Dimensions
129 x 198 x 31mm
A full and frank portrait of the complex man behind the icon of cool.
Steve McQueen, one of the first "cool" film stars, remains a cultural icon the world over. His image is used to sell everything from cars, to beer, to a range of dolls. From the Cincinnati Kid to Frank Bullitt, Tom Crow to Papillon, his roles exemplified a certain school of male charm, as well as grit and a hint of menace.
McQueen was born in 1930 into a poor Mid-western family to a highly strung mother and truant father. In and out of reform school from a young age, he was eventually made a ward of court and the resulting sense of abandonment never left him. His big break came with the TV saga 'Wanted: Dead Or Alive' and the now cult-classic B-movie 'The Blob'. Just two years later he was one of the leading lights of tinseltown.
As Sandford reveals, McQueen's public demeanour of studied nonchalance hid chronic self-destructive urges which emerged in his favourite hobbies, including bare-knuckle boxing and porsche-racing, as well as several suicide attempts. His "lost" years at the very height of his fame are illuminated with disclosures of rampant addiction, bizarre health cures, fringe religion and androgyny.
McQueen died in 1980 at a "wellness" clinic in New Mexico, having been earlier diagnosed with lung cancer. His last words were "Lohice" - Spanish for "I did it".
