"That's Captain Hilts!"
Posted on 03/27/2006 7:33:39 AM PST by Borges
A Second World War hero who claimed to be the inspiration behind Steve McQueen's character in The Great Escape has died aged 102.
Squadron Leader Eric Foster, who escaped seven times from prisoner-of-war camps during the Second World War, died peacefully at home.
As a Flight Lieutenant with 38 Bomber Squadron, Mr Foster was shot down in 1940. He made repeated escapes over the following four years and later wrote about his exploits in his autobiography, Life Hangs by a Silken Thread, published in 1992.
Mr Foster claimed that some of his wartime activities were depicted on the big screen by McQueen, who played Captain Virgil Hilts in the 1963 film.
Hilts, nicknamed "The Cooler King", was a fictional character but is believed to have been based on several real escapees.
His friend Mike Beresford, 74, said: "Eric lived an extremely active life. Before the war he was a keen mountaineer and set up a travel company organising tours to the Alps.
"After he was shot down he escaped seven times, but was recaptured. Some of his exploits were depicted by Steve McQueen. He had quite a lot of press cuttings about the film and his part in it."
Mr Foster died at his home in Bishop's Cleeve, Gloucestershire.
Looks like he's managed to escape again.
Steve McQueen was born 24 March, 1930. He would have been 76 just three days ago!
My wife dated him many years ago. She used to drive him to TJ Mexico to get experimental cancer treatments (some sort of colon flushing), which of course didn´t work. It seems like he was a good guy, but had a bad ending to his short life.
Great Escape - classic movie.
Sleep well, sir. You've earned it.
I tried to find his book, but it's not listed.
Life Hangs by a Silken Thread by Squadron Leader Eric Foster
To order email us at: post@courtyardbooks.co.uk
"That's Captain Hilts!"
My favorite Steve quote that says a lot about the man:
"I'd rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth."
In case you didn't guess yet -- my name isn't "Steve McKing". That name is a re-make dedicated to Mr. McQueen!
As I recall, he died in Mexico undergoing an experimental, double-lung transplant that was against the law in this country. Seems like it was in the mid 70s.
reaching age 102 tells me that it was one heck of a strong thread!
In the 60's, an off duty fireman took a trip into the Tehachapi mountains alone and died of a heart attack. A snow storm made access to the area all but impossible. There was a large volunteer effort to locate him. Steve McQueen and some of his motorcycle riding friends came up and helped in the effort to find him. He seemed like a down to earth person.
"You killed my horse, you son of a b!tch!."
The scene where he kills all the rustlers except one, and tells the last one, "Go and tell them what you saw here." has been copied multiple times, and of course, the car chase in Bullit created the modern car chase genre. Few do it as well, though.
He died in Ciudad Juárez back in 1980, only 50 years old. :-(
Also worth noting that his 3rd wife helped him become a born-again Christian before his death.
Hand Salute...............two
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