Date of Birth 24 March 1930, Beech Grove, Indiana, USA

Date of Death 7 November 1980, Juárez, Mexico. (lung cancer)

Birth Name Terence Steven McQueen

Nickname Bandito
King Of Cool
Mac
McQ

Height 5' 10" (1.78 m)

Mini Biography He was the ultra-cool male film star of the 1960s, and rose from a
troubled youth spent in reform schools to being the world's most popular actor.
Over 25 years after his untimely death from mesothelioma in 1980, Steve McQueen
is still considered hip and cool, and he endures as an icon of popular culture.

His first lead role was in the low-budget sci-fi film The Blob (1958), quickly followed by
roles in The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959) and Never So Few (1959). The young
McQueen appeared as Vin, alongside Yul Brynner, in the star-laden The Magnificent Seven
(1960) and effectively hijacked the lead from the bigger star by ensuring he was nearly always
doing something in every shot he and Brynner were in together, such as adjusting
his hat or gun belt. He next scored with audiences with two interesting performances,
first in the WW2 drama Hell Is for Heroes (1962) and then in The War Lover (1962).
Riding a wave of popularity,
McQueen delivered another crowd pleaser as Hilts, the Cooler King, in the
knockout WW2 POW film The Great Escape (1963), featuring his famous leap over the
barbed wire on a motorcycle while being pursued by Nazi troops (in fact, however, the
stunt was actually performed by his good friend, stunt rider Bud Ekins).

McQueen next appeared in several films of mixed quality, including Soldier in the Rain
(1963); Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) and Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965).
However, they failed to really grab audience attention, but his role as Eric Stoner in
The Cincinnati Kid (1965), alongside screen legend Edward G. Robinson and Karl Malden,
had movie fans filling theaters again to see the ice-cool McQueen they loved. He was back in
another western, Nevada Smith (1966), again with Malden, and then he gave what many
consider to be his finest dramatic performance as loner US Navy sailor Jake Holman in the
superb The Sand Pebbles (1966). McQueen was genuine hot property and next appeared
with Faye Dunaway in the provocative crime drama The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), next in
what many consider his signature role, that of a maverick, taciturn detective in the mega-hit
Bullitt (1968), renowned for its famous chase sequence through San Francisco between
McQueen's Ford Mustang and the killer's black Dodge Charger.

Interestingly, McQueen's next role was a total departure from the action genre, as he played
Southerner Boon Hogganbeck in the family-oriented The Reivers (1969), based on the popular
William Faulkner novel. Not surprisingly, the film didn't go over particularly well with audiences,
even though it was an entertaining and well made production, and McQueen showed an
interesting comedic side of his acting talents. He returned to more familiar territory in 1971,
with the race film Le Mans (1971), a rather self-indulgent exercise, and its slow plotline
contributed to its rather poor performance in theaters. It wasn't until many years later that it
became something of a cult film, primarily because of the footage of Porsche 917s roaring
around race tracks in France. McQueen then teamed up with maverick Hollywood director
Sam Peckinpah to star in the modern western Junior Bonner (1972), about a family of rodeo
riders, and again with Peckinpah as bank robber Doc McCoy in the violent The Getaway (1972).
Both did good business at the box office. McQueen's next role was a refreshing surprise and
Papillon (1973), based on the Henri Charrière novel of the same name, was well received by
fans and critics alike. He plays a convict on a French penal colony in South America who persists
in trying to escape from his captors and feels their wrath when his attempts fail.

The 1970s is a decade remembered for a slew of "disaster" movies and McQueen starred in
arguably the biggest of the time, The Towering Inferno (1974). He shared equal top billing with
Paul Newman and an impressive line-up of co-stars including Fred Astaire, Robert Vaughn and
Faye Dunaway. McQueen does not appear until roughly halfway into the film as San Francisco
fire chief Mike O'Halloran, battling to extinguish an inferno in a 138-story skyscraper. The film
was a monster hit and set the benchmark for other disaster movies that followed. It was, however,
McQueen's last film role for several years, as he began a long fight against cancer, often resorting
to offbeat therapies in an attempt to beat the disease. After a four-year hiatus he surprised fans,
and was almost unrecognizable under long hair and a beard, as a rabble-rousing early
environmentalist in An Enemy of the People (1978), based on the Henrik Ibsen play.

The spreading cancer was taking its toll on his body. McQueen's last two film performances

were in the unusual western Tom Horn (1980), then he portrayed real-life bounty hunter Ralph
"Papa' Thorson (Ralph Thorson) in The Hunter (1980). Steve McQueen passed away on
November 7, 1980, only 50 years of age, and his ashes were scattered at sea. He married three
times and had a lifelong love of motor racing, once remarking, "Racing is life. Anything before or
after is just waiting."