Posted on 05/27/2011 9:24:08 PM PDT by West Texas Chuck
I always liked that guy's films, own a couple of 'em. What an interesting read. Go to Wiki sometime and put his name in, wow. That guy was cool. I guess I didn't realize he died so young (ha, 50, I'm older than that).
I can identify with him so much, what a trip.
I love that film "Le Mans" because I am a racing film. It is basically stupid, except for the tasty automobiles, but I watch it every few months and always get a tear. I'm weird like that about films.
You are a racing film?
I’m not a racing fan, but had the privilege of
performing for the movie premiere of “LeMans”
in LeMans, France in 1971. I honestly did not
understand anything about the race. My job was
to smile and sing.
Steve McQueen went to Mexico for unorthodox
cancer treatment. He was a manly man. My
husband’s favorite movie is “The Great Escape”.
Well, I am actually more of a Samurai film, but yeah, I mistyped that. I’ll get over it.
I was a racing film for a time.... I gave it up as it’s bad for the health as you surely know.
Only if you try and drive like that guy in “Bullitt.”
I live in a city full of people who never heard of Steve McQueen, but try to drive like him.
McQueen was indeed the King of Cool.
My two favorite McQueen films are The Sand Pebbles (good bit of historical fiction along with an entertaining film), and the often overlooked Papillon (ya never see that one on cable, but man is it great!).
I feel sure I have seen “The Sand Pebbles” but cannot remember. I’ll have to snoop around and find it. I looked it up and it sounds very involved, have to sit down and watch it.
Steve McQueen played in the NBA for the Celtics and was the first one in the NBA to smash a backboard during a game. That factoid will win you $20 from any of your friends. (You can send me a beer)..lol.
Helluva guy, and I have been told very real and approachable when away from the cameras and the paparazzi. Then again, like Lee Marvin, how else would you expect a former Marine turned movie star to be? Their personalities and honor were formed long before Hollyweird got hold of them.
‘The Great Escape’ - one of my top 10 movies
(you think you’re weird:>)
I knew him through work, when he was married to Ali McGraw. After they broke uo, he wanted to get serious about acting, and got an English screenwriter to adapt the Ibsen play, “Enemy of the People” for McQueen to play the lead. He grew a huge bushy beard, and kept it for a long time. His first unorthodox cancer treatment was with a doctor in Wa., William Kelly. I believe it was Kelly who then sent McQ to Mx for laetril (sp?) treatments which were outlawed by the FDA.
Very interesting book. Steve McQueen, King of Cool: Tales of a Lurid Life [Book] by Darwin Porter in Books
He was very nice, very shy hard of hearing. My favorite films of his are “Baby, the Rain Must Fall” and “Junior Bonner”.
Laetril... good memory.
Forgot he was married to Ali (love means
never having to say you’re sorry) McGraw.
Sorry but Papillion was his greatest film. The racing ones are OK, but they were not anywhere in the same league as he and Hoffman.
Always figured he was in his 60s when he died. He didnt age well.
Will you be at the Playboy Jazz Festival?
Best car chase sequence in movies: Bullitt. Also a good mystery and McQueen is very good as the cop.
It was an odd match that didn’t last. She looked a lot like his first wife. He liked brunettes, had had a thing with Natalie Wood.
Interesting, I’ve seen “Papillion” fo sho. I’ll have to watch it again, all I remember is them being in prison and he has calculated the rotations of the waves to escape, or something. I’ll look it up.
IIRC,
He called Billy Graham when he was dying . . . or just before . . . and Billy led him to The Lord.
He reportedly died an authentic believer in Jesus The Christ as his Savior.
I was at the Le Mercure hotel in Paris last week. THe theme was hollywood. My room name was “Steve McQueen”. Right next door was James Dean.
Good, I’m glad he died with a Savior in his heart. The guy’s life just cracks me up. Abandoned child, Marine, actor, racer, gun guy. I like that, I’d buy him a beer or three.
Hey, thanks for the heads up. I just read the entire Wiki biography and you’re right - - there’s a lot more to Steve McQueen than I ever knew. I knew he was a Marine but it was also interesting to read that he was a conservative Christian.
I always liked the story I read years ago that to me was the essence of Steve McQueen. There were terrible mudslides around LA and a number of famous peoples houses were threatened. Hollywood held a benefit for the cleanup, and McQueen showed up on a dozer to do the work himself.
He certainly seemed a lot more authentic than a lot of the Hollyweed pretty boys.
I liked that.
I believe you are referring to Chuck Connors of Gunsmoke fame, and the broken backboard was pre-game that put it an hour behind schedule.
From the motorcycle guys that shyly stopped by his aircraft hangar up in Fillmore full of vintage motorcycles, he was very real. When he was there tinkering, he would always stop and entertain company. Just loved shooting the breeze with other people that had the same passions.
Schveet. I love it. I can’t drive one of those beasties, so anybody who knows which lever to pull gets a thumbs-up from me.
The Sand Peb
bles is one of the most overlooked films in history.
USS Pueblo.
Papillion was also another underrated film..
But “The Blob” was a masterpiece LoL
Bullitt....Best. Chase scene. Ever.
From “Wanted Dead or Alive” and the infamous Mare’s Leg, to “The Magnificent Seven”, “Nevada Smith”, “Junior Bonner” and “Tom Horn”, Steve McQueen made himself into a cowboy legend. But in movies like “The Thomas Crown Affair”, “Baby the Rain Must Fall” and “The Cincinnati Kid” he proved himself to be the true “King of Cool”. If there is beer in heaven, it will be my pleasure to buy him one.
GREAT.
Watched Tom Horn last night.... The Hunter is on the computer as well as are many more of his movies.
Interesting side note: Prowl around Pyongyang on Google Earth. There is no other country on earth with wider streets, fewer parked cars and less traffic. Christmas Day in Sheridan, WY. has more traffic. It's a democrat's wet dream.
My daily drive: 2001 Bullitt Mustang GT... check my sig. line :-)
Didn't like the ending, but I liked how he would have to have his *Morning Whiskey*.
Man knew how to start a day!
My mistake.
I continue to make that mistake.
I am always trying to make the Pueblo more prevalent in peoples minds
Dr. Phil would like to have you on his show.
Ive been to Sheridan Wy LoL
'The Great Escape' superstar spent his last year there, where he was treated as an average Joe. Friends recall his kindness and love of cheap beer.By Steve Chawkins Los Angeles Times November 30, 2008
One day in 1979, the King of Cool decided to fly. Before anyone knew it, Steve McQueen was living with his girlfriend in a hangar at the Santa Paula Airport. During the day, he learned to pilot a World War II-era biplane. In the evening, the tough-guy superstar would crack open cold beers with grease monkeys, fledgling pilots and aging flyboys who still had a few loop-de-loops left in them.
McQueen and his girlfriend, a stunning model who would become his third wife, slept on a four-poster brass bed amid his vintage motorcycles and airplane parts. His bright- yellow Stearman biplane loomed over their cramped quarters, its wings close enough to create a head-whacking hazard for someone groping through the dark.
But life was good: On Saturday nights, the couple kicked back in their hangar -- really a big storage shed -- to watch "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" on a black-and-white TV. Dinner was often a feed at the local Chinese restaurant.
"It was a sweet time in a sweet place," said Barbara McQueen, the last woman in his life. "We just loved it."
snip But Dewey's warmest memories were of the after-hours get-togethers and McQueen's fondness for Old Milwaukee beer, an inexpensive brew known as an acquired taste.
"He was in character drinking that awful stuff," Dewey said. "It just brings a smile to my face."
A reform school alumnus with a well-deserved bad-boy reputation, McQueen is said to have mellowed by the time he touched down in Santa Paula.
When a medical emergency required two friends in town to leave for a week, McQueen volunteered to care for their seven children. When a young man who worked at the airport died suddenly, McQueen paid off his family's mortgage.
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