Steve McQueen biography

Steve McQueen; born Terrence Steven McQueen on March 24th, 1930 in Beech Grove, Indiana was an actor who reached his peak in the 1960's and early 1970's.

He spent most of his early years on a farm in Slater, Missouri with his uncle until he was twelve years old, after being abandoned by both his father and his mother. From there he ended up moving to live in LA where his involvement with several different gangs got him into continuous trouble and he was eventually sent away to a home for wayward boys in California known as 'The Junior Boys Republic'.

Steve tried to run away from the home on several different occasions but was caught and brought back. After this he eventually came to the realisation that it wasn't in fact so bad and that it was probably a good place for him to be. He later credited them for their help and even went so far as to leave them $200,000 in his will.

After spending 18 months at The Junior Boys Republic, Steve moved to New York where his mother was living and attempted reconciliation, however this was short lived and McQueen disappeared yet again to spend a very brief time working on a tanker called The SS Alpha. He soon became tired of this job and made his way to Myrtle Beach where in 1947 at just 17 years old he made a decision to join the marines.

At first Steve found it extremely hard to take to the lifestyle and discipline of the marines, and often ended up spending time in the brig living off only bread and water, but things were soon to change for the better when he personally saved the lives of 5 men in the artic after a transport ship struck a sandbank during a training exercise. Due to this dramatic event Steve was greatly rewarded by becoming part of the honour guard protecting Harry S Truman's yacht.

In April 1950 Steve McQueen was honourably discharged from the marines. He took on various different odd jobs after leaving the marines, and found that he couldn't settle in any of them, however after an actress he had recently began dating suggested he try taking up acting he went on to become accepted in the Neighbourhood Playhouse, a well known acting school in New York at which he studied for two years, spending all his time learning and working hard with a serious attitude and no fooling around as he was determined that this time he had found something he was truly happy doing. The schooling was expensive though, meaning Steve had to also take on a few jobs on the side, such as driving a postal van sometimes until 3am then having to get up for classes that morning.

Steve's relentless hard work finally paid off when he managed to land himself a scholarship at the extremely sought after Herbert-Bergoff Drama School and from there went on to attend the famous Actors Studio in New York.

Steve McQueen soon became a recognised name on Broadway after replacing Ben Gazzara in the play 'A Hat Full Of Rain'. It was at this time of his career when Steve met his first wife of 15 years Neile Adams who was also a performer on Broadway. They were married in San Clemente in 1956.

Steve was now well on the way to his huge success and after a few low budget films such as The Blob he managed to break into the big film classics that we all remember him for such as The Magnificent Seven, and The Great Escape.

Steve enjoyed a wide variety of roles over the span of his career, and quickly became well known and respected in the film industry, even receiving an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles.

Steve studied karate and jeet kune do with both Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris. He did the whole karate uniform and karate belts deal. There's much speculation as to his actual martial arts skill.

He also starred alongside Dustin Hoffman in the touching 1973 film Papillion (French translation meaning butterfly) in which he played the role of a man serving a prison sentence and plotting his eventual escape.

Sadly, after a long battle with cancer Steve McQueen passed away on 7th November, 1980. Just one day after doctors removed a 5 pound tumour from his abdomen, he suffered a fatal heart attack.