STEVE MCQUEEN BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Steve McQueen, born with the birth name, Terrence Steven McQueen on  March 24th, 1930 in Beech Grove, IN.   His parents divorced before his first birthday and he went to live with his uncle on a farm in Missouri.   At the age of nine, his mother remarried and he moved to California to live with her.   He was associating with the wrong crowd and therefore his mother was forced to send him to, Boys' Republic which was a California reform school.
 
He dropped out of school after the ninth grade and chose to travel the country.  In 1947, McQueen joined the Marine Corps, but only served three years.  Upon his return to civilian life, he moved to New York City and worked various random jobs.
 
A friend suggested, McQueen look into acting.  McQueen was so unsure about what direction to take his life, he decided to take the advice of his friend and developed an enthusiasm for the theater.  By 1952, he was studying acting at the Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse.  He appeared in a number of small off-Broadway stage performances and made such an impression that he was accepted into Lee Strasberg's prestigious Actor's Studio.
 
McQueen made his Broadway debut in, "A Hatful of Rain" (1956) for which he won raved reviews.  The same year, McQueen made his film debut, playing a bit part in "Somebody Up There Likes Me" starring Paul Newman, Pier Angeli, Sal Mineo and Everett Sloane and he married dancer Neile Adams.

After two years of working on stage and various television appearances, McQueen finally got his chance as a leading role in the science fiction classic "The Blob" (1958) co-starring Aneta Corsaut, Earl Rowe and Olin Howard and later that same year he appeared in the television series, "Wanted Dead or Alive".

The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959) starring with Crahan Denton and David Clarke then led to Steve appearing in an Alfred Hitchcock television short film "Man From the South" (1960) which also featured Peter Lorre.
 
In 1960, he appeared in the big budget Western, "The Magnificent Seven" starring alongside Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Eli Wallach, Horst Buchholz and Brad Dexter .  McQueen continued to work in the film industry after a director, John Sturges recognized his talents.  He was given roles in, "The Great Escape" (1963) also starring James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Donald Pleasence and David McCallum, "Bullitt" (1968) co-starring Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, Simon Oakland and Robert Duvall, "Papillon" (1973) starring alongside Dustin Hoffman with Victor Jory, Anthony Zerbe and Woodrow Parfrey, "The Sand Pebbles" (1966) also starring Richard Crenna, Candice Bergen, Richard Attenborough and Simon Oakland and Steve was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor, "The Getaway" (1972) starring with Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson and Sally Struthers, "Le Mans" (1971), which is considered one of the best "documentary" films about the racing world.  Other films he appeared in were "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968) starring Faye Dunaway, Paul Burke, Yaphet Kotto and Jack Weston, "Junior Bonner" (1972) also starring Ida Lupino, Robert Preston, Ben Johnson, Dub Taylor, Don 'Red' Barry and Joe Don Baker, "Tom Horn" (1980) co-starring Linda Evans, Slim Pickens, Elisha Cook Jr. and Richard Farnsworth, and "The Towering Inferno" (1974) with an all star cast including Paul Newman, William Holden, Richard Chamberlain, Shelley Winters, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Jennifer Jones, Faye Dunaway, Robert Vaughn and Robert Wagner.

McQueen divorced Neile Adams in 1971, and while shooting "The Getaway", he became romantically involved with actress Ali MacGraw and in 1973 they married but it only lasted till 1977.

His last film was The Hunter in 1980 and he also got married for a third time to model, Barbara Minty in 1980.  He was hiding the fact that he had been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer brought on by exposure to asbestos. After conventional treatment failed to stop the spread of the disease, McQueen traveled to Juarez, Mexico, where he underwent therapy at an experimental cancer clinic.  Despite the efforts of McQueen and his doctors, the actor died at only the age of 50, on November 7, 1980.  He was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the Pacific Ocean.

McQueen left behind two children, Chad McQueen, who went on to his own career as an actor, and daughter Terry McQueen, who died of cancer in 1998.  Several songs have been written about Steve McQueen.  The best known is probably the song written by Sheryl Crow called Steve McQueen.  Steve McQueen was a exceptional man and he definitely earned and deserved his well-known nickname "The King of Cool".  He most certainly was.

There is a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in honor of Steve McQueen's contribution to the Motion Picture Industry.

Filmography
 
1953   Girl on the Run
1956   Somebody Up There Likes Me 
1958   Never Love a Stranger 
1958   The Blob 
1959   Never So Few
1959   The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery
1960   The Magnificent Seven
1961   The Honeymoon Machine
1962   Hell Is for Heroes
1962   The War Lover
1963   The Great Escape
1963   Soldier in the Rain
1963   Love with the Proper Stranger
1965   Baby the Rain Must Fall
1965   The Cincinnati Kid
1966   Nevada Smith
1966   The Sand Pebbles
1967   Think Twentieth  
1968   The Thomas Crown Affair
1968   Bullitt
1969   The Reivers
1971   Le Mans
1971   On Any Sunday
1972   Junior Bonner
1972   The Getaway
1973   Papillon
1974   The Towering Inferno
1976   Dixie Dynamite
1977   Bruce Lee, the Legend  
1978   An Enemy of the People
1980   Tom Horn
1980   The Hunter