I was always a McQueen fan, from an early age. When I was in grade school in the mid-70s, there was a book about Steve McQueen in our Scholastic Reader Club that I bought and I must have read it 20 times. Big fan of his movies too, especially Bullitt. One of our family friends wrote a book on McQueen called "Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel" by Marshall Terrill. It's an excellent book, very well-researched book. Marshall was like me, a McQueen fan from an early age. His Dad (Mike) took him to the movies to see Bullitt, and he was hooked. He interviewed Chad, Loren Jaynes, and Bud Ekins while doing research, and he has some great stories from the interviews. Very cool dudes, to say the least.
My friend Neil tells a great McQueen story: Neil was a top desert motorcycle racer and McQueen held his own as well. One hot dusty day they stopped under a bridge for some shady rest. Neil pulled out a Chap Stick for his sun burnt lips. McQueen then asked for it, pulled down his pants and applied it to his chapped ass hole, then threw it back to Neil! To this day Neil wishes he still had that Chap Stick.
My wife is a Steve McQueen fan. She never talks about his cars. She just digs his custom rifle he holstered in the Wanted Dead or Alive TV show.
Great thread.I believe that his BEST film was "The Sand Pebbles".A bit long,yes.But still a great film.Not so much a film of men AT war,as a film of men IN war. Good luck.Have fun.Be safe. Leo
Steve really nailed Tom Horn walking like an old bow legged cow poke, and one of my Fav's He had a building in North Hollywood next to Guasti boats filled with his big boy toys # 1 Cool Actor of all time and one hell of a shoe too on 2 or 4 wheels R.I.P. Steve G Don
hell ya big fan! he drove it like he stole it! some of the posts reminds me of the movie "the tao of Steve" "Steve is the prototypical cool American male. Y'know, I'm talking about Steve McGarrett, alright? Steve Austin, Steve McQueen. Y'know, he's the guy on his horse, the guy alone. He has his own code of honor, his own code of ethics, his own rules of living, man. He never, ever tries to impress the women but he always gets the girl."
Ordered this Sunday. Finally found it! http://www.amazon.com/Bullitt-1968-Film-Lalo-Schifrin/dp/B00004TTCR
Did McQueen ever race stock cars? I have a photgraph 8x10 of what I believe is steve mcQueen in a helmet looking out drivers side window of a stock car. Looks like the car could be a 60 ford. Cool picture that I found at a swapmeet. It sure looks like him.
"Wanted Dead or Alive" is on every weekend where I live. all the good old westerns go from like 1:00 to 5:00 on Saturday. he plays a "kind hearted" bounty hunter so he doesn't shoot someone every week like Chuck Conners in the rifleman. the short gun he used was real, and an ATF person saw it on TV and made the company pay a$500.00 tax on it.
A friend of mine collects old motorcycles in Riverside, CA. He has an open house once a year. I was there once and Malcolm Smith was there also. He was telling us about the scene in "on any Sunday" where Steve cuts through a gap in the fence and avoids the mud pits. They went back and drove along the fence and saw there was only two gaps in the whole length. Steve had a knack for finding things like that. If he had missed the second gap he would have never got back on the course. Malcolm said Steve was a gifted rider. My wife and I took her mom to a Steve McQueen auction a few years ago at Peterson's Museum to cheer her up because of her RA. Her mom bought a Le Mans poster from his personal collection. It was fun. There were some items from Von Dutch that Steve had, went for big bucks.
How many times does anyone watch any movie now more than once, I doubt very many do, but I would watch McQueen in bullit on any Sunday !
Over on Miss Chicken 34 a Mississippi vintage race car site their is a story about Mr. McQueen.. It states that while filming close to a dirt track Steve came over and talked him self into a ride. He went on the track by his self.. The director of the film saw Steve was missing and came with his crew to the track. They chewed Steve out and Mr. McQueen left but told every one how much fun he had..... He also borrowed a bike from a shop in Tiawan [[ I think] so he could have something to ride while filming Sand Pebbels.. One last thing on the Ed Sullivan show Mr McQueen carried Mr. Sullivan for a ride in his Dune Buggy on the sand. He went very fast and did a lot of side way driving. That night he had the chase sceen from Bullitt shown on national television..
...a bit of trivia,...I didn't know this but Steve was in the 50's movie "The Blob", his first starring role,..also in the movie are a group of hot rodders and their cars;...a very nice purplish 40 Ford coupe, a red 48 Ford ragtop, and a few others. I only saw the ending of the movie.
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