Biography for Steve McQueen

Terrence Steven McQueen was born on March 24, 1930 in Beech Grove, IN. His father, William, was a stunt pilot for an aerial circus who abandoned McQueen and his mother, Julian, shortly before he was born. She was an alcoholic who could not take the pressure of caring for a child, so she sent him to live with his great uncle on a farm in Missouri. Life on the farm was a happy one for the future movie star; his uncle raised him as if McQueen were his own. At age 12, his mother remarried and took him back to live with her and her new husband in Los Angeles. McQueen had fond memories of living on the farm with his uncle; he would later say, "The day I left the farm Uncle Claude gave me a personal going-away present; a gold pocket-watch, with an inscription inside the case." It read: "To Steve - who has been a son to me."

Living in Los Angeles with an abusive stepfather proved to be a challenge for the young McQueen. Within a couple of years, he ran with a group of juvenile delinquents and committed petty crime. His mother sent him to the California Junior Boys Republic, a reform school in Chino Hills, CA where he stayed on through ninth grade. The experience must have made an impression on the young man; as an actor, he developed an unusual reputation of requesting free items like razors, clothes and other products from movie studios. It was later discovered that he donated these items to the reform school and that he went back occasionally to play pool with the students and to talk to them about his experiences.

After he left Chino, McQueen became a drifter for a while before joining the United States Marine Corps in 1947. But being a Marine did nothing to change his rebellious ways. He left the service in 1950. He then moved to New York City, where he held several short-term jobs. At a friend's suggestion, he began to look into acting. With the G.I. bill money, he auditioned for a place at Lee Strasberg's Actors' Studio in the city. After appearing in a number of off-Broadway productions, McQueen debuted on Broadway in the play "A Hatful of Rain" (1955).

A few uncredited film roles followed, including a bit part in "Somebody Up There Likes Me" (1956), as well as a variety of television guest appearances. In 1956, McQueen married Manila-born actress Neile Adams, with whom he had a daughter, Terry, and a son, Chad. The two would go on to divorce in 1972. In 1958, he portrayed the character of bounty hunter Josh Randall so perfectly in an episode of the western series, "Trackdown" (CBS, 1957-59), that it led him to his breakout role in his own series, "Wanted: Dead or Alive" (CBS, 1958-1961). McQueen made 94 episodes until early 1961, when he withdrew from the series to focus his energy on a budding film career. Frank Sinatra gave the then 29-year-old his first big break; a role in the film "Never So Few" (1959), which Sammy Davis, Jr. originally had. McQueen's character, Bill Ringa, epitomized the roles he would later play in almost all of his movies: cool, understated and extremely at ease behind the wheel of a fast-moving vehicle.

Then came the movie that became McQueen's first major hit - "The Magnificent Seven" (1960) - which cast him alongside Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn and James Coburn. His star kept rising, thanks to a number of blockbuster hits such as "The Great Escape" (1963), an action-packed World War II movie that showcased one of the most memorable motorcycle leaps on-screen seen during the film's climax. McQueen, an accomplished motorcyclist, performed many of the daredevil stunts in the movie, but due to insurance purposes, he did not perform the final scene. Instead, his friend and fellow motorcyclist, Bud Elkins, made the actual jump.

Around this time, McQueen was one of the world's highest-paid actors, despite his rumored belligerent attitude with movie executives. In 1966, he received an Academy Award nomination for appearing in "The Sand Pebbles." He then appeared in another blockbuster, the career-defining "Bullitt" (1968), with that infamous auto chase through San Francisco, which set the bar for all movie chases that followed. McQueen kept riding high and fast, with movies like "Papillon" (1973) and "The Getaway" (1972), which co-starred Ali McGraw, who became his second wife. It was a passionate but volatile relationship. Rumors had it that she left her movie producer husband, Robert Evans, for the Hollywood hunk. Their relationship lasted two years.

McQueen pursued his acting career with the same exuberance he had for motorcycle racing. In the 12 Hours of Sebring Race of 1970, the actor and Peter Revson won in their class, losing only by a few seconds to Mario Andretti with a Porsche 908/02. It was the same car that was used as a camera car in the film "Le Mans" (1971), produced by his company Solar Productions. While the film bombed at the box office, "Le Mans" was considered one of the most realistic representations of the famed 24-hour race.

The actor also competed in off-road motorcycle racing; he often entered races under the pseudonym "Harvey Mushman" to detract attention from his star power. McQueen raced in high-profile off-road races during the 1960s and 1970s, including the Baja 1000, the Mint 400 and the Elsinore Grand Prix. He represented the United States in the International Six Days Trial in 1964 and was inducted in the Off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1978.

In 1971, Solar Productions funded the filming of the iconic motorcycle documentary, "On Any Sunday," featuring McQueen with the sport's biggest stars, Mert Lawwill and Malcolm Smith. That same year, he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine riding a Husqvarna dirt bike; it was an image that motorcycling fans all over the world would not soon forget.

After "Papillon" and "The Towering Inferno" (1974), McQueen disappeared from the movies for many years until the early 1980s. He appeared in his final two movies in 1980 - "Tom Horn," a western drama, and "The Hunter," an action flick where he played a modern-day bounty hunter. In January 1980, he married model Barbara Minty. While McQueen appeared ready for a comeback, his health was actually deteriorating. He had been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer brought on by exposure to asbestos. He traveled to Juarez, Mexico, seeking unconventional treatment against his doctors' advice. The experimental treatment failed and he died on Nov. 7, 1980. He was only 50 years old. He was cremated, and his ashes spread in the Pacific Ocean. In 1999, McQueen was posthumously inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.