From Publishers Weekly
Scheduled for release simultaneously with the biography My Husband, My Friend (reviewed below), Spiegel's book is the more detailed, particularly in accounts of McQueen's early years and apprenticeship in New York. The author, a screenwriter and novelist, interviewed people in Beach Grove, Ill.where Terrence Steven McQueen was born in 1930about his family and his deprived childhood: he was deserted by his parents, although invited occasionally by his mother to live with her and her current lover. McQueen was placed in a boys' home, joined the Marines at age 17 and later studied acting in New York along with Paul Newman and Ben Gazzara, replacing the latter in A Hatful of Rain. When he was fired, the actor added that injury to others he never forgot, even when he was phenomenally rich and famous, according to Spiegel. McQueen married Neile Adams, a dancer in Broadway shows (Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, etc.), and they settled in Hollywood. Gradually, the actor won the roles that made him a star during the 1960s and 1970s. The author records McQueen's sexual excesses and offensive public behavior, as well as his desperate fight against the cancer that killed him at age 50. Photos not seen by PW. January 17
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
The last major biography on Steve McQueen, William F. Nolan's McQueen! ( LJ 11/1/82), a friendly and solid work, totally skirted the star's private life. Two new works address that void with a vengeance, presenting McQueen as a cocaine-addicted, hopelessly promiscuous, egomaniacal, and irascible charmer. Spiegel's McQueen is the more comprehensive volume, digging into McQueen's early (until now unreported) troubled family life, his foray on Broadway, his TV stint, his films (focusing mostly on The Sand Pebbles and The Thomas Crown Affair ), his marriage to Ali MacGraw, and his voracious sexual appetite. Although first wife Neile McQueen Toffel cooperated with Spiegel on her book, Toffel's own book is more personal, so the various anecdotes don't overlap too muchthat is, until the similar descriptions of McQueen's unorthodox cancer treatments in Mexico. Toffel's book, although padded with some gaudy, gauzy love scenes, is fascinating. Toffel was a dancer on Broadway before settling down with McQueen to supposed marital bliss. With McQueen's overwhelming success, she reports, came his addiction to drugs, constant philandering, domestic violence, and Toffel's affair with an Oscar-winning matinee idol. Toffel tells all, and it isn't pretty. Christopher Schemering, Arlington Cty. P.L., Va.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
