McQueen began studying acting at Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse in 1952, with financial assistance provided by the G.I. Bill. He also started to earn money by competing in weekend motorcycle races at Long Island City Raceway which helped him purchased his first of many motorcycles, a used Harley Davidson. He became an excellent racer, and would come home each weekend with about $100 in winnings.
At first McQueen appeared several minor roles in “Peg o' My Heart”, “The Member of the Wedding”, and “Two Fingers of Pride”. McQueen landed his first film role in “Somebody Up There Likes Me”, also starring Paul Newman. He made his Broadway debut in 1955 in the play “A Hatful of Rain'”. McQueen appeared in a two-part television presentation entitled “The Defenders”. Hollywood manager Hilly Elkins (who managed McQueen's first wife, Neile) took note of him and decided that B-movies would be a good place for the young actor to make his mark. McQueen was hired to appear in the films “Never Love a Stranger”, “The Blob”, and “The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery”.
In late 1955, McQueen left New York, heading for California. He moved into a house on Vestal Avenue in the Echo Park area and began seeking acting jobs in Hollywood.
McQueen's first breakout role was on TV. Elkins successfully lobbied Vincent M. Fennelly, producer of the Western series “Trackdown”, to have McQueen read for the part of Josh Randall in an episode for “Trackdown”. McQueen appeared as Randall in the episode. He worked opposite series lead Robert Culp, an old New York motorcycle racing buddy. After McQueen filmed the pilot episode, the pilot was approved for a series titled “Wanted: Dead or Alive” on CBS in September 1958.
In the interviews included in the DVD release of "Wanted: Dead Or Alive", Robert Culp takes credit for first bringing McQueen to Hollywood and landing him the part of Randall. Culp even claims to have taught McQueen the "art of the fast-draw". Culp added that, on the second day of filming, McQueen beat him. McQueen became a household name as a result of this series. Randall's special holster held a sawed-off .44-40 Winchester rifle nicknamed the "Mare's Leg". Coupled with the generally negative image of the bounty hunter that added to the anti-hero image infused with a mixture of mystery and detachment that made this show stand out from the typical TV Western. From 1958 until early 1961, kept McQueen steadily employed.
At 29, McQueen got a significant break when Frank Sinatra removed Sammy Davis, Jr. from the film “Never So Few” after Davis supposedly made some mildly negative remarks about Sinatra in a radio interview. Davis' role went to McQueen. Sinatra saw something special in McQueen and ensured that the young actor got plenty of good close-ups in a role. McQueen earned favorable reviews.
Afterwards, John Sturges, “Never So Few”, the film's director, cast McQueen in his next movie, “The Magnificent Seven” with Yul Brynner, Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn. The movie was McQueen's first major hit and led to his withdrawal from “Wanted: Dead or Alive”. McQueen's focused portrayal of the taciturn second lead catapulted his career. His added touches in each scene, such as shaking each shotgun round before loading it and wiping his hat rim, annoyed co-star Brynner, who protested that McQueen was trying to steal the scene. Brynner refused to draw his gun in the same scene with Steve, not wanting to have his character outdrawn.
McQueen played the lead in the next big Sturges film, “The Great Escape”, which gave Hollywood's depiction of the otherwise true story of an historical mass escape from a World War II POW camp, Stalag Luft III. Insurance concerns prevented McQueen from performing the film's widely noted motorcycle leap, which was instead done by his friend, Bud Ekins. When Johnny Carson later tried to congratulate McQueen for the jump during a broadcast of “The Tonight Show”, McQueen said, "It wasn't me. That was Bud Ekins." This film established McQueen's box-office clout and his status as a superstar.
In 1963, McQueen starred with Natalie Wood in “Love with the Proper Stranger”. He later appeared in a prequel as the “Nevada Smith”. McQueen earned his only Academy Award nomination in 1966 for his role as an engine room sailor in “The Sand Pebbles”, in which he starred opposite Richard Attenborough and Candice Bergen.
McQueen followed his Oscar nomination with 1968's “Bullitt”, one of his most famous films, co-starring Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Vaughn. It featured an unprecedented auto chase through San Francisco. Although McQueen did do the driving that appeared in the close up, it was only about 10% of what is seen in the film. The rest of the driving by the McQueen character was done by famed stunt drivers Bud Ekins and Loren James.
McQueen then went for a change of image, playing a debonair role as a wealthy executive in “The Thomas Crown Affair” with Faye Dunaway in 1968. McQueen made the Southern period piece “The Reivers” in 1969, followed by the 1971 auto-racing drama “Le Mans”.
Then came The Getaway during which McQueen met future wife Ali MacGraw. He worked for director Sam Peckinpah again with the leading role in “Junior Bonner” in 1972. It was a story of an aging rodeo rider. McQueen followed this with a physically demanding role as a Devils Island prisoner “Papillon”. He co-stared Dustin Hoffman as his character's tragic sidekick.
After 1974's “The Towering Inferno”, McQueen co-stared with his long-time personal friend Paul Newman and reuniting him with Dunaway. The movie became a tremendous box-office success. Afterwards, McQueen disappeared from Hollywood, preferring to focus on motorcycle racing and traveling around the country in a motorhome and on one of his vintage Indian motorcycles. He did not return to acting until 1978 in the movie, “An Enemy of the People”. The film was shown briefly in theaters and was never released on home video.
His last films were both loosely based on true stories: “Tom Horn”. It was a Western adventure about a former Army scout turned professional gunman.
“The Hunter”, an urban action movie about a modern-day bounty hunter, both released in 1980.
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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.
