Steve McQueen - Marc Eliot [80]
Wanted: Dead or Alive, 1959.
An early head shot.
With Hilly Elkins, Steve’s first manager, going over a script.
COURTESY OF HILLY ELKINS
The Blob, 1958.
Hell Is for Heroes, 1962.
With Robert Wagner in The War Lover, 1962.
Breaking out of camp on his motorcycle in The Great Escape, 1963.
A movie poster for The Great Escape.
In one of his few romantic roles opposite Natalie Wood in Robert Mulligan’s Love with the Proper Stranger, 1963.
AP PHOTO/DAVID PICKOFF
Steve’s international motorcycle license acquired in France, 1964.
Faking it on guitar in Baby, the Rain Must Fall, 1965
The Cincinnati Kid, 1965.
Steve’s mug shot for speeding and drunk driving while on vacation with his family in Alaska prior to the release of The Sand Pebbles, 1966.
With Candice Bergen, The Sand Pebbles.
The Sand Pebbles.
Placing his handprints and signature at the famed Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, with Neile by his side, March 21, 1967.
COURTESY OF THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES
Nominated for Best Actor for The Sand Pebbles, Steve arrives with Neile at the Academy Awards, April 10, 1967.
AP PHOTO
The famous kiss from The Thomas Crown Affair, 1968.
Quintessential Steve as Bullitt.
With Robert Vaughn in
Bullitt, 1968.
A change of pace—as Boon Hogganbeck in The Reivers, 1969.
Junior Bonner, 1972.
Steve with the founding members of First Artists, the producers of The Getaway. It was one of the only First Artists films to make money. LEFT TO RIGHT: Steve, Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, and Sidney Poitier.
The Getaway, 1972, paired two of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
With producer and close friend David Foster, who surprised Steve with a birthday cake during production of The Getaway.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID FOSTER
Relaxing with Ali MacGraw, as they were both falling in love.
Controversial ad for The Towering Inferno, 1974. Steve’s name came first, but Paul Newman’s was higher.
Steve, in full beard and glasses, with director George Schaefer, in the never-released An Enemy of the People, 1978.
In the biopic Tom Horn, 1980, which he also executive produced.
The Hunter, 1980, was Steve’s final film.
Steve and his third wife, Barbara Minty, arrive for the premiere of The Hunter in Oxnard, March 1980. It was his final public appearance.
AP PHOTO
An ad for an estate auction following his death.
Ten years from now? I guess I’ll be all gray by then and playing Paul Newman’s father.
—STEVE MCQUEEN
DECEMBER 12, 1966, A WEEK BEFORE THEY EMBARKED ON A major cross-country publicity blitz for the December 20 opening of The Sand Pebbles, Steve and Neile threw the Hollywood Christmas party of the season, a self-described modest bash whose invitations read simply, “Come as you are. Very casual,” which in Hollywood-speak meant, “This is a big party, so come dressed to the nines.” The night of the big to-do, Steve wore leather motorcycle pants, Hollywood-hip rebel duds, and Neile had on a sexy, revealing mini-tunic with matching decorated stockings. According to Neile, “Set decorators from Twentieth Century Fox transformed the Castle into the Red Candle Inn of Happiness, right out of the movie.… [T]he entertainment was provided by Johnny Rivers, by now a big star, and a new rock group known as Buffalo Springfield.”
Steve had returned from the family fishing trip in Alaska refreshed and rejuvenated, ready to take on the promotional tour orchestrated by David Foster that Steve hoped would lead to his being nominated for Best Actor and a big win Oscar night. The party was actually the kickoff to the campaign, a purposely ostentatious affair meant to add a fresh layer of glitter to Steve’s image after his long absence from the scene.
Among the industry A-listers invited to the party were the ever-glamorous Zsa Zsa Gabor, in a dress Neile later referred to as a black-sequined