Role models of greatness.

Here you will discover the back stories of kings, titans of industry, stellar athletes, giants of the entertainment field, scientists, politicians, artists and heroes – all of them gay or bisexual men. If their lives can serve as role models to young men who have been bullied or taught to think less of themselves for their sexual orientation, all the better. The sexual orientation of those featured here did not stand in the way of their achievements.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Steve McQueen

"In my own mind, I'm not sure that acting is something for a grown man to be doing."
– Steve McQueen


His father abandoned him and his mother was an alcoholic prostitute who seduced him sexually; so did some of her “johns”. A gang member practically from the day he could walk, he bounced back and forth between his mother and grandparents and seemed set for a career as a petty thief and vandal (arson was among his specialties), before ending up in a California reformatory, where he was gang raped. Upon release, he enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 17. Since he was already a fan of bikes and fast cars, he enjoyed his duties as a mechanic and tank driver, but continued to have trouble with authority figures. After three years of military service he drifted around the the Caribbean. In a bordello in Santo Domingo, he hired himself out as a sex object and porn performer. Those early years would lead to McQueen's future problems with authority and relationships.


Gravitating to New York City, he hustled on the streets of Times Square to support his two loves: acting and motorcycles. A little later, in a borrowed tux, he became a "gentleman for rent," the boy toy of rich, aging women, two of whom were Joan Crawford and Lana Turner. When stardom finally came, the abused became the abuser, and sex was his weapon of choice. "The last thing I want is to fall in love with a broad," he said. The string of seductions that followed earned him an almost mythical status as a pansexual Love Machine. His A-list conquests included Jacqueline Bissett, Faye Dunaway, Lauren Hutton, Sharon Tate, Mamie Van Doren, Tuesday Weld, Natalie Wood, and Marilyn Monroe. He married one of them, Ali MacGraw, for whom he abandoned the mother of his two children (and wife of sixteen years), Filipino-born actress Neile Adams.


Publicly, he insisted that he loathed homosexuals (nice try!), yet he often went to bed with them, favoring bikers and race car drivers. To admit to any of this would have meant the end of his acting career. Nevertheless, he had a tumultuous sexual relationship with James Dean, and a longer love/hate affair with Paul Newman. Other sexual relations developed with Peter Lawford, Montgomery Clift, Sal Mineo, Rock Hudson, Chuck Connors, and George Peppard.

By all accounts McQueen was a difficult, prickly individual. He abused drugs, drank to excess, smoked three packs a day and was riddled with self-destructive urges . He landed bit parts in stage dramas and TV episodes, and his role on Dead or Alive made him a bona fide TV star. This led to the film role in The Magnificent Seven, and the rest is a lightning fast trajectory into Hollywood superstardom. Like his onscreen characters, McQueen went his own way and pretty much did what he wanted. He turned down the film Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid because he refused second billing to Paul Newman. He was an independent, sexy movie star whose sense of “cool” defined the era.


In his heyday, with a salary of $5 million a movie, Steve McQueen was the highest paid actor in the world. If you want to see him at his best, watch Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) or The Getaway (1972). In the former he is sexy and appealing; in the latter he is sexy, tough and violent (his costar was future wife Ali MacGraw). McQueen was a good actor and a true cinema icon.

McQueen lived life at top speed, like the machines he raced so famously. Always difficult on film sets, he became a diva, firing crew on a whim. In the end fewer scripts came his way, because he had burned too many bridges. He was well on his way out in Hollywood when he contracted cancer. His early death at age 50 in 1980 remains a source of speculation, all of it explored in a biography by celebrity chronicler Darwin Porter: Steve McQueen, King of Cool: Tales of a Lurid Life. Others were shocked by the sex and violence in this book; I was shocked to learn that he was a staunch Republican and evangelical Christian.

His actor grandson, Steven R. McQueen (Vampire Diaries), is doing his best to follow in the footsteps of his iconic Hollywood relative (finger at right).


Steve McQueen, as sexy as his car, is shown here with one of his signature muscle cars, a 1956 Jaguar XKSS Le Mans racer. Only 16 were produced. This Jaguar was powered by a straight six engine with triple Webers, packing 250 horsepower. It was said to be brain-meltingly loud at 6,000 RPM, and also very pretty – like its owner.

The film Bullitt (1968) contains one of the most influential car chase sequences in movie history. Screeching through the streets of San Francisco, McQueen, in a 1968 green Ford Mustang GT390 Fastback, chases a 1968 black Dodge Charger R/T 440 Magnum. When McQueen, an accomplished race car driver, overshot a turn and smoked the tires (around the 1:10 mark), it was decided to replace him with a stunt driver. The Mustang’s interior rear view mirror gives clues as to who is behind the wheel. When the mirror is up (visible) McQueen is behind the wheel, and when it is down (not visible) stuntman Ekins is driving. It took more than three weeks to shoot the footage that took up less than ten minutes of screen time in the final edit.




Other than acting, McQueen's great love was fast cars and motorcycles. He filmed a spectacular motorcycle jump in the 1963 film, The Great Escape. Worth checking out. Here he's riding with one hand behind his back.

28 comments:

  1. I LOVED THE GUY ALSO.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love him to....I mean REALLY love him....

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love his Grandson...Steven R. McQueen from The Vampire Diaries

    ReplyDelete
  4. Replies
    1. No not really. I don't believe George Peppard ever had a gay affair. If so, Steve McQueen would not be the only one you hear about. George was just so gorgeous and desirable and was in a film with McQueen so people assume that they hit it and quit it. I don't think so.
      George loved P-ssy to much for that.

      Delete
    2. Yes, George Peppard & Steven Mc Queen did hit the sheets, Steve wanted George to experience his huge willie and Steve enjoyed George’s willie and they would drink and screw all weekend until the next weekend ... George liked, being face to face, with Steve on top and then grinding their pelvis’s together it was ecstasy for both of them!!!

      Delete
  5. He was no pretty boy, but he had more sex appeal than any ten men. I would have gladly done him! Like Dean, he died before he could become a dried-up old man.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tom Perez MinneapolisAugust 30, 2017 at 5:18 PM

    Not knowing about his sexual and abused past till today, I know why I always felt such an emotional sexual and pain in his eyes. I'm sad to know he died too young and with such a heavy heart from his past. Becoming a Evangelical Christian is also no surprise. May he be at peace, I will always love him for being a man.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I cannot imagine the heartache he must have felt as a child. Your words conjure up images of horrific events in McQueen's young life,events that no one should have happen to them.
    RIP Steve McQueen ...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sleaze. Not a good person.I fail to see any sex appeal there either.

    ReplyDelete
  9. He's still my favorite!
    Steve McQueen became a very strong Christian
    towards the end of his life.
    He said if he had more time "with what I know now", he would have opened a ranch in Idaho for troubled male youth.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I've read he got lung cancer from exposure to asbestos when working on Navy ships during his Marine service--that and decades of smoking.

    ReplyDelete
  11. He was a very good actor. But lousy human being. Now I understand why.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Paul Newman AND George PEPPARD? I don’t believe the latter. But I first got wind of the rumors about Newman in San Diego. I would have Sunday brunch with an older gay couple at their house or the eatery of their choosing. They both worked in the film and music industry and had a home in Palm Springs. I miss them - the stories they told!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm absolutely in love with George Peppard even though he's on the 'other side' and I do not believe McQueen ever tapped that booty or vice versa.

      Delete
  13. UNO DE LO SMEJORES ACTORES QUE PASARON POR EL CINE, YO DESCONOCIA SU PASADO Y SU8 VIDA PERSONAL, UNA PENA

    ReplyDelete
  14. Don't believe chuck Connors was gay.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I know that I don't care if their gay .love is love to each his own. Love him ...

    ReplyDelete
  16. I think people should treasure love wherever they can find it. Because Love is a gift...

    ReplyDelete
  17. After growing up with his problems, he managed to channel his anger and resentment into acting. And not a murderous rampage like many others

    ReplyDelete
  18. I would like to know the source of this information

    ReplyDelete
  19. John Matthew DuffyJune 23, 2022 at 8:47 PM

    I do not think it is fair to drag Steve's name through the mud. He is dead and cannot defend himself. I remember him as a very gifted actor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Disagree...extremely public jobs, always come with less privacy...particularly in Hollywood...part of the deal!

      Delete
    2. BTW...That famous motorcyle jump was conceived by Steve...but done by a stunt man.

      Delete
  20. Yet there is no mention of him building or donating The funds to build the rec room at the Boy's Republic in Chino Hills California, Where I believe he did some time as a juvenile. I've been there visiting before and his movie posters are all over in that room.

    ReplyDelete