hilarious, making fun of the genre it occupys so well...sounds like second time was a charm.
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
and he was in so many great films.
What about the car chase scene in Bullit, seeing that in the cinema really churned your stomach I seem to remember, and it was the first time a camera was attached to a car in that way.
Pity he died so young too, and more of a pity he believed all that nonsense about coffee enemas curing cancer!
A true star was Steve McQueen!
cheers
fog