.....;Awesome story. “The Sand Pebbles” was and remains one of my favorite movies of all time. If you never got a chance to see it, try to find it. Long but well worth it. “Stim goes here.”
.....;Steve McQueen is to cool what Albert Einstein is to physics.
MeTv is short for Memorable Entertainment Tv. They feature many of the old tv series from westerns, comedies, mysteries, etc.
A listing can be found here:
http://metvnetwork.com/programs.php
My favorite McQueen movie was The Great Escape.
As I recall, he died od mesothelioma, an awful cancer of the lining around the lungs. I think it’s often, if not always, associated with exposure to asbestos. Never understood, from what I know about his career, how he contracted it.
Thanks. Passed it on.
a few episodes of “Wanted Dead or Alive “ are free here..
http://www.westernsontheweb.com/?page_id=382
I grew up in San Diego. I had an aunt and uncle who lived on Mulholland Drive, just down the road from the 20th Century Fox ranch. McQueen used to relax by tending bar now and again at a watering hole in the area. My uncle struck up a conversation about cross country motorcycling, etc., and riding down to San Diego a couple of times a month to visit family (us). McQueen expressed an interest in joining them for a ride. So, for a short time we faced the prospect of Steve McQueen spending a couple of days with us. Of course, my aunt and uncle told us that Mr. McQueen requested we not say anything. We could not tell anyone he was there. Alas, the visit never happened. I was crushed. I still watch The Great Escape every chance I get. My favorite McQueen role. He was just too cool. Would have been cool to have met him.
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."
MCQUEEN's LAST HOME
Great article at The Selvedge Yard: “BULLITT” | THE GRANDDADDY OF CAR CHASE SCENES. Other great McQueen posts as well.
http://selvedgeyard.com/2009/09/26/required-viewing-bullitt-the-granddaddy-of-car-chase-scenes/
Steve McQueen...(sigh)...my high school heart throb. Glad to know he found God.