Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel [Hardcover]

Marshall Terrill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 1994

Discusses McQueen's rough childhood in Indianapolis, his flirtation with death as a motorcycle racer and his own stunt double, his female friends, his marriage to actress Ali McGraw, and acting. 25,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

McQueen (1930-1980) was born in Indiana and grew up fatherless with an alcoholic mother. After stints in a reform school and the Marine Corp., he landed in New York City where he caught the acting bug. He soon won an acting scholarship and in 1956 got his break in the film Somebody Up There Likes Me . That same year he met and married dancer Neile Adams. The TV series, Wanted: Dead or Alive , brought him to the attention of director John Sturges who cast him in The Magnificent Seven . Three years later The Great Escape made him a star. The strength of this book lies in the history the author has compiled on McQueen's 28 films--their genesis, their filming and how the critics and the paying public responded. Terrill also delves into the offscreen side of McQueen: his passion for motorcyles, fast cars and bedding his female co-stars. The author goes on to chronicle McQueen's frequent, admitted use of LSD, marijuana and cocaine; his revulsion of homosexuals; his divorce and his subsequent marriages to actress Ali McGraw and model Barbara Minty; and, finally, his battle against lung cancer. Terrill, a dealer of Beatles' memorabilia, makes a solid impression with his first book. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Respectful, admiring, well-researched life of film actor Steve McQueen (1930-80), who packed two or three lives into his 50 years. First-time author Terrill (a dealer in Beatles memorabilia) strives to show the acting side of McQueen, explaining that, in many ways, the star's talent had to conform to the nature of the films he chose to be in, or the films that--in his early years--his agent urged upon him. Though Terrill rises above gossip-as- biography, he sounds star-struck when talking about McQueen's early films and rise to huge fame, weighing the actor's ego against that of Yul Brynner, from whom McQueen stole The Magnificent Seven. McQueen was aware of the absurdity of a reform-school graduate like himself becoming the world's highest-paid actor, and he was ever- grateful to Boys Republic, personally answering fan mail from inmates and leaving the school a bequest. A hyperenergized motorcycle and racing enthusiast, he couldn't keep from bouncing off the walls, nor was his surplus of nerves dampened by pot and cocaine, stronger drugs, or general satyriasis. For McQueen, womankind was one fantastic candy shop--though he denounced such behavior in print. Terrill repeats earlier biographers' surmises that McQueen's central hunger and erratic behavior stemmed from abandonment by his father and alcoholic mother, as well as from fear that his wealth was as unstable as his parents were. Conquest became a way of life, as did his need to controls his films and shape them to his image, even though he demanded less and less dialogue for himself in his scripts. Then McQueen tried to conquer McQueen, taking on Ibsen's An Enemy of the People in a film that got shelved but that today has a growing following. McQueen died of a heart embolism following what looked to be successful surgery for cancer. Definitive, yes, but less writerly than Penina Speigel's McQueen (1986) and not as moving as Neile McQueen Toffel's My Husband, My Friend (1986). (Photographs) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 463 pages
• Publisher: Donald I. Fine (January 26, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556113803
• ISBN-13: 978-1556113802
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #688,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book about the most real action hero in history, September 20, 2001

By 

Albert J. Mora (Corona, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel (Paperback)

First consider how fine an actor Steve McQueen was:

From the 50s through the 70's, Steve McQueen, Robert Redford, and Paul Newman were in close competition for the best "blue-eyed-blonde" parts in Hollywood. Newman and Redford are intelligent, versatile actors. Steve had a little less brainpower and range.

But from a physical standpoint, Steve wiped the floor with Newman and Redford (who are no sissies), or anybody else for that matter.

From playing golf and polo (Thomas Crown Affair) to marshal arts (Great Escape, Sand Pebbles) to auto racing (Le Mans) to motorcycling (Great Escape, On Any Sunday) to handling firearms (many), to handling tools (Sand Pebbles), every move Steve made was quick, balanced, controlled, and deadly. Steve's athleticism was inherited - his father was a "dashing flyer." It was psychological - Jim Coburn said Steve was "the most competitive person I've ever met." And it was nurtured - he was a decorated Marine, a bona-fide auto and motorcycle racer, and a serious student of marshal arts. He studied for years with the great Pat Johnson, and with the greatest, Bruce Lee. And Steve loved working on motorcycles and cars. No other actor in history had Steve's physical credits.

In all his roles, Steve understood that films are much more visual than verbal, and exploited his phyical qualities to the limit. That's acting intelligence.

Perhaps most importantly, Steve was INTENSE. Would you hesitate to make Newman or Redford angry? I wouldn't. Would you hesitate to make McQueen angry? I would. Read the book and see why.

And for what it's worth: Newman and Redford are pretty. Steve was swarthy. How many blue-eyed-blondes are swarthy?

Next consider the book:

Mr. Terrill's account of Steve's personal life is clear, comprehensive, balanced, and filled with great photos. Terrill's direct access to many people who personally knew or worked with Steve is evident on every page.

Terrill builds up the story with a thorough account of Steve's extremely tough, fascinating early years. You get to know the forces behind Steve's failures and successes as an adult. Although you know all along that Steve eventually "makes it," Terrill makes you feel intensely how unlikely a candidate Steve was for acting stardom.

Terrill covers Steve's great romance and marriage with Neile Adams, the immensely painful breakup, the scandalous romance and marriage with Ali McGraw, and the twilight-marriage with model Barbara Minty.

Not least of all, Terrill makes you appreciate McQueen's extremely underestimated acting talent. Steve was not a "yes-sir" actor. He molded all his parts strongly. He was particularly good at understanding how to stay just on the "reality" side of things, even though he was primarily an action star. So he deserves a great deal of credit for his own success.

By the end, Terrill has taken you through the many lives of Steve McQueen.

Plus, Terrill includes a filmography and a great treat: a list of movies Steve ALMOST made. The list is long and often surprising.

Finally consider the combination, and buy this book.

I've read it three times and will end up reading it many more times.

PS: I understand that there are plans in Hollywood to make a movie about McQueen's life based on Terrill's book. If it captures one-tenth of the romance, adventure, and excitement in the book, it will be a wonderful movie!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very cool book about one of our coolest stars, October 1, 2001

By 

Jeffrey Ellis "bored recluse" (Richardson, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel (Paperback)

Its an overused word that is often devoid of any real meaning, but Steve McQueen was just cool. Even though he was usually described as being a "limited" actor, Steve McQueen was still a great star -- a talented man who perfectly understood his limitations and therefore was able to craft each of his films to perfectly showcase his strengths. As Marshall Terrill's biography shows, McQueen was an actor who always gave the perfect performance for the films he starred in. Therefore, if McQueen wasn't a "great" actor in the style of Paul Newman, he was a far more dependable actor and, in a true rarity nowadays, his was a name that you could trust when saw it on a theater marquee. Terrill's biography also shows that McQueen, as an actor, never succumbed to the elitism that seems to possess so many other film stars. He never forgot his humble roots and, as a result, he never committed the cardinal sin of seeing himself as being somehow above his audience. McQueen was loyal to the idea of providing entertainment yet, within those confines set for himself, managed to help craft such classic films as Bullitt, the Great Escape, The Sand Pebbles, and the Magnificent Seven. As Terrill shows, even when McQueen went through a "classics" period, he still made a film that fit in with his own personal view of what his audience would enjoy -- an unlikely, unjustly obscure version of Ibsen's Enemy of the People. Terrill's recounting of the making of Enemy is one of the book's highlights and, to the best of my knowledge, contains anecdotes and information that can't be found anywhere else.

Also, a great deal of fun comes from the book's final section -- a listing of films that McQueen decided not to make. This listing of films famous and obscure is a trivia browser's delight and also invites one to imagine what might have been. While sometimes that mind boggles, others -- such as Steve McQueen playing Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (imagine the military madman personified by a cool killer like McQueen as opposed to a massively bloated, rambling Marlon Brando) leave one mourning the unrealizing possibilities.

Of course, since this is Steve McQueen, a great deal of the book is taken up with details of rampaging drug abuse and chronic womanizing. Terrill presents these facts in a very unsensationalistic, straight forward way. Surely, Steve McQueen would have appreciated the no-BS style to Terrill's recounting. One thing becomes perfectly clear -- even if McQueen did, quite often, the wrong thing, he did it with enough style to make the "correct" alternatives look all the more dull. Luckily for filmgoers, Steve McQueen was never dull and luckily for readers, neither is Terrill's biography.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An incredible journey through an amazing man's life, November 7, 1998

By 

K. Johnson (US/Asia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Steve McQueen: Portait of an American Rebel (Paperback)

This book was riveting in covering all facets of Steve McQueen's professional and personal life. There is joy and sadness in the story of McQueen. He overcame the odds from an emotionally painful childhood, living on the streets at the age of 15. Mcqueen had worked many odd jobs all over the United States before joining the Marines. He decided to try acting instead of taking a woodworking job in Spain. From then on you can't put this book down unitl the story of his life is over. Kudos to Terril, and I hope he plans on giving us more biographical brilliance.