Steve McQueen

American actor famous for his tough-guy roles. McQueens onscreen persona of a valiant, tight-lipped hero and adventurer established the actor as a top box-office star of the 60s and 70s. His 28 popular films included "The Magnificent Seven," 1960, "Bullitt," 1969, "Papillion," 1973 and "The Towering Inferno" in 1974. His career declined in the late 70s. McQueen had a childhood that was chaotic and unpredictable. He was six months old when his father deserted the family and his mother was an alcoholic who was in and out of his life. Unwilling to raise her son, she sent him to live with various relatives. At 12, McQueen and his mom left Missouri and moved to Los Angeles where she had numerous relationships with men. McQueen became a thief, joined a street gang and acted out his juvenile delinquency. Appearing before a judge in the California juvenile court, he sent to Boys Republic Home for wayward boys in Chino, CA. He left as soon as possible to join the Marines, enlisting at 16 for a three-year stint. His difficulty with reading was later diagnosed as dyslexia. When he left the corp., McQueen enrolled at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and studied acting on the GI Bill. In 1952, he acted in stock theater and started his film career in 1956 as a movie extra. In 1958, McQueen made his film debut in the feature "Never Love A Stranger." His first starring role was in the low budget, teen-horror camp classic, "The Blob," 1958. He went on to war pictures like "The Great Escape" in 1963 and "The Sand Pebbles" in 1966. He made romantic dramas with Natalie Wood in "Love With a Proper Stranger,"1963, "The Thomas Crown Affair" with Faye Dunaway and "The Getaway" with Ali MacGraw. McQueen battled the film studios and made large star demands. He turned down "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid" because his name would not be above the name of fellow actor Paul Newman. With success in his career, he turned into a megalomaniac alienating his old friends, indulging in promiscuity and drugs. He was a physical fitness buff and lectured on the benefits of proper diet while scarfing Twinkies and hot dogs. While deep-sea diving, he burst an eardrum and never recovered the hearing in his left ear. McQueen married Neile, a Broadway dancer, in 1956. The couple were married for 15 years during which they had two children, a daughter Terry on 5 June 1959 and son Chad on 28 December 1960. McQueen forced his wife to sniff cocaine with him and regularly beat her - but not his kids. He sent her to London to abort their third child, refusing to believe the baby belonged to him and held a gun at Neiles head to extract her confession of an affair with another man, in between slaps. After he gave her a horrendous beating, she finally divorced the actor in 1971. While filming "The Getaway," McQueen repeatedly slapped his co-star Ali MacGraw throughout the day on the film set. He became so aroused that he followed her home in the evening and made love to her on the floor. In 1973 they married and she abandoned her career to look after her husband. When they divorced in 1977, he refused to pay alimony. He married his third wife, Barbara Minty, eleven months before his death in 1980. His daughter, Terry McQueen died on 19 March 1998. McQueens drug use kept him from making more movies. His first wife, Neile, realized that he had problems after they bought their first house in Palm Desert, CA. He immediately left his home to buy peyot Read less