Steve McQueen-Personal Life

 

 

 

 

McQueen exercised two-hour, involving weightlifting and at one point running five miles, seven days a week. He learned the martial art Tang Soo Do from ninth degree black belt Pat E. Johnson.

 

McQueen was arrested in Anchorage for drunk driving in 1972.  He was also known for his prolific drug use. William Claxton claimed McQueen smoked marijuana almost every day.  Others said he used a tremendous amount of cocaine in the early 1970s.  Like many actors of his era, McQueen was a heavy cigarette smoker.

 

After Charles Manson incited the murder of five people, including McQueen's friends, Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring, at Tate's home on August 9, 1969, it was rumored that McQueen was another potential target of the killers.  According to his first wife,  McQueen began carrying a handgun at all times in public, even at Sebring's funeral.

 

McQueen had an unusual reputation for demanding free items in bulk from studios when agreeing to do a film, such as electric razors, jeans, and several other products.  It was later found out that he requested these things because he was donating them to the Boy's Republic Reformatory School for displaced youth.  McQueen made occasional visits to the school to spend time with the students, often to play pool and to speak with them about his experiences.

 

After discovering a mutual interest in racing, McQueen and his Great Escape co-star James Garner became good friends.  Garner lived directly down the hill from McQueen .  McQueen recalled, "I could see that Jim was very neat around his place. Flowers trimmed, no papers in the yard ... grass always cut. So, just to piss him off, I'd start lobbing empty beer cans down the hill into his driveway. He'd have his drive all spic 'n' span when he left the house, then get home to find all these empty cans. Took him a long time to figure out it was me.”

 

McQueen was conservative in his political views and often backed the Republican Party. He did, however, campaign for Democrat Lyndon Johnson in 1964.  He supported the Vietnam War.  He was one of the few Hollywood stars ,who refused numerous requests to back Presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy, in 1968. He turned down the chance to participate in the 1963 March on Washington.  When McQueen heard a rumor that he had been added to Nixon's Enemies List, he responded by immediately flying a giant American flag outside his house.  Reportedly, his wife Ali McGraw responded to the whole affair by saying, "But you're the most patriotic person I know."

 

McQueen commanded such respect in the United Kingdom that when visiting Chelsea Football Club's Stamford Bridge Stadium to watch a match, he was personally introduced to the players in the dressing room during the half-time break.

 

Barbara Minty McQueen in her book, ‘Steve McQueen: The Last Mile’, writes of McQueen becoming an Evangelical Christian toward the end of his life. This was due in part to the influences of his flying instructor, Sammy Mason, and his son Pete, and Barbara. McQueen attended his local church, Ventura Missionary Church, and was visited by evangelist Billy Graham shortly before his death.

 

McQueen was married three times: to Neile Adams, Ali MacGraw, and Barbara Minty. He had two children with Neile Adams (Terry and Chad). MacGraw stated in her autobiography, Moving Pictures, that she had a miscarriage during her marriage to McQueen.