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00:00:01.
00:00:17There's Steve McQueen, and then there's Cook.
00:00:23He walks onto the screen and kidnaps you.
00:00:26You just want to look at Steve McQueen.
00:00:28Steve had an edge.
00:00:30You can't fake the way he was.
00:00:35Every man I met wanted to be him.
00:00:38Every woman wanted to sleep with him.
00:00:40Every kid wanted to be mentored by him.
00:00:42He was larger than life in the public eye and in our family.
00:00:48I think what Steve stood for was impulse.
00:00:52His need for speed was so genuine.
00:00:55Speed was a fix that he had to have.
00:01:01If he wanted to go fast, he would go fast.
00:01:03If he wanted to fight, he would fight.
00:01:05He would fight to the death to get his way.
00:01:08What does one begin to pick a favorite Steve McQueen movie?
00:01:11The Chasey Quinson bullet.
00:01:13There's one massive slide out when he gets loose.
00:01:16Every single time, I'm like.
00:01:19Those eyes, he could give you that stare and you knew you meant business.
00:01:22You work your side of the street and I'll work mine.
00:01:26He lives life to the fullest, man.
00:01:32Steve McQueen was the coolest of the cool.
00:01:35With searing performances and blockbusters like The Magnificent Seven and Bullet.
00:01:40To his love for fast cars, beautiful women, and life on the edge.
00:01:46He was one of the hottest cultural icons of the 20th century.
00:01:50My dad has gotten the nickname since he's passed the king of cool.
00:01:54But he, you know, even when he was alive, he always had that.
00:01:58Everybody would say, your dad's so cool.
00:02:00He's cool, you know, and it's cool.
00:02:02It's Steve McQueen and then it's cool.
00:02:05Steve McQueen is somebody too cool to be bothered with the things that bother the rest of us 24 hours
00:02:11a day.
00:02:14It's one thing to have that confidence though. It doesn't, it doesn't hurt to look like Steve McQueen.
00:02:19It doesn't hurt to have those eyes.
00:02:23Those eyes were just, they're just piercing.
00:02:26When he's in a scene, even if he's not talking, there was so much being said.
00:02:31Everything that Steve McQueen did, he looked cool doing it.
00:02:35Driving that dune buggy in the Thomas Crown Affair or of course, you know, the Mustang chase scene in Bullet.
00:02:41One of my favorite images of Steve McQueen are of him holding a beard next to his pickup truck
00:02:46with the beard and the cowboy hat. Whatever look Steve McQueen had, it looked cool.
00:02:51It's that something, you know. He was a man unlike any other and he owned it.
00:02:56He's the guy's guy. He embodied all the things that everybody, man, I want to be able to jump a
00:03:03motorcycle and race cars and get the girl and, you know.
00:03:07He loved women. He loved the danger of life. He lived on the edge. He came out of a rough,
00:03:13human kind of existence.
00:03:15I like a guy to have, you know, maybe a little dirt under his fingernails,
00:03:19but to be able to put a suit on and have that sophistication,
00:03:23it just added a whole nother level.
00:03:27Great looks, charisma, masculinity, vulnerability, menace.
00:03:34He had the lot. You know, all his numbers came in.
00:03:38In Hollywood, there are actors who play the part.
00:03:43And actors that live it.
00:03:49This is the story of one man who pushed the boundaries, broke the rules,
00:03:53and drove through life on his own terms. But for McQueen, the road to success is not an easy one.
00:04:02Steve McQueen really had all the odds stacked against him. He had two alcoholic parents.
00:04:07He was born six months after the Great Depression. He was on the fast track to jail.
00:04:13And he lived pretty much a homeless existence.
00:04:15He had a very crappy existence as a kid, you know.
00:04:19You know, Steve came up from nothing. He was in a boy's home, the Boys Republic.
00:04:23From the way I hear it, it was because he was doing delinquent, you know, he was stealing.
00:04:28And, you know, and I don't think he was stealing just to be one of the guys. I think,
00:04:32if anything, it was to feed himself.
00:04:34He escaped from the Boys Republic, and they caught him. And of course, they punished him.
00:04:39And he escaped another time. And they brought him back and said,
00:04:41OK, if you don't settle down, he said, we're going to have to really be severe with you.
00:04:47If you screw up after the Boys Republic, you go to prison, you go to jail, you go to the
00:04:51big house.
00:04:52As Steve learned to curb his wild side, his estranged mother, Julia,
00:04:56invited him to live with her in New York City.
00:04:59She sent him a little money, $5. And so with $5 on him, the Boys Republic gave him a pair
00:05:09of jeans
00:05:10and a shirt.
00:05:15It's hard for me to go through that. I don't know why, but every time I think of it,
00:05:21I really see this kid at 16 traveling across country with only $5 on him,
00:05:31with only $5 on him, going to New York to meet up with his mother, you know?
00:05:36And then when we got off the bus, he smelled liquor on her breath.
00:05:42And she had started to drink at that point in time, you know?
00:05:46My dad's mother, Julian, my dad really never brought her up that I can remember.
00:05:52I know there was tremendous amount of anger, as expected.
00:05:59But then my mom tells me the day she died, he broke down.
00:06:02So you try and figure that one out, you know? It's a heavy dynamic.
00:06:11You did come from a broken family, and you went through probably, what, 50-odd jobs?
00:06:17I went through an awful lot of dishwashing, truck driving, post office, everything.
00:06:21At 17, he joined the Marine Corps. He was assigned to the motor pool,
00:06:25and then he became a tank driver. He was one happy boy over there,
00:06:30because suddenly all this machinery was right in front of him, and he was fascinated by it all.
00:06:39The Boys Republic and the Marine Corps really were his true homes.
00:06:45He found an anchor in his life, you know, for the first time.
00:06:50When he was discharged at 20, he was looking around to see what to do.
00:06:54With the G.R. Bill, he decided to take up acting like a lot of people did, because of the
00:07:00girls.
00:07:01God's way, man, he ended up being one of the best actors ever.
00:07:05It may well have been the girls, but in the 50s, if you wanted to act,
00:07:08you'd chase the dream to New York City like James Dean, Marilyn Monroe,
00:07:12and thousands of actors that never had a chance.
00:07:15I know that when I was studying in New York,
00:07:18I knew that I couldn't afford to fail, because it was the only thing that I knew how to do,
00:07:23and that I didn't know any other trade. But then I really, I do enjoy acting. It's a great craft,
00:07:29you know. I mean, it's a moralist kind of feeling, you know.
00:07:32Steve at that time was, oh, he was real skinny, and he wore some kind of an old black raincoat
00:07:39all the
00:07:40time. And he spent all of his time hustling people and trying to get work, and he would do anything,
00:07:48he said. Anything for a part. When you were accepted in this famed school,
00:07:53it was quite a turning point of your career and certainly a thrill for you, wasn't it?
00:07:56Oh, boy. Yeah, I was living on a cold water flat on the 3rd Avenue well and, you know,
00:08:02working all night and going to school all day. And at the time, I guess it doesn't seem much now,
00:08:06but at the time, they were accepting something like four out of 2,000 people a year, you know,
00:08:11to be accepted in the studio. And it was free, and you could go three days a week.
00:08:14I went to a drama school in London. It is a great education to have for any actor.
00:08:20But at the end of the day, you can have all the instincts and all the intellect
00:08:25and be able to talk till the cows come home about it. But if you can't do it,
00:08:30then, you know, you're dead in the water. And acting is about doing.
00:08:34I'm an intuitive actor. I mean, I don't, I don't, I couldn't sit and talk about acting and say,
00:08:37this is what I do, because I don't really know.
00:08:39You studied it for years. Yeah.
00:08:41Some of the finest academies. Yeah.
00:08:43But it's an intuitive. You studied it yourself?
00:08:45Yeah, I did. It's self-therapy. I mean, that's what it is.
00:08:47Steve was fiercely competitive. I mean, really fiercely competitive.
00:08:53If you were blonde and blue-eyed and good-looking, you were just like a rattlesnake to Steve.
00:08:59Because I'll kill you right now.
00:09:01And he knew he just had to somehow get past you to achieve his goal.
00:09:06I got my chance simply because I could run harder than some other guy.
00:09:11But if I want a chance now, I've got to grab it.
00:09:14He believed in some weird way that I would be in the way
00:09:19from him achieving what he really wanted to achieve, which was desperate.
00:09:23He actually would say things like, I'll just run over this son of a bitch.
00:09:27You know, if it gets in my way, I'll just drive over him.
00:09:30I didn't come here to be a petty thief.
00:09:32I mean, that's what New York was like. It was desperate. It was a desperate time.
00:09:40Despite some modest success, McQueen was getting nowhere fast
00:09:44until he met a rising Broadway star everyone was talking about.
00:09:48I was a Broadway baby. You know, my life was all about dancing.
00:09:51I had just come out of Carnegie Hall. I had been rehearsing for a show called Pajama Game.
00:09:58There he was with a dog, a big dog. He had a German Shepherd with him.
00:10:01And he said, hi, you're pretty. And I said, I didn't know what to say.
00:10:06I just saw those blue eyes, you know. And I said, well, you're pretty too.
00:10:13I don't know. I suppose it opposites the track.
00:10:15But I guess it was ever a thing of falling in love with a girl at first sight.
00:10:18I guess that was it because, well, I sure had to chase her for a long time.
00:10:22He picked me up on his motorcycle one night and that was it.
00:10:25Four months later, we were married.
00:10:30And everybody kept saying, you should marry him.
00:10:33At the time, I didn't have too much collateral going for myself.
00:10:37And I think her mother was, and rightfully so.
00:10:40I think she was a bit, she thought I was a little crazy, you know.
00:10:43He was a starving actor and I was really working hard, you know.
00:10:47I was, I was never unemployed at that time.
00:10:50He just kept trying. He just felt that he would make it eventually, you know.
00:10:54He showed hunger, determination.
00:10:56And as a result, he was signed by Neil's manager.
00:10:59Neil would always say, well, this is what I see in you.
00:11:02If you give a little of that in your performance, then you will be recognized.
00:11:06And that's where you really see the first of the McQueen persona starting to emerge.
00:11:11There's that thing that he has, which is the passion.
00:11:14You've got to have that to just keep going because you're just going to get,
00:11:17you know, knocked down.
00:11:20And the, I mean, the sea you swim in is, is rejection.
00:11:24A rugged bounty hunter who played by his own rules was pure McQueen.
00:11:29And with this big break, he was determined to make his mark.
00:11:33After years of struggling, Steve suddenly became a big hit,
00:11:37became a household name in Wanted Dead or Alive.
00:11:39Hollywood producers who were willing to watch television, of which there,
00:11:42I don't know how many there were since they were deathly afraid of it in those days.
00:11:45If they went home at night and watched A Wanted Dead or Alive,
00:11:48they obviously saw a guy who could succeed as a movie star,
00:11:51as long as they were willing to get past the notion that no TV star could ever be a movie
00:11:55star.
00:11:56You know, he always knew that he would make it.
00:11:58It was Steve's destiny to make it big because he was such an original.
00:12:05Then McQueen, he makes The Magnificent Seven with John Sturgis,
00:12:09and it's got Yul Brynner in it.
00:12:11He's an Oscar winner and he's obviously the star.
00:12:14And within a couple of scenes, you see scenes being stolen from Brynner,
00:12:18who's terrific in the film.
00:12:20But McQueen, mostly by not saying anything, is sort of stealing Brynner's thunder.
00:12:29The shaking of the shotgun shells, you'll see him fiddling with a hat.
00:12:33You know, anything to usurp or take away attention from Yul Brynner.
00:12:37I'll hit her butt.
00:12:38You have two people on a screen and you want to watch this person more than you want to watch
00:12:43that person.
00:12:44You just want to look at Steve McQueen.
00:12:48He walks onto the screen and he kidnaps you.
00:12:51Steve McQueen's characters all had very defining qualities.
00:12:55He was the guy that was tough, but without putting it in your face.
00:12:59He was the guy that you don't want to mess with, but you look up to him.
00:13:04And as an actor, yeah, those are the parts you want to play.
00:13:07And those are, that's who you want to be.
00:13:11You watch a movie and there's always that character that you want to be.
00:13:14And he found a way to always be that guy.
00:13:16Brynner was very much the king.
00:13:19He was living in a lovely home.
00:13:20We were all living in the motel that we all stayed in.
00:13:22We all had connecting doors.
00:13:24There's a knock on my door.
00:13:25It's Steve.
00:13:26Hey, hey, hey, listen to me.
00:13:28Did you see that gun?
00:13:30Where's the gun?
00:13:30That silver gun that catches the sunlight?
00:13:33Well, he didn't like that at all.
00:13:35He was very competitive.
00:13:36He was watching New Winter like he was lining up somebody to shoot him.
00:13:41McQueen's street smarts really came into play with this movie.
00:13:44He was one of the first people, if not the first,
00:13:48to make that transition from TV to being a movie star.
00:13:52And all of a sudden then, a guy who many had predicted stardom for achieved it.
00:14:01With McQueen's new status at the box office,
00:14:04he realized that to stay on top would mean his films had to be on his terms.
00:14:09Steve was looking at The Great Escape as he was the star of that movie.
00:14:12But he felt that what was written on the page wasn't necessarily going to take him there.
00:14:19He didn't just want to be part of this ensemble.
00:14:22He wanted that separation so that people could say,
00:14:24okay, this is the guy that we want to follow.
00:14:28McQueen knew he had to do whatever it took to get that part to where it needed to be.
00:14:33During production, McQueen quits. He walks out.
00:14:37The United Artists is panicking. This is a big movie, a big deal production. They got a big time
00:14:42director in John Sturgis. They got a big cast. And their biggest star is all of a sudden not cooperating.
00:14:48There's a great deal of compromise involved, you know, in movies, I suppose. And I get a bit
00:14:53undone when people try to use me or there's compromises or injustice. And I fly off the handle.
00:14:59Right is right. And you know what that is. And being willing to sacrifice if it comes down to that.
00:15:06In his case, walking off set, pretty big statement.
00:15:09And when he believed in a direction that he wanted to go, he would fight for it. I mean,
00:15:15he would fight to the death to get his way. And if anybody got in the way of his vision,
00:15:21you know, get ready. McQueen said, I want you to assign a writer to me
00:15:24so that I can put my signatures on the film. McQueen gets the rewrites. His character gets
00:15:29enhanced significantly. And oddly, the writer who comes in, Ivan Moffat, who'd been Oscar nominated,
00:15:36he's responsible for so many of the things in the movie, which we now associate with McQueen,
00:15:42which really are the things in the movie that we associate with the movie. In the cooler,
00:15:45with the baseball glove and the great sound. I mean, when I sit at home and I bounce a tennis
00:15:55ball off the wall without a baseball glove and catch it, you think about that. Of course,
00:15:59you don't just think about it. I'm imitating. For him to stay true to himself, no matter what
00:16:09that meant, whether he had to walk off set or ask something to be rewritten or change his dialogue,
00:16:16that takes a lot of balls. Hiltz, isn't it? Captain Hiltz. John Sturges written in the script
00:16:22that when I make my escape, I steal a German motorcycle. And then we start our escape over
00:16:28the Alps into Switzerland. My dad would ride motorcycles when he wouldn't, even when he was
00:16:31working. You know, he'd sneak off and go to tracks. He incorporated his love for cars and motorcycles
00:16:36in his films. To go in when you're, when a machine can fall apart, aren't you scared? No, no, it
00:16:42doesn't scare me. Steve McQueen just took a jump on a dirt motorcycle and this is what he calls scrambling.
00:16:48Whether Steve McQueen was doing the actual, all of the stunts or not, the fact that he was so
00:16:53obviously capable, it made it really easy to interchange between an actor and a stunt guy.
00:16:58I can recognize when it's him on a motorbike, there's something kind of bouncy about him,
00:17:02like he's sort of always got his, his feet using his legs as suspension. He loved Bud Eakins.
00:17:09They were very, very close. He trusted him. Bud went with him and did the picture as a stunt double
00:17:15for him. Bud Eakins came into town because Steve had wanted him, because he wanted to do some
00:17:20motorcycle stuff. I watched them build this jump. Every day, he kept jumping and the thing got bigger
00:17:28and wider. One day after conferring with Steve, Sturgis asked Bud, can you jump five feet over that
00:17:36fence? And Bud said, I think I can do it better. Bud jumped something like 14 feet,
00:17:48and I don't know how wide. Steve did it, but insurance wouldn't let him do it on film because
00:17:55if something had happened, it'd fallen, that film would have shut down and it would have cost them
00:18:00a fortune. Wasn't it a while ago that the studios prohibited you doing any racing while you were
00:18:04actually in production? When McQueen character on film made that jump, audiences jumped in the air
00:18:12and cheered for him. Variety 1962. There are some exceptional performances. The most provocative
00:18:19single impression is made by Steve McQueen. After making The Great Escape, he is, if not the biggest
00:18:25star in the world, he is in the top two or three.
00:18:42Now a bonafide movie star, McQueen set his sights on Hollywood legend Edward G. Robinson.
00:18:48I went up to his house. There was a pool table. And he said, do you play? I got lucky
00:18:54and sank a few
00:18:55balls. There was a pause. He said, tell me about Edward G. Robinson. And I could tell that he was
00:19:04worried
00:19:04about Edward G. I said, he's a good actor. I think he should be careful with Edward G.
00:19:12Because right away I was trying to, I was trying to set him up so that he was a little
00:19:18insecure.
00:19:22That scene where he just looks at him
00:19:28and you feel the tension right away. You're good, kid. But as long as I'm around,
00:19:34you're second best. You might as well learn to live with it.
00:19:37There was something ambush about him. So I used to have to talk to the other actors
00:19:43because they were always complaining. He'd be looking down and be looking off.
00:19:49And then when it came to his line, he'd look right just off the edge of the camera. BING!
00:19:57He had all these little tricks and actors used to hate that. Why doesn't he look into my eyes?
00:20:03Because he's not giving me anything. I said, because he doesn't want to.
00:20:09He always played with such mystery. He had such a reserve to him. And he had,
00:20:13he had this emotional underpinning, keeping you, the viewer involved with what he was doing.
00:20:23As an actor, he was not that secure. He liked an older director. He said, you're looking for a father
00:20:29image. I can't be your father, but I can be your older brother. The one who went to college.
00:20:36You can always count on me. I'll look out for you. And I think he believed that. And that's why
00:20:44we had
00:20:45a great relationship. Sometimes you bump into the director that really will challenge you,
00:20:50or you're opposite an actor who is just so electric, so smart. They raise your game.
00:20:56The Digital Fix, 2005. Steve McQueen is effortlessly watchable as the kid, providing a master class in
00:21:04the power of natural screen presence. All that stuff that was moving around inside of him all of his
00:21:11life came across on the screen. That madness, that chilling quality that he had. It came from his
00:21:19childhood. It came from the life he lived as a young man. It came from the insecurity of life,
00:21:29the pain of that insecurity. What do you remember most about your childhood? You didn't go very far.
00:21:35You didn't dig school. I know that. Oh, I liked it. All right. But I had to get out and
00:21:39learn a little
00:21:39bread. I had to get out here and live it. Oh, what do I remember most about my childhood? Peanut
00:21:44butter and
00:21:45jelly sandwiches, if you want to know the truth. That's great. That's great. We went back to the
00:21:49Boys Republic for the first time, and he was all dressed up in his Brioni suit. I said,
00:21:55why are you getting so dressed up? He said, I want those boys to see me now, today, so that
00:22:01maybe one
00:22:02of them will look at me and say, I want to be him someday. On set, he would sometimes have
00:22:08these
00:22:08diva-ish demands, like hundreds of razor blades and hundreds of t-shirts and hundreds of blue jeans.
00:22:15He would donate all of that to the Boys Republic. Steve had a huge heart, and he wanted to give.
00:22:21He came from dirt poor with nothing, and he rose to be the number one star. I mean,
00:22:28talk about a success story. He opened up so many minds. If he could do it, anybody could do it.
00:22:35He was larger than life in the public eye and in our family.
00:22:45I mean, can you imagine coming from nothing and all of a sudden,
00:22:49he's living in the Oakmont, the compound in Oakmont and Brentwood.
00:22:53No, I mean, he had a good time. He loved life, man. He enjoyed it.
00:23:14Life was good, and McQueen's two children, Chad and Terry, meant everything to him.
00:23:22Terry really was the apple of his eye, you know? He saw the world through the eyes of a child,
00:23:28you know? And so he always related wealth to kids. Terry was the powder puff champion at 14,
00:23:39you know, riding bikes at the Indian Dunes.
00:23:45And of course, Chad, being the boy who idolized his dad, was just, did everything that Steve did.
00:24:12They had this big party. Best in Hollywood, the young people are there.
00:24:16I saw Steve out on the veranda, looking out toward the ocean. I said to him, when you were back
00:24:22there
00:24:22in Greenwich Village, with Neil on the back of your bike, did you ever think you'd wind up like this?
00:24:28It was a long pause, and he said, what makes you think I'm going to wind up like this?
00:24:35It was a terrifying moment, and he didn't even look at me. He just set it out into the air.
00:24:40Something was hovering over him all the time that made him aware that this was transitory,
00:24:47this life that he was living.
00:24:54He had all these stories about his, his childhood, and, and he was, he was a bad kid. I mean,
00:25:01he was,
00:25:02and he, because he was looking for a father. That's who, and I bring it all down to that. Steve
00:25:08was
00:25:08really looking for his father.
00:25:10Once my dad became successful, he wanted to find his dad, and he was trying to hunt him down.
00:25:17Steve was like a detective. When he wanted to find out something, he would be tenacious over the
00:25:22whole thing. Eventually, we found the trail, and we met up with his girlfriend.
00:25:29And he had died two weeks before. He used to watch One of the Dead and Alive and go,
00:25:33I think that could be my son.
00:25:35Or he had had a heart attack. It was sad.
00:25:52You never know with a Hollywood star whether you're seeing the real person. You know, everyone said
00:25:58that John Wayne was a great hero, but the reality is that John Wayne played great heroes. With McQueen,
00:26:03you definitely got the idea that you were seeing an authentic person.
00:26:08Filmed exclusively in Taiwan, McQueen would star in an epic wartime saga that garnered him his first
00:26:14and only Academy Award nomination.
00:26:20Welcome aboard the sand pebble. That's what we call it. We're sand pebbles. I want to show you a bunk.
00:26:27I want to look at the engine first.
00:26:29If you look at his character Jake in Sand Pebbles, it was all about that engine room.
00:26:34Hello, engine. I'm Jake Homer.
00:26:39That's when he came alive.
00:26:40It was just so much Steve. It was adding those little things that just
00:26:45put his touch on it. If you let me run that engine room the way I'm supposed to, sir,
00:26:49I can give you up to 12 knots. The sand pebbles represents his military experience.
00:26:54His films were biographical. They all represented a certain part of his life.
00:26:58So I guess I started swinging. So anyhow, the judge says you got three choices.
00:27:02Army, Navy, Reform School. McQueen throughout his career had this ability,
00:27:08which is the mark of a really talented actor, to convey these sort of powerful emotions.
00:27:15without saying a word.
00:27:22He's instinctive. If you say to a director with balls, and you say,
00:27:27I'm saying all this, with a look, that's also, that's instinct.
00:27:34That's someone sort of doing their work. You can hone intuition.
00:27:40You can sharpen intuition. Work on intuition. But you have to have the bloody thing to start with.
00:27:48If you look at his scripts, he would cross out the dialogue. He said,
00:27:51everybody else fill in the story. And then when there's something really important to say,
00:27:54I'll say it. He knew what his strengths were.
00:27:57The art of it is to make it look effortless. Steve McQueen made acting look as easy as breathing.
00:28:07New York Daily News, 1966. McQueen gives the most important and best characterization of his film
00:28:14career. When he got the Academy Award nomination for Sam Pebbles,
00:28:20Sam Pebbles. My dad was, uh, I don't think really gave a about stuff like that.
00:28:24I do believe one thing though, that I believe that I want to lead the type of life that I
00:28:27want to lead.
00:28:28In other words, my private life is my own. And I will, uh, I'll fight to have that.
00:28:33Whatever part of the world my dad was working in, he'd make sure we went with him.
00:28:38For Sam Pebbles, we thought it was going to be a short shoot. We were there for nine months.
00:28:44As a son, it was so cool to know that, okay, my dad's going away, but we're going with him.
00:28:50You know, I'm not going to be away from my dad or my mom or my sister, you know.
00:28:55He's criticized for certain things, um, but a father was never one of them. Like,
00:29:01he was, they were his kids and that was, there was no, there was no getting around that.
00:29:06He dug having us around. I know a lot of that stems because he had no family at all. But
00:29:12that being
00:29:13said, uh, being a six, seven-year-old boy and moving to Taiwan was pretty, pretty mind-blowing.
00:29:20It's quite a culture shock. The fact that Steve traveled with his family, I mean,
00:29:28I love that, that he was a good dad. That got me.
00:29:39I said, have you read that script that I put up on your desk? He said, uh, well,
00:29:44I'll scan through it. It's okay. I said, uh, well, it's too bad. Norman doesn't want you for that.
00:29:49He said, what do you mean? I said, well, Norman doesn't want you for that thing. He couldn't
00:29:54believe what I was saying. And I said, well, everybody else has a script too. You know,
00:29:59there's Sean Connery, Brock Hudson, Robert Wagner, Paul Newman, everybody has a script.
00:30:03So he said, well, excuse me. So he got up and went upstairs and called Norman.
00:30:08And I said to him right away, I said, you know, you've never played a part like this.
00:30:13There's no motorcycles. There's no gunplay. I've never seen you wear a tie. I mean,
00:30:19how can you play Thomas Crown? By the time the conversation ended, he got the part.
00:30:24Doing Thomas Crown Affair was a departure and it was a challenge. It was about excess. It was about
00:30:31the theatricality and the flamboyance of excess. It was about money. And it was about luxury. And it
00:30:38was about sex. He was a little worried about the casting. He wanted me to meet a couple of other
00:30:45women that he felt would be right for the Faye Dunaway part. I said, listen, I saw her. I think
00:30:52she
00:30:52can be very, very sexy. I think it's all in here. It's all in your eyes. And the chess scene,
00:31:01for
00:31:01instance, it's not really about chess. It's about power. It's about control. Who's got the control?
00:31:10She looks at the chess board and looks at you. And you look at her looking. And all you say
00:31:19is,
00:31:20do you play?
00:31:24Try me.
00:31:26And that's it. And we're going to play chess for the next three or four minutes of screen time.
00:31:35She's going to win. And when she says, checkmate.
00:31:42Let's play something else.
00:31:46And that's going to be the longest kiss in screen history.
00:31:53He liked that. He liked that. The challenge.
00:31:56Who plays chess like that? The love scene he has. The longest kiss ever.
00:32:07It's amazing.
00:32:10Who wears a British-cut, tailored, three-piece suit better than Steve McQueen in the Thomas
00:32:17Crown Affair? I mean, no one looks as good in those clothes. He's sophisticated and he's charming.
00:32:25He's charming. And there's a bit of street underneath. Any minute now, he could sort of say,
00:32:31don't fuck with me.
00:32:40With success and money, McQueen collected cars. And only the best. Shelby Cobra, the Jaguar XKSS,
00:32:48Porsches, Lotus. They all found a home in McQueen's garage.
00:32:52I would talk to random people and they'd say, you know, when I was younger, I was driving and
00:32:56this car just raced past me. And I looked in the window, it was Steve McQueen.
00:33:02Money meant toys, lots of trucks, lots of motorcycles, some planes.
00:33:07His tastes were all over the place. But if you look at what he was buying and what he kept,
00:33:11you know, 30 years later, I mean, there's significant pieces of machinery.
00:33:16Steve definitely seemed passionate about his cars. He had an eclectic collection from the
00:33:20Mini to the XKSS to the, obviously, the Porsches and the Ferraris. And he seemed to get the most out
00:33:26of whatever it was he was driving. The 58 Porsche Speedster, that was his first new car he bought.
00:33:33And first car which he won his first race at SCCA. And he sold it. And I paid $1,500
00:33:41for it.
00:33:42The gentleman that owned it said, oh, by the way, the original owner was Steve McQueen. It was like,
00:33:47well, that's cool. The Porsche dealer in Hollywood said he knew this guy, Bruce,
00:33:51he said, my dad's old speedster. My dad said, impossible. No way.
00:33:56A few weeks later, I get a call from Steve. I understand you have my car, but you couldn't
00:34:00have my car. My dad went back where he had the roll bar in place.
00:34:04He pulled back the tonneau cover. It had this German weave carpet. And he literally just,
00:34:09it's glued down. He just kind of peeled it back. I'm kind of thinking, well, that's kind of
00:34:14presumptuous. And there was the mounting for the roll bar. He says, oh, my God. And he was just all
00:34:20over the car. And you could tell he was going through, you know, a real connection with this
00:34:24car. He says, you've got to sell me this car. I said, I don't want to sell the car. You
00:34:28know,
00:34:28I enjoy the car. I've had it a long time. My dad could be persuasive, to say the least.
00:34:35Three months, four months later, the car's at her house.
00:34:40I think if they brought it to market now, I wouldn't be able to afford it. It would be a
00:34:44seven
00:34:45figure number. Not single million, but millions. And at the Peterson Automotive Museum, we have his
00:34:51XKSS, which is an extremely rare car. A car like that today, without the McQueen provenance,
00:34:58would be in the neighborhood of four or five million dollars. And if that car came available
00:35:05today, I'm guessing it would be well over 10 million dollars. When the D-Type Jaguar became
00:35:10uncompetitive, they turned the last 16 into road cars. The XKSS, he loved that thing. It was really
00:35:16a race car for the street. My days used to flog that thing. When he decided to pedal down, I
00:35:24was
00:35:25getting ready for a ride, you know? Once you're behind the wheel, it's freedom.
00:35:31I'm not a doctor, but I always imagined that somebody who came from McQueen's background
00:35:37was always trying to get away as quickly as possible from wherever he was from that situation.
00:35:44So the idea of explosive speed, I could see how that would appeal to somebody. I mean, that is
00:35:50armchair psychology is in its basic levels, but it seems to make sense for a guy who,
00:35:56according to everybody who knew him from the earliest age, lived to drive fast, to go fast.
00:36:08The need for speed is in your DNA. It's not like you can train somebody to go faster,
00:36:14brave speed. It's just part of your genetic makeup. It's a mutant gene that just is very hard to satisfy.
00:36:22No matter how fast you go, you need to go faster. And McQueen would go faster. He competed at the
00:36:29highest level, bankrolling his own racing team, Solar Racing, entering Santa Barbara, Del Mar,
00:36:35and Sebring's 12-hour around-the-clock endurance race. Steve was a very talented driver and very gutsy
00:36:44and fearless. And that's a terrific combination. And every motorhead and every racer respected Steve
00:36:50for his genuine, bona fide driving talents. It was always about testing himself. He always wanted
00:36:56to measure himself against the best. Motor Trend Magazine, 2004. Steve McQueen's legend lives large.
00:37:06His love of all things mechanical was legitimate and genuine.
00:37:16Every one of my dad's cars, they all got their little stories.
00:37:38The funny thing about that car, I get more thumbs up in that one than anything. People know that car
00:37:43are from Bullitt. When anyone ever does a top 10 list of car chases on screen, it's always Bullitt is
00:37:52number one. The interesting thing is that in the script, it just says really two words, and that is
00:37:59car chase. In McQueen's head, he knew exactly what he's going to go for.
00:38:03To have that kind of control, it's like a kid in a candy store. Like, he gets to write his
00:38:08own car chase.
00:38:09He got to do what he loved and do it the way he wanted to do it.
00:38:14The genius of my dad was when he knew he was going to do Bullitt, he had to figure out
00:38:18a great car
00:38:20that a detective could afford.
00:38:26They picked the Mustang and then he got some of the best engineers to work on the car, get it
00:38:31ready for
00:38:31jumping.
00:38:33The chase sequence in Bullitt, every time I watch it, there's one massive slide out
00:38:38when he gets loose. Every single time I'm like...
00:38:43We had Bill Hickman, who was probably one of the finest stunt drivers in the world today,
00:38:48and myself was probably the worst. We felt that we should start off working in close harmony at a
00:38:53racetrack so that Bill Hickman and myself would be used to working close to each other at high speed.
00:38:58So we went out to Cotati Raceway up above San Francisco and worked at high speeds at well over the
00:39:03ton mark.
00:39:05It seems real. You know, it really does seem that that was a no-holds-barred chase.
00:39:11It really feels like you're there with him in the driver's seat. It's just thrilling.
00:39:15The fact that Steve was doing it made it maybe the coolest car chase in the history of car chases.
00:39:21When I watch Bullitt, I believe that Steve did it all. You know, and the truth is that he did
00:39:27a lot of it.
00:39:28You know, and of course the studio freaked out.
00:39:30There are going to be those times where the risk is that if you're doing that enough,
00:39:34the possibility and the chances of you getting nailed become more likely.
00:39:39And if he hurts himself, the whole production's screwed. Your lead guy, if he's out,
00:39:45the whole production has to stop. He kind of liked that rebellious, screw you, I'm doing it.
00:39:53It's authenticity. Audiences, especially movie audiences, can smell out a fake from like miles away.
00:39:58He saw the inside of how police work was really done.
00:40:02You work your side of the street, and I'll work mine.
00:40:07Bullitt was released in October 68. The reaction was absolutely through the roof,
00:40:11and the profits were just crazy. And Steve McQueen as Bullitt just became an instant icon.
00:40:19This is truly where the Steve McQueen legend really takes off.
00:40:23The New York Times, 1968. Existential cool. Less taut and hard shell than Bogart. McQueen simply gets better all the
00:40:32time.
00:40:37I mean, no one looks better in white Levi corduroys and sneakers than Steve McQueen.
00:40:42No one wears sunglasses like Steve McQueen. No one can look as wonderful behind the wheel of a fast car.
00:40:50On and off the screen, McQueen was paired with some of the hottest actresses in Hollywood.
00:40:54Never one to turn down a good time, the line between the two worlds began to blur.
00:41:00At that point in time in Hollywood, you know, we're talking the 60s and 70s, when everything was sort of
00:41:04a free-for-all.
00:41:05I don't really think that he knew how to adjust. He obviously wanted to retain his family and be the
00:41:12family guy,
00:41:12but then there were these temptations, on the other hand, that just made that impossible.
00:41:17I mean, a beautiful woman wouldn't have been a real problem, you know, at all, you know.
00:41:22And I certainly saw women coming up to him. You know, they could basically not formulate three words together.
00:41:29Because it was Steve McQueen. There's just something about him for me that's just like...
00:41:35What was I talking about again?
00:41:36And he'd just look at them and be very charming, which he totally could.
00:41:40He had that one down, which is why, you know, he's the king of cool, you know.
00:41:46Girls would blatantly throw themselves at my dad in front of their boyfriends or husbands,
00:41:51and he was always so cool about it.
00:41:53There was this free love and free everything. And sometimes he would come to me and say,
00:42:01why do I have to work for love at home and I can get it for free outside?
00:42:05Every man I met wanted to be him. Every woman wanted to sleep with him. Every kid wanted to be
00:42:10mentored by him.
00:42:11And he just had that extraordinary, charismatic, sort of sexual, but dangerous, but soft underneath, bright, street smart power.
00:42:29He's pretty hot. I've gone back a couple of times and gone, okay, maybe if I didn't know him to
00:42:33be as cool as he was.
00:42:34And if you just take a random photo and you see a photo and you're like, I mean, he's pretty
00:42:38eyes and this and that.
00:42:39And then you watch any footage where he's talking and the dude's just hot.
00:42:42There's no way out.
00:42:46You've done too good a job, Vicki.
00:42:50Steve's body was really just perfectly shaped, you know, and he kept it that way.
00:42:54He had a bus stop sign that he had stolen from one of the streets in New York, and he
00:42:59would work out with that.
00:43:06Being in, you know, in front of the camera, being a leading guy like he was, you've got to have
00:43:11that physical presence.
00:43:12Especially when you start wearing a couple hats, producer and leading man actor, you've got to be in great shape
00:43:19to have concentration and be able to do that for long periods of time.
00:43:23Because he was that kind of hands-on type of guy, it was natural for him to gravitate towards martial
00:43:29arts and towards a sport like that that's very physical.
00:43:32There's also a mental discipline involved that probably tripped a lot of triggers for him.
00:43:36And McQueen would train with the very best, Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, and Pat Johnson.
00:43:42Steve was probably the most aggressive guy I've ever, ever trained.
00:43:47He really wanted to get the martial arts so he could learn some self-discipline.
00:43:51He had an ego, no denying that at all.
00:43:54He had a real short fuse, he could go off in an instant.
00:43:58But he wanted to learn to control that temper and to as well as know how to fight.
00:44:03So if somebody did get in his face, he'd be able to either walk away or know that he could
00:44:07put the guy out right now.
00:44:10You're out there all by yourself, you're going to get out of it exactly what you put into it.
00:44:14I can totally see why martial arts and working out every day was a really important part of his life.
00:44:20It's so much more than, you know, physically looking good.
00:44:24It's very mental.
00:44:26L.A. Times, 2010.
00:44:29McQueen embodies effortless cool, dangerous masculinity, edgy charisma that are coveted by men embraced by women.
00:44:40Everybody knew that Steve McQueen was the coolest of them all.
00:44:45But I found out as I worked with him, you know, I think he was a warlock.
00:44:52I think he was affected by the moon.
00:45:02Whenever there was a full moon, I'll never forget his publicity guy said to me,
00:45:11you better watch him next week.
00:45:13He said, full moon, you know, he's affected by the moon.
00:45:17I said, what are you talking about?
00:45:18I mean, you know, and sure enough, he disappeared on his motorbike out of the desert.
00:45:26It was kind of strange, I think.
00:45:28I think there was a little, little particle in there.
00:45:31He totally disappeared and nobody knew where he was.
00:45:36And it's no secret, my dad liked his grass.
00:45:38And it was the 60s, you know what I mean?
00:45:40I mean, they were, they were trying everything, you know?
00:45:44Dennis Hopper told me a story once about him and my dad in a jeep,
00:45:48taking mescaline out in the middle of nowhere in the desert.
00:45:51Just take it right up to the edge.
00:45:53That was my dad.
00:45:54Everything was right up to the edge, right now.
00:46:05Do you ever relax, though?
00:46:06Oh, sure.
00:46:07Sure, I'm relaxed right now.
00:46:08Are you?
00:46:09Yeah.
00:46:09Yeah.
00:46:10But you do relax, you seem to relax.
00:46:12Just a little thing, I was watching you race.
00:46:14When you're on a motorcycle, you seem to be loose.
00:46:17And there seems to be a little tenseness about you otherwise.
00:46:20The only time I really, really honestly relax, relax,
00:46:24from the tensions, it seems as though, is when I'm motor racing.
00:46:27I do relax a lot at speed.
00:46:29One really has to, you know?
00:46:31I mean, you must stay relaxed because then if any trouble comes up,
00:46:35you don't want to be tense.
00:46:36You want to stay very relaxed so that you can cope with it.
00:46:45You like the speed and the action and the muscles and the dirt in the face and the rain and
00:46:51rocks
00:46:52hitting you and falling off and all that.
00:46:54It was all part of the world of masculinity.
00:46:58You're dealing with a few hundred pound motorcycle and taking it through circumstances that not a lot of people can
00:47:05handle.
00:47:05He was very strong, he was very fast, and he showed that in the way he rode a motorcycle.
00:47:12He was very aggressive.
00:47:13If you were in front of him in a race, sooner or later he'd be on your tail because he
00:47:19had the passion.
00:47:20That was his personality and that's why he was so successful is because he had to win.
00:47:27And Steve was a natural, racing competitively at Sebring, Baja, Elsinore, and the international six-day trials.
00:47:34He dug hanging out with guys like that, you know?
00:47:37I mean, he's really, he was in his element.
00:47:41I think for him, doing movies was a battle.
00:47:44You know, he was a, he knew that he had to get his game face on.
00:47:48Motorcycles, he just blend in with the rest of the guys.
00:47:51He really lived life. It wasn't like he was in this Hollywood box trying to be that, that actor or
00:47:59trying to be anything. He just was who he was.
00:48:04Once he got a helmet on, nobody knew who he was. He was the biggest star in the country, in
00:48:09the world.
00:48:09He just, he wanted to be one of the guys, he wanted to be one of the racers.
00:48:13He entered the Elsinore Grand Prix under Harvey Mushman.
00:48:17When you saw the guy with the white helmet and the yellow jersey go by, it was Harvey Mushman.
00:48:23I was a big fan of his, and when I decided to try and do On a Sunday, I went
00:48:27up to his office in
00:48:29L.A., and he, familiar with The Endless Summer, the surf film I made, told him what I wanted to
00:48:34do,
00:48:34and he went, oh, cool. You know, what do you want me to do? And I went, well, pay for
00:48:39it. And he started
00:48:40laughing. He went, hey, man, you know, I, I'm in movies. I don't finance them. And I went, well,
00:48:45you can't be in my movie then. And he laughed, and the next day he called me and said, okay,
00:48:50let's go for it. Put the money up, and he, he was a great, great partner.
00:48:54This is Steve McQueen, and I'm proud to have a little ride on in the film.
00:48:58Whether you ride or not, I think you'll enjoy on any Sunday.
00:49:01The thing is that most people have the feeling that motorcyclists are, you know,
00:49:05long sideburns and those great funny motorcycles and everything, and they're all kind of, you know,
00:49:10looking for trouble and everything. That really isn't the case. People who enter into competition,
00:49:13especially, uh, in the United States, uh, um, are very good sportsmen, and all of them are very
00:49:19keen on the sport and interested, and, uh, they're some of the best sportsmen I've ever run into my
00:49:22life. When I'm six years old, he got me my first minicycle, a little Benelli, and, uh,
00:49:28we used to go three days a week, you know. After school, he'd pick me up and take me in
00:49:32to
00:49:32Perry out to Indian Dunes to go practice. And then during the summers, our races were Friday nights.
00:49:40During the winters, there were Sundays. My dad never missed one. Always there.
00:49:47When he got into the vintage motorcycles, same thing, you can hang out with the vintage crowd,
00:49:52you know, the old guys that would go on runs. Triumph remade the bike from the Great Escape,
00:49:57and I found out that there was only a thousand of them being made. I had to get one. It
00:50:04was a really
00:50:04cool experience. Me and my dad were driving those bikes around. Of course, his is all souped up.
00:50:10There was just this moment of riding down by the beach, and, and, I don't know. It just,
00:50:16it kind of made me feel closer to my grandfather. And, um, it was really cool. I wish when I
00:50:23was
00:50:23younger that was something that we could have all experienced together.
00:50:30He was good. You know, on a Sunday that, that Elsinore race, it was a thousand guys,
00:50:35and he was finished in the top ten in both classes. We were at my house after the race,
00:50:40and his foot was like a basketball all swollen up. And he goes, uh, I think I broke my foot.
00:50:46Well, I know I broke my foot. Two weeks later, and despite a broken foot, McQueen would race the
00:50:53grueling 12 hours of Sebring. He said he was going to race the race, and they let him
00:50:59drive it with a cast on his foot. It's unbelievable, you know. I busted it in a motorcycle raid up
00:51:05at
00:51:05Lake Elsinore, the 100 miler. Uh, busted it in six places, and, uh, I'd already said I'd drive, so.
00:51:14I got the cast on, and we just taped it up, and I can't use a foot rest. Uh, we've
00:51:20had to cut part
00:51:20of it off because I'm five and one-eighths inches across, uh, the bottom of my foot, and we put
00:51:24some
00:51:24sandpaper on the bottom, taped it on, so I keep it on the clutch pedal and adjusted it. He was
00:51:29so at
00:51:29ease. You see, that's the thing that, that people don't realize. I think he was like a born car racer.
00:51:35Some people just are completely natural. He lived it 24 hours a day. I mean, that's all he could talk
00:51:41about. Racing, racing, racing. McQueen was neck and neck with Mario Andretti and the Ferrari 512S,
00:51:48with an average speed of 113 miles an hour. McQueen and his team would challenge for the lead
00:51:53in their Porsche 908 Spyder throughout the 12-hour marathon. In the end, Andretti would
00:51:58cross the finish line a scant 23 seconds ahead of McQueen. I think if you were to ask him then
00:52:05if he was an actor or a race car driver, he wouldn't have known what to say.
00:52:13His passion definitely was motorsports. It was, uh, a fix that he had to have.
00:52:20Racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after. Just waiting.
00:52:32The car speeds a maximum speed.
00:52:35Nobody else would make a movie about the 24 hours of Le Mans except Steve McQueen. Because it was the
00:52:42thing he knew, the thing he loved. Nobody, nobody else would make that movie.
00:52:48He had been wanting to do that film for 10 years. He was finally able to bring it to life.
00:52:59Steve was completely obsessed with making Le Mans the greatest car racing movie ever, ever filmed.
00:53:10He was, like, very obsessed with the action and the new way of filming the car racing and trying to
00:53:16find ways to show the sport and to make the person feel like you're part of it, the audience, in
00:53:23a way that
00:53:24was never done before. They had really tricked out a car with a lot of cameras on it. It was
00:53:31a camera
00:53:31car that actually drove in the race.
00:53:36The 917, he drove in Le Mans. Every day I would say, Dad, you gotta give me a ride in
00:53:42this thing.
00:53:42You please, you know, yeah. I'm busy, I'm busy. They're shooting down the Mulsanne. My dad and the
00:53:49other car is coming down off the kink and they're in the braking to hang the ride in the Mulsanne
00:53:53corner.
00:53:53He opens the door and he's, come on, come here. I'm gonna get a ride in the 917. So she
00:53:59sat me down on
00:54:00his lap and I remember the seat belt sticking into my back and I kind of went to the side.
00:54:05That sound of the flat 12 and the G-forces as a kid pressing back into my dad. There's nothing
00:54:13to
00:54:13hold on to for me, so I put my hand on top of my dad's glove on the wheel on
00:54:18the 917. He went through
00:54:20the first speaker, whap, whap. And just for a brief second, he took his hands off. So he was actually
00:54:26steering a 917 at 10 years old. I think that's what got me addicted to motorsports and driving myself
00:54:33was that feeling that I felt of the G-force. I mean, just in the sound and, you know, sitting
00:54:39so low
00:54:39with the fenders up high like that, it just, the whole thing was an addicting experience to say the least.
00:54:45Le Mans was kind of a crazy experience. It was doomed from the beginning.
00:54:48He wasn't focused. He'd much rather hang out with the guys than hang out with the executives,
00:54:54you know? John Sturgis wanted to make it a love story with the race as a background. McQueen was
00:54:59like, I didn't, I didn't wait to make this movie to have the race be the background. It's about the
00:55:03race.
00:55:03Sturgis kept saying, well, where's the human story? Because it was just all about machines.
00:55:08So you had them bumping heads from the very beginning. John wanted a script and there was no script.
00:55:14I don't think Steve McQueen says anything for the first 35 minutes of that film,
00:55:19but you're just sort of drawn to it. It's almost like you could smell it. You know,
00:55:23that's how visceral and visual it is. He was in the car five days a week and,
00:55:27you know, going racing space and he said every day I thought I was going to get killed.
00:55:32It was a very, very dangerous film set. There was rain, there were crashes, there was a driver that lost
00:55:37his leg. And I think in a way it's like the painter's madness. Uh, I think that he went mad
00:55:48a
00:55:48little bit in the making of the film that the obsession took over and he lost control. I mean,
00:55:54he just went, he went nuts. Le Mans was a disaster film for everyone involved. It was disaster for me.
00:56:00It was disastrous for Steve. It was disastrous for his relationship with John Sturgis.
00:56:07He wasn't showing up to the filming. The director got fed up, John Sturgis. They finally had a big
00:56:13blowout and he, and John left and they replaced the director. And from then it just became something
00:56:20different, you know. In asserting himself and essentially departing company with John Sturgis,
00:56:27who he'd been so successful with and getting the television director to come in and really having
00:56:31McQueen direct this movie, perhaps he wasn't threatened. He wanted to be a filmmaker and he
00:56:38was being adored by everybody. Everything was yes Steve and yes that. I don't think Steve was that
00:56:43cooperative. One thing led to another and just things began to disintegrate. I mean, the whole thing,
00:56:48they took the money away from Steve, they took the production, everything, they took everything away
00:56:52from Steve. And everybody at that point in time seemed to be doing drugs. That was the start of the
00:56:59tearing of the family because it was just getting too heavy. I think the issue was Steve at the time.
00:57:07He was distracted by cars, car racing, motorcycle racing, women. There were times that I didn't look
00:57:17away and there was a time when I retaliated. And when I did, the marriage never recovered from that.
00:57:23He had a terrible temper, you know, and it just, he, uh, he terrified me. So, uh, so I just
00:57:34said,
00:57:34I have to leave. With LeMans, McQueen was all in. He gambled everything on LeMans and he lost.
00:57:41Los Angeles Times, 1971. LeMans loses revs the minute it gets off the track. It is more than a little
00:57:49schizophrenic.
00:57:49At the age of 40, Steve McQueen now found himself divorced, broke, and doesn't really know what's
00:57:57going to happen with his movie career because he suffered this huge flop.
00:58:09Straighten ahead.
00:58:13Getaway, obviously, life-changing experience for Steve McQueen. He meets his co-star,
00:58:18Ally McGraw. Hi, doc. McQueen produced The Getaway. The casting process was very simple. Steve said,
00:58:25I want the girl from Love Story. I was married to Robert Evans, who was then the head of Paramount.
00:58:29She's married to Robert Evans, perhaps the most powerful man in Hollywood. But yet, this is still
00:58:34Steve McQueen. Steve called and said, I want to talk to you about doing this film and maybe using your
00:58:39wife. I had to be talked into doing it. I thought I was wrong for the part. And they all
00:58:44said, wow, I mean,
00:58:45you get to work with Steve McQueen. This is an absolutely brilliant career move. And of course,
00:58:50I knew he was one of the biggest stars in the world. But that in itself was kind of intimidating
00:58:56because I was such a neophyte. I had no clue how to play in that league.
00:59:02First day with Steve on The Getaway, he and Sam Peckinpah picked me up at the airport and did
00:59:08like 360s down the freeway. That was kind of a, wow, we're all going to have a very different
00:59:14kind of life than you're used to, you repressed New England non-actress. Have a look at this.
00:59:22As soon as they meet, there's this instant electricity.
00:59:26I do literally remember watching him walk out of the house to the edge of the pool,
00:59:30which was the color of his eyes, which I could see from 700 feet. I mean, it was an overwhelming,
00:59:38visceral, turn on, who is that kind of feeling? You know, it's a stunner. It doesn't happen a lot.
00:59:48The attraction was electrifying. It was scary.
00:59:58It was a foregone conclusion that something was going to happen. And of course, eventually,
01:00:02she leaves Robert Evans, head of production at Paramount for Steve McQueen. But while they're
01:00:08making The Getaway, Steve McQueen had that sort of power. Steve fell in love with the girl from
01:00:16love story. And Ali fell in love with one of the most, you know, charismatic actors of the century.
01:00:23You know, it was a no-brainer, really.
01:00:27Los Angeles Times, 1972. Steve McQueen and Ali McGrath generate between them as much electricity
01:00:34as any of the fabled screen teams of the past.
01:00:39It was like being a student on an advanced film set. Sam Peckinpah once said,
01:00:44if you want to learn everything there is to know about acting for film, watch his eyes. And that's
01:00:50powerfully true. Nobody that I've ever watched has come close to doing what he did. There are many
01:00:58great things to do. He nailed his version for all time. In one of the most challenging roles of his
01:01:04career, McQueen would put it all on the line in a role based on a true character who would risk
01:01:09everything to be free. In Papillon, there was just this broken man. And that was amazing to see.
01:01:17All his other movies, he was very strong. There was always this steel wall that no one was going to
01:01:23get through. And that was the movie that you just saw that kind of crumble.
01:01:32Franklin Schaffner did a brilliant movie and they killed themselves for him. They were up to your
01:01:37waist in hot, bug-infested Jamaican mud and blistering heat.
01:01:43It's physical. It's mental, emotional and physical. You're just in that awful situation with them.
01:01:49It's a grind. 12, 14 hour plus days on a lot of days. There's a physicality to that. There's a
01:01:55mental discipline that it takes to stay focused and on task. He insisted that he was doing that stunt
01:02:21himself. He was going to have some stuntman do it for him. My assumption was it must have not been
01:02:26Steve because we were so wide we couldn't tell if it was or not. So why not get in on
01:02:31his face?
01:02:32That seemed sort of wasteful to me in this day and age. I guess back then maybe it was more
01:02:36like,
01:02:37well, he's just going to do it. So we're just going to shoot it how we'd normally shoot it,
01:02:40instead of it being five cameras on it. And we want one on his face and we want to see
01:02:44him all in one
01:02:45frame. And one's, you know, I want to see that. With The Getaway in 72 and then Papillon in 73,
01:02:52if there was a sense after Le Mans that the decade of Steve McQueen had come to an end,
01:02:58those two films certainly shattered it. They were box office successes. They were largely
01:03:03critical successes. And Steve McQueen was back on top. After Papillon, Steve was exhausted.
01:03:08We lived at the beach and he said, I want a break.
01:03:12On a good day, and there were many, many, many good days, we were the most sort of ordinary,
01:03:19all-American, happy family. Chad lived with us, which was great because he looked so up to his
01:03:27father. And I found Steve a terrific father, you know, really caring.
01:03:33At the end of the summer, it's time to go back to school.
01:03:35I was like, you know, my dad came in one night and said, hey, listen, you can live with me
01:03:42if you
01:03:42want, you know, or your mom, whatever. I thought about it. Oh, I think, God, it took me about a
01:03:47half
01:03:47a second. And I said, I'm going where the action is, Dan. I'm with you.
01:03:54He was a superb film actor, without any doubt. But like a handful of people, he had this kind of
01:04:02bits of danger, like, what are you really going to do? Underneath that, there was tremendous
01:04:07insecurity and softness and sensitivity. But the survival mechanism was that, like, combustible,
01:04:17dangerous, mysterious, now you see it, now you don't. When it was good, it was very, very,
01:04:23very good. And when it was bad, it was horrendous. There was no kind of gray, boring ground.
01:04:27It's all in love or all out of love. You know what I mean? It's 100 percent one way or
01:04:31the other.
01:04:32And it's just the way he was. In the heat of skyrockets in the night, passionate love,
01:04:38you just go, wow, it's always going to be like this. But it isn't.
01:04:42He was the biggest movie star in the world, but I was having my five minutes of being pretty
01:04:46conspicuous. You're running in the fast lane. People are clapping every time you turn the corner.
01:04:52We were both having such a difficult time communicating. It was one of those, like,
01:04:58explosions. I wake up in the morning and go down in the kitchen. There'd be a plate sailing
01:05:03past my head. They're throwing plates in, you know, so. The kids don't know who's going where.
01:05:09They're scared when they hear arguments. They're relieved when they hear that you're happy together.
01:05:14They wonder why they can't go to Father's Day weekend because he's in some other country or
01:05:18where's your mother. I mean, it's a rotten family scenario. The fact that our marriage wasn't
01:05:24working was very disturbing to him. He was not happy and I was unhappy and we weren't doing anything
01:05:31about it. He sort of checked out. Yeah, you know, uh, you know, eventually they didn't see eye to eye,
01:05:39you know. But, uh, the time she was there was pretty fun. It was good.
01:05:47McQueen not only left Ali, he left Hollywood. The star machine. The highs, the lows, the whole crazy
01:05:55thing. He didn't want anything to do with the movie world, you know. He wouldn't even let a script
01:06:00come to the house. I'd have to go pick it up at the gas station.
01:06:08McQueen walks away from Hollywood, but Hollywood doesn't necessarily want him to walk away. Every
01:06:13great role of the 70s that you can think of was offered to McQueen first. One Flew with the Cuckoo's
01:06:19Nest, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, First Blood, The Gauntlet, Apocalypse Now. All these great
01:06:25classic films that sort of fit the McQueen type. And he turned it all down.
01:06:32At 47, McQueen decided to start a whole new life. At age 23, Barbara Minty was the perfect partner.
01:06:41And she was a cover girl, you know. She's very young, very good. And my dad saw her.
01:06:46It was an ad for Club Med. That's my butt. I was turned around. I was clicking my heels up.
01:06:52And I guess maybe he liked the spirit. My dad, when he sees
01:06:58somebody on the cover of a magazine, you know. When I first laid eyes on him in the Beverly
01:07:03Wilshire, he was a scruffy, scary, looked like a homeless old hobo. He asked really serious
01:07:09questions. I mean, he was going to my soul, to my heart. And I think he was that kind of
01:07:13a guy
01:07:14that he wanted to know if I was real and if I was going to, you know, mess with him
01:07:18or do anything.
01:07:19And she liked Coors Light and old Milwaukee like we did. So she fit right in. We definitely matched.
01:07:25The ages were a little different, but it worked. You know, we just loved the same things. It was
01:07:30all trucks. You know, we all drove trucks from the 40s. We just had so much fun together. I like
01:07:37cars and motorcycles and, you know, good pickup trucks. I toured the western states with him,
01:07:45looking for a ranch for him to buy because he wanted to get out of LA. He just said,
01:07:50honey, come on. We're going to go to Santa Paula airport. I found something. Here's the
01:07:53hangar. The next day you have a plane. The next day you have 30 motorcycles with the plane. And then
01:07:58it's, honey, I bought a house. It was a great little house. I mean, it was so perfect for us.
01:08:05It was old, everything. We had the old pull chain toilets. I think he was happy. I mean, it was
01:08:10a whole
01:08:11new Steve. And had a couple of years here and then we had a year in the hangar. And this
01:08:15was his
01:08:16little privacy. It was his play land. He was walking around the airport and he happened upon a guy,
01:08:21a World War II veteran, Perry Shreffler. Steve asked Perry, what would be the best way to learn
01:08:26how to fly? And Perry said, well, that's the way I learned how to fly with a military instructor and
01:08:30a stearman. I don't think he even thought about it. He just went home and bought two steermen and he
01:08:35learned how to fly. He was sitting in the john reading trade a plane and he called the guy from
01:08:41the potty and bought it. Steve's first stearman, he only owned for a day or two because my dad made
01:08:48one comment that he didn't think it was a good stearman. So instantly Steve got rid of that and
01:08:53bought that stearman. He could drive cars and he could ride motorcycles, but he was a pilot.
01:09:03There's Steve McQueen, the actor and Steve McQueen, the man. So I was lucky enough to know the man.
01:09:09We had quiet times. I got a quieter, more mature McQueen. We used to get in the old pickup truck
01:09:15and
01:09:15we'd just go driving. He'd say, well, it's going to be for a week or two, so pack a little
01:09:21more.
01:09:22And we'd just go for a while. It was fun. It was insane, actually.
01:09:29The life that he chose to live with the particular movies he chose to do after he and I were
01:09:35divorced, I think was the life he wanted to live. Steve McQueen really used himself 100 percent
01:09:44and he didn't really go outside of that box. He played to his own strengths and his own passions
01:09:51and his own imagination and found pieces that fit him like a glove.
01:10:00Living his new life, McQueen would climb back in the saddle to play rogue lawman Tom Horne.
01:10:06People don't realize this, but he was a filmmaker. I mean, Tom Horne pretty much directed himself.
01:10:11He asked me to be the assistant director and take care of him while he was making his picture.
01:10:16About a week into the picture, he looks over at me and I said, what's wrong? He says, I can't
01:10:21do it
01:10:21anymore. My director is driving me crazy. He knew what he wanted was his film. He wanted it filmed a
01:10:27certain way. He wanted everybody to do it his way. We drove into the into the compound where the
01:10:32dressing rooms were and etc. And he got out of the truck, walked into the director's motor home
01:10:36and fired him. He was difficult, I'd say. I wouldn't want to work for him. Like my dad was with
01:10:42everything
01:10:43else, you know, 100 percent. He lived out on the set with Barbara in the motor home. We had a
01:10:49house in
01:10:49Tucson, a penthouse at like the Hilton. We had all these beautiful places to stay, but we stayed in the
01:10:55RV
01:10:56and absolutely had the best time ever. All of a sudden, this limousine pulled up and the guy in his
01:11:03suit got out, walked over to talk to Steve for a couple of minutes and got back in the car
01:11:07again
01:11:07and drove off. And I said, what's going on? He held up a check and that check was for a
01:11:15lot of money.
01:11:25He always was concerned about his lungs and he would say, what would happen if your lungs
01:11:32were bad or or you couldn't breathe? It was there in some little way. You could see that
01:11:38he'd be protective about this or that and you just left it alone immediately. You didn't get involved.
01:11:43I was working as a production assistant and we knew he was sick, but I never thought,
01:11:47like everything else, anything was going to happen to him. He's bulletproof.
01:11:51We thought it was desert fever or something like that. And when they went and did a chest x-ray,
01:11:56the doctor in Santa Paula said, go to the big hospital in Los Angeles. And that's where they
01:12:04found out. And that's where the doctors said. He went in for that exploratory surgery
01:12:12at Cedars-Sinai, you know? And I remember getting there that day and they said, hey,
01:12:16we got the test back and my dad was like. A friend called and said, you need to know that,
01:12:24um,
01:12:26God, this is a bad story, that Steve has cancer. How do you know that? Because somebody in the
01:12:35examination room at the hospital took that x-ray and leaked it to the trashy press.
01:12:42It gave a lot of people their first glimpse into just how horrible tabloid journalism can be.
01:12:49I think this is the most immoral thing that I've ever witnessed.
01:12:52The manner in which they got the story was just horrible and embarrassing to anybody who cares
01:12:57about journalism and certainly terrible for anybody who cared about Steve McQueen.
01:13:01I'm not going there because it pisses me off to this day.
01:13:06I've still got a little anger management with the doctors, but there is no cure.
01:13:1450 years old, it was way too early for this story to happen. And yet he'd been exposed to asbestos,
01:13:21which is, I gather, what was the specific root of that cancer.
01:13:24He was in the Marines and he was cleaning out the, um, of course he went and chased some girl
01:13:30and he
01:13:30got in trouble. And they made him clean out the hulls of these ships and they had asbestos.
01:13:36That's where he breathed in the asbestos and asbestos takes, mezzothelioma takes probably,
01:13:42usually 20 some years to get into your body and get going.
01:13:44It was so sad for me because this good looking, handsome man, just so full of energy and so full
01:13:52of life was suddenly, you know, really thin, emaciated.
01:13:58This was something internal. Something was eating him from the inside. Something was
01:14:02taking over his body. You know, when you're riding the bike and the wind's in your hair and you're going
01:14:0760 miles an hour, he's God. But then I think he felt the vulnerability and I think that vulnerability
01:14:14turned to some questioning about what it's all about.
01:14:18If he had a great fear, it was of dying young. I went to, uh, see him. I went up
01:14:25to his room, to his
01:14:27bedroom. And, um, the fan was swearing around and there he was, you know. And I stood above him for
01:14:35a
01:14:35while and, and, and I, and then he opened his eye and he said, hi, honey. I said, hi.
01:14:43I said, how are you feeling? He said, not good. And, um, he said, I, I thought I'd never see
01:14:49you
01:14:49again. And that was, those were the last words we, we said to each other.
01:14:54He asked me about some painkillers and I suggested the one that you should be working
01:14:58with is morphine because he was obviously in a lot of pain. And he asked me, he said, what shall
01:15:04I do?
01:15:05And I said, Steve, you have no choice. You've got to go to Mexico.
01:15:09He knew the doctors wrote him off here in the United States. That's why I went to Mexico.
01:15:13He wasn't about to stop fighting. He fought like a son of a bitch to stay alive.
01:15:20And he fought so hard and he didn't want to go. He could not accept it. And because he liked
01:15:30to win,
01:15:32he couldn't understand, he tried his hardest. And you know what? Cancer sucks.
01:15:41It's an intensely private time. And, and it had passed the time when it was about who's married
01:15:46to him and who, and it was none of that. He was just trying to think about how he and
01:15:51his immediate,
01:15:52his new wife and his, his family, Neil and Terry and Chad, could be best be taken care of.
01:16:00We were down in Morez, Mexico in this clinic. They couldn't get our blood type down there in Mexico.
01:16:07So they had me eating raw steaks and they hit me twice a day for blood. They were wheeling him
01:16:12to
01:16:12surgery. And the last thing he said to me was, you'll be all right, son. But I didn't put it
01:16:17together. You know, I didn't think, but I think he knew he wasn't going to make it. The call came
01:16:23at
01:16:23about three o'clock in the morning. And Terry said, mom, dad just died.
01:16:42Every life lesson I got from him, you know, good, bad or indifferent. And even though,
01:16:48you know, he passed so young at 50, well, he crammed everything in. He crammed it all in.
01:16:57McQueen fought to live his life his way, squaring off against anyone who slowed him down. His roles
01:17:04mirrored his own life. He was the king of cool, the lone wolf. Steve McQueen was an original.
01:17:12The characters that you played on the screen who have been loners, they've been rebellious a little bit,
01:17:19moody. Have you interjected your own personality into these characters?
01:17:24Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You are a loner? Yeah.
01:17:28Normally, you hear stories about grandparents and you don't, you don't ever get to see them. You don't,
01:17:35maybe pictures. I get to see my grandfather in movies. I get to be inspired by him. And, um,
01:17:42it's amazing. He definitely wouldn't have been a normal grandpa. I can say that with certainty. He would,
01:17:48he would have been that guy that obviously everyone wants to have around. And probably that guy still
01:17:53acting like you as a teenager, you know. I miss him, but I think of him every day. Just
01:17:59passing glance, you know. But there are times when I say, oh, you would have loved this to him.
01:18:03Yeah. I can't believe that he died at 50. Uh, it, it, it, it never leaves me. Ever, ever, ever.
01:18:14We're,
01:18:15we're meant to be together. I know that for a fact. I mean, it just, we worked. We understood each
01:18:20other. And I've never had that sense. He should be here.
01:18:25We didn't toss a lot of footballs around me and dad, but it was, you know, the man were.
01:18:31A man becomes what he dreams. That's what makes us love him. And that he did push the envelope
01:18:38constantly in love and life and right to the end and dying.
01:18:43With the passing of Steve McQueen, the world has lost one of the top two or three great film
01:18:49actors of our age. Maybe the best. I loved him a lot. I think of all the actors I've worked
01:18:57with,
01:18:58he was, uh, I was closer to him because I think I understood him. And I think he needed that.
01:19:05He
01:19:06needed someone. I miss him. I would have loved to have watched the man grow old. We missed out on
01:19:11a
01:19:11bunch of really phenomenal performances from a guy who's matured in front of the camera and
01:19:18behind the wheel and on the bike. And, you know, cause there'd be a time where maybe
01:19:22it stopped being about that. He was that good at 50. Imagine what 60 and 70 might've brought us.
01:19:29Might've been the oldest guy to win Le Mans. Who knows?
01:19:34He has the magical alchemy and that is what makes him a legend and an iconic figure.
01:19:47We haven't lost Dave McQueen because he's there indelible in all these movies,
01:19:52all these films that sit on a shelf as a beautiful tableau of a man's life. It still works today
01:20:00and it
01:20:00still burns brightly. It still jumps off the screen at you.
01:20:07You know, sometimes I wish I had like, I could give you a pair of glasses and you can see
01:20:12what I've
01:20:13seen. You know, it's been a long, good ride and fun. And let's face it, my dad was,
01:20:21it's been a long, good ride and fun. To all the people who've seen me in the movie and to
01:20:25all the
01:20:25people who read about me out here, I'm what I am. And if you like me, I'm glad. Steve McQueen.
01:20:55You
01:21:03You
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