WE'RE READY TO ROLL TOMORROW!

Steve McQueen's life was the prototypical example of a new sort of movie star who emerged in the 1950s and dominated the big screen in the 1960s and '70s as "the world's most popular actor" by the time his Hollywood Star was installed in California. Throughout his life, turbulence, difficulty trusting others or their motives was telling of a hard life upbringing. Steve was born in Beech Grove, Indiana on March 24, 1930 His childhood was grueling. His parents split up, and with his father gone (he died before Steve and wife Neile could locate him) his mother (who died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1965) felt too young and unsuited to take care of Steve. He was placed on a train to live with his great uncle on a farm in Missouri. After he turned nine, McQueen's mother had married again, and he was sent to California to join her. However, after displaying a rebellious streak, McQueen's mother tragically sent him to the notorious Boys' Republic, a California reform school. After the ninth grade, McQueen left formal education behind, and joined the Marine Corps in 1947. After leaving the Marines in 1950, McQueen moved to New York City, where he and Martin Landau were accepted into Lee Strasberg's prestigious Actor's Studio (Martin and Steve were the only two among 2,000 applicants to be accepted)! In 1956, McQueen made his Broadway debut and won rave reviews when he replaced Ben Gazzara in the lead of the acclaimed drama "A Hatful of Rain". The same year, McQueen made his film debut, playing a bit part in "Somebody Up There Likes Me" alongside Paul Newman, and he married dancer Neile Adams. In 1958, after two years of stage work and television appearances, McQueen scored his first leading role in the intense teenager sci-fi cult film, "The Blob". Later that same year he scored another lead, in the television series "Wanted: Dead or Alive". McQueen's moody performances as bounty hunter Josh Randall elevated him to stardom, and in 1960, he appeared in the big-budget Western The Magnificent Seven (to be featured) confirming that his new stardom shone just as brightly on the big screen. In 1961, McQueen completed his run on "Wanted: Dead or Alive" and concentrated on film roles, appearing in comedies "The Honeymoon Machine", "Love with a Proper Stranger" (Co-Starring Natalie Wood) as well as action roles in: "Hell Is for Heroes" and "The War Lover". In 1963, McQueen starred in "The Great Escape", whose blockbuster success confirmed his status as one of Hollywood's most bankable leading men. This was really Steve's "breakthrough" role! His off screen passion for motorcycle and auto racing developed. (McQueen would also display his enthusiasm for bikes as narrator of a documentary on dirt-bike racing, On Any Sunday).Through the end of the 1960s, McQueen starred in a long string of box-office successes, but in the early '70s, he appeared in two unexpected disappointments -- 1971's "Le Mans" (to be featured) and 1972's "Junior Bonner" (featured in 2006 here on The Festival). This was actually a fine film. It was called my many "an unusually good-natured Sam Peckinpah movie" that earned enthusiastic reviews. But it failed at the box office, largely due to the film distribution company's failure to market and promote the film properly. This caused considerable frustration for McQueen. Later that year, McQueen would team up again with Peckinpah for the action film,"The Getaway" which co-starred Ali MacGraw. McQueen and Neile Adams divorced in 1971, and while shooting "The Getaway", he and MacGraw (who was then married to producer Robert Evans) became romantically involved. In 1973, MacGraw divorced Evans and married McQueen; the marriage would last until 1977. (MacGraw's book "Moving Pictures" covers their lives together). After two more big-budget blockbusters, "Papillon" and "The Towering Inferno", McQueen took his $14 million payroll check (from "The Towering Inferno"---then a record) and decided to just enjoy life away from the movie lot. In 1977, he served as both leading man and executive producer for a screen adaptation of Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People", which fared poorly with both critics and audiences--many of whom felt Steve showed tremendous courage in taking on the film, but that he was terribly miscast. In 1980, it seemed that McQueen was poised for a comeback when he appeared in two films -- an ambitious Western drama, "Tom Horn", (Co-Starring Linda Evans) which McQueen co-directed without credit, and his last film---"The Hunter", an action picture in which he played a modern-day bounty hunter. Steve wed for a third time, marrying model Barbara Minty in January of that year. Just as McQueen was rediscovering his life and was feeling true happiness, he was diagnosed with Mesothelioma, an aggressive form of lung cancer brought on by exposure to asbestos. After conventional treatment failed to stem the spread of the disease, McQueen traveled to Juarez, Mexico, where he underwent therapy at an experimental cancer clinic. The treatments were harsh and included coffee enemas, intra-muscular injections of Laetrile and animal proteins. Despite these valiant efforts of McQueen and his doctors, the actor died on November 7, 1980 of a massive heart attack following surgery to remove a large tumor. He left behind two children, son Chad McQueen, who went on to his own career as an actor, and daughter Terry McQueen, who died in 1998. Today, more than 27 years later, Steve McQueen is dearly missed. However, he is now being rediscovered by yet another generation of young fans and fellow actors who have come to appreciate his gifts! In his Last Will & Testament, Steve left a significant donation to The Boys Republic reformatory, where he would visit the children annually to give them encouragement. First wife Neille and last wife Barbara have since remarried. Neile was widowed in 2005. Ali MacGraw, returned to her career after a long absence on Broadway in April, 2006 in "Festen". Both Neile and Barbara recently released books, respectively, about their lives with Steve. Neile's is an updated book re-release called "My Husband, My Best Friend". Barbara's book is entitled "Steve McQueen: The Last Mile".

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We let it roll tomorrow. See you then!