McQueen: The Biography

by Christopher Sandford

A full and frank portrait of the complex man behind the icon of cool.

This edition does not include illustrations.

Steve McQueen, one of the first ‘cool’ film stars, remains a cultural icon the world over. His image is used to sell everything from cars, to beer, to a range of dolls. From the Cincinnati Kid to Frank Bullitt, Tom Crown to Papillon, his roles exemplified a certain school of male charm, as well as grit and a hint of menace.

McQueen was born in 1930 into a poor Mid-western family to a highly strung mother and truant father. In and out of reform school from a young age, he was eventually made a ward of court and the resulting sense of abandonment never left him. His big break came with the TV Saga Wanted: Dead or Alive and the now cult-classic B-movie The Blob. Just two years later he was one of the leading lights of tinseltown.

Sandford goes on to chart McQueen’s phenomenal Hollywood career, starring in some of the world’s best-loved films, in tandem with his turbulent private life: his marriages, his bisexuality, the drink, the fast cars, casual sex and violence. As a close friend has remarked: ‘You couldn’t peg him. He wanted to be memorable as an actor – but in his private life you got the impression he was trying to speed up, to get into the next hour without quite living out the last one.’

As Sandford reveals, McQueen’s public demeanour of studied nonchalance hid chronic self-destrutive urges which emerged in his favourite hobbies, including bare-knuckle boxing and porsche-racing, as well as several suicide attempts. His ‘lost’ years at the very height of his fame are illuminated with disclosures of rampant addiction, bizarre health cures, fringe religion and androgyny. McQueen died in 1980 at a ‘wellness’ clinic in New Mexico, having been earlier diagnosed with lung cancer . His last words were ‘Lo hice’ – Spanish for ‘I did it’.

Sandford has spoken to a wide range of McQueen’s contemporaries – Hollywood stars, friends and family – and discovered the man behind the myth, the abandoned little boy underneath the movie-god swagger.

528 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 28, 2017

About the author

Christopher Sandford has published acclaimed biographies of Kurt Cobain, Steve McQueen, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, and Roman Polanski. He has worked as a film and music writer and reviewer for over 20 years and frequently contributes to newspapers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. Rolling Stone has called him "the preeminent author in his field today."

His latest project, MASTERS OF MYSTERY (forthcoming November 2011, Palgrave Macmillan) explores Arthur Conan Doyle's and Harry Houdini's incredible friendship and fascination with Spiritualism.

Reviews

[Max Gwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enlightening and damning biography of the undisputed ‘King of Cool’, Steve McQueen.

Sandford’s tuck into the troubled life of one of Hollywood’s biggest stars is an incredible insight into the man and the myth.

Heralding from an incredibly sad, unloved and abandoned childhood McQueen somewhat reluctantly rose to the very top of tinsel town by the late 1960s in devilishly volatile and destructive manner.

They say to never meet your heroes and Sandford highlights the extreme case as to why that very well is the case. An explosive personality mixed with his terrible treatment of the women in his life (largely due to his devastatingly poor relationship with his mother) along with simmering paranoia and ultra competitiveness reveal McQueen to have been more than a handful and terribly tarnishes that King of Cool imagery.

A cracking read nonetheless!

[Andrewh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was gifted this bio decades ago and never really thought of reading it until I recently saw McQueen’s passion project about Le Mans, which made him seem more interesting than his blank onscreen persona, though the film was a disaster that almost ruined him, and led to serious injuries for two of the racing drivers used on the footage. This was his own small 'Heaven's Gate'.

McQueen’s short life (he died at 50, like his parents) starter poorly, as he was born to a prostitute and an absent father, and he was beaten by his step father and possibly even sexually abused, before going into something like a remand home and then finding some stability in the Marines. He learned to fight early and that the world was a vicious and unpleasant place that gave you nothing for free, and this background never seemed to leave him even when huge success and money came in ‘Candyland’, as he called it. His career as a 'Supie' [superstar] was characterised by a continual war on the 'suits' whom he felt were constantly trying to gouge him out of his rightful earnings - the book is full of his battles with the studios over residuals and his fights with directors/producers (and other starry actors, whom he usually disliked, though he was often on friendly terms with the crews and the stunt men in particular).

He learned to act in the Studio, and was, as the era demanded, able to channel his inner rage and loneliness into some piercing performances, albeit with a limited range. He first found some success in the Western TV series ‘Wanted’, before breaking into film via the Sci-Fi B-movie horror ‘The Blob’. He then found some fame in a number of minor roles, in which he often stole the show, such as Hell For Heroes, then found proper fame in The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape, in which he gained notoriety for the infamous fence jump on a motorbike (which was in fact done by his friend Bud Elkins). His golden era lasted from 1960-72, probably peaking with 'Bullitt', with its brilliant car chases, and from 1972 on did not make many pictures and went into some kind of exile, hiding out in his house outside Hollywood, perma-stoned and necking beer in the hot tub and riding his beloved motor-bikes in the hills. Only late on in his life, when he was perhaps aware of the disease that would kill him, did he show interest in more stretching roles – he did Ibsen’s Enemy of the People, which never got a full release, and even discussed projects with Harold Pinter.

The book spends a lot of time on the final demise of the man, which is perhaps not necessary but does show that his tough-guy act was quite genuine and he showed great resilience in the final months, although he chose to eschew mainstream medicine for a quack therapy.

[Sam Leahy · Rating 3 out of 5]

⁸Would have given 4 star but throughout the book the author seems to say something good about mcqueen and back it up with evidence, then immediately try and make him look like a complete arse with hearsay...it's great for any fan of mcqueen but having to read pretty much gossip or word of mouth is a bit trying. Hea had a terrible upbringing and that definitely contributed to his attitude and anger later in life but also created one of the most endearing and powerful actors for shear on screen presence. This point should be made then moved on instead of nit picking at every tiny thing. Also the lines like "mcqueen walked outside in the chill air and thought to himself..." stuff like that irkes. But other than that the anecdotes and behind the scene stuff is interesting. Shame because it could have been much better.

[Joe Lahart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good read although the authors style is a little bit flowery at times would recommend it.