Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel

As documented in Marshall Terrill's revealing biography, Steve McQueen the man was as fascinating as any of the movie characters he portrayed. Some of the movie people who dealt with McQueen may have used other, less kind terms but, given McQ's god-awful childhood as revealed in Terrill's book, you can see why he behaved the way he did. It may be premature to label Terrill's book as definitive but he does a damn fine job of revealing McQueen the man and the actor. First off, he interviewed many of the people who knew and/or worked with McQ including those very few who the intensely private McQueen opened up to. As a result, Terrill was able to fashion an insightful, multi-dimensional portrait of one very talented but flawed individual. Yet, for all the incidents of upstaging his co-actors or playing the star, Terrill documented countless incidents where McQueen was very supportive of others on his films, helped total strangers without seeking recognition, etc. Equally touching were those moments recounted in STEVE MCQUEEN that revealed McQueen's deep insecurity and need for love. One example: After repeatedly complaining about his character's dialogue in TOWERING INFERNO, he confided to the screenwriter (Sterling Silliphant) that the dialogue was fine but that he had trouble speaking it due to his lack of schooling! McQueen's mother was an alcoholic who ran through several failed marriages; dad bailed out when McQ was six months old. He grew up fatherless, motherless for large chunks of time, friendless and dyslexic with minimum education. It's small wonder he wanted to be top dog, get the big bucks and romance all the beautiful women he could...even if he was married. STEVE MCQUEEN clocks in at 485 pages. It is one of the most consistently entertaining biographies I have ever read. After reading it though, you wonder if that 'cool dude' was ever really happy. Given the wonderful characters McQueen created - Josh Randall, Buzz Rickson, Virgil Hilts, Frank Bullitt and Jake Holman - I sincerely hope so. Thank you, Mr. McQueen!

Both my husband and I had the pleasure of spending time with Steve McQueen and we both thoroughly enjoyed reading this well written book by Marshall Terrill! So curl up on your sofa, have a fire going and enter the wild and also touching world of Steve McQueen! He is a big part of Hollywood History!

Its an overused word that is often devoid of any real meaning, but Steve McQueen was just cool. Even though he was usually described as being a "limited" actor, Steve McQueen was still a great star -- a talented man who perfectly understood his limitations and therefore was able to craft each of his films to perfectly showcase his strengths. As Marshall Terrill's biography shows, McQueen was an actor who always gave the perfect performance for the films he starred in. Therefore, if McQueen wasn't a "great" actor in the style of Paul Newman, he was a far more dependable actor and, in a true rarity nowadays, his was a name that you could trust when saw it on a theater marquee. Terrill's biography also shows that McQueen, as an actor, never succumbed to the elitism that seems to possess so many other film stars. He never forgot his humble roots and, as a result, he never committed the cardinal sin of seeing himself as being somehow above his audience. McQueen was loyal to the idea of providing entertainment yet, within those confines set for himself, managed to help craft such classic films as Bullitt, the Great Escape, The Sand Pebbles, and the Magnificent Seven. As Terrill shows, even when McQueen went through a "classics" period, he still made a film that fit in with his own personal view of what his audience would enjoy -- an unlikely, unjustly obscure version of Ibsen's Enemy of the People. Terrill's recounting of the making of Enemy is one of the book's highlights and, to the best of my knowledge, contains anecdotes and information that can't be found anywhere else.Also, a great deal of fun comes from the book's final section -- a listing of films that McQueen decided not to make. This listing of films famous and obscure is a trivia browser's delight and also invites one to imagine what might have been. While sometimes that mind boggles, others -- such as Steve McQueen playing Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (imagine the military madman personified by a cool killer like McQueen as opposed to a massively bloated, rambling Marlon Brando) leave one mourning the unrealizing possibilities. Of course, since this is Steve McQueen, a great deal of the book is taken up with details of rampaging drug abuse and chronic womanizing. Terrill presents these facts in a very unsensationalistic, straight forward way. Surely, Steve McQueen would have appreciated the no-BS style to Terrill's recounting. One thing becomes perfectly clear -- even if McQueen did, quite often, the wrong thing, he did it with enough style to make the "correct" alternatives look all the more dull. Luckily for filmgoers, Steve McQueen was never dull and luckily for readers, neither is Terrill's biography.

First consider how fine an actor Steve McQueen was:From the 50s through the 70's, Steve McQueen, Robert Redford, and Paul Newman were in close competition for the best "blue-eyed-blonde" parts in Hollywood. Newman and Redford are intelligent, versatile actors. Steve had a little less brainpower and range. But from a physical standpoint, Steve wiped the floor with Newman and Redford (who are no sissies), or anybody else for that matter.From playing golf and polo (Thomas Crown Affair) to marshal arts (Great Escape, Sand Pebbles) to auto racing (Le Mans) to motorcycling (Great Escape, On Any Sunday) to handling firearms (many), to handling tools (Sand Pebbles), every move Steve made was quick, balanced, controlled, and deadly. Steve's athleticism was inherited - his father was a "dashing flyer." It was psychological - Jim Coburn said Steve was "the most competitive person I've ever met." And it was nurtured - he was a decorated Marine, a bona-fide auto and motorcycle racer, and a serious student of marshal arts. He studied for years with the great Pat Johnson, and with the greatest, Bruce Lee. And Steve loved working on motorcycles and cars. No other actor in history had Steve's physical credits.In all his roles, Steve understood that films are much more visual than verbal, and exploited his phyical qualities to the limit. That's acting intelligence.Perhaps most importantly, Steve was INTENSE. Would you hesitate to make Newman or Redford angry? I wouldn't. Would you hesitate to make McQueen angry? I would. Read the book and see why.And for what it's worth: Newman and Redford are pretty. Steve was swarthy. How many blue-eyed-blondes are swarthy?Next consider the book:Mr. Terrill's account of Steve's personal life is clear, comprehensive, balanced, and filled with great photos. Terrill's direct access to many people who personally knew or worked with Steve is evident on every page.Terrill builds up the story with a thorough account of Steve's extremely tough, fascinating early years. You get to know the forces behind Steve's failures and successes as an adult. Although you know all along that Steve eventually "makes it," Terrill makes you feel intensely how unlikely a candidate Steve was for acting stardom.Terrill covers Steve's great romance and marriage with Neile Adams, the immensely painful breakup, the scandalous romance and marriage with Ali McGraw, and the twilight-marriage with model Barbara Minty.Not least of all, Terrill makes you appreciate McQueen's extremely underestimated acting talent. Steve was not a "yes-sir" actor. He molded all his parts strongly. He was particularly good at understanding how to stay just on the "reality" side of things, even though he was primarily an action star. So he deserves a great deal of credit for his own success.By the end, Terrill has taken you through the many lives of Steve McQueen.Plus, Terrill includes a filmography and a great treat: a list of movies Steve ALMOST made. The list is long and often surp

This book was riveting in covering all facets of Steve McQueen's professional and personal life. There is joy and sadness in the story of McQueen. He overcame the odds from an emotionally painful childhood, living on the streets at the age of 15. Mcqueen had worked many odd jobs all over the United States before joining the Marines. He decided to try acting instead of taking a woodworking job in Spain. From then on you can't put this book down unitl the story of his life is over. Kudos to Terril, and I hope he plans on giving us more biographical brilliance.