1950s In 1952, with financial assistance under the
G.I. Bill, McQueen began studying acting in New York at
Sanford Meisner's
Neighborhood Playhouse and at
HB Studio under
Uta Hagen. During this time, he also studied acting with
Stella Adler, in whose class he met
Gia Scala. Long enamored of cars and motorcycles, McQueen began to earn money by competing in weekend motorcycle races at
Long Island City Raceway. He purchased the first two of many motorcycles, a
Harley-Davidson and a
Triumph. He appeared as a musical judge in an episode of
ABC's
Jukebox Jury, which aired in the 1953–1954 season. McQueen had minor roles in stage productions, including ''Peg o' My Heart
, The Member of the Wedding and Two Fingers of Pride
. He made his Broadway debut in 1955 in the play A Hatful of Rain'' starring
Ben Gazzara. '' (1959) When McQueen appeared in a two-part
Westinghouse Studio One television presentation entitled "
The Defender", Hollywood manager
Hilly Elkins took note of him and decided that
B movies would be a good place for the young actor to make his mark. McQueen's first film role under Elkins' management was a bit part in
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), directed by
Robert Wise and starring
Paul Newman. McQueen was subsequently hired for the films
The Blob (his first leading role),
Never Love a Stranger, and
The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959). McQueen's first breakout role came on television. He appeared on
Dale Robertson's
NBC Western series
Tales of Wells Fargo as Bill Longley. Elkins, then McQueen's manager, successfully lobbied
Vincent M. Fennelly, producer of the Western series
Trackdown, to have McQueen read for the part of
bounty hunter Josh Randall. He first appeared in Season 1, Episode 21, of
Trackdown in 1958. He appeared as Randall in that episode, cast opposite series lead
Robert Culp, a former New York motorcycle racing buddy. McQueen appeared again on
Trackdown in Episode 31 of the first season, in which he played twin brothers, one of whom was an outlaw sought by Culp's character, Hoby Gilman. with McQueen in
Wanted: Dead or Alive, 1959 McQueen next filmed a pilot episode for what became the series,
Wanted Dead or Alive, which aired on
CBS in September 1958. It became his breakout role. In interviews associated with the
DVD release of
Wanted: Dead or Alive, Robert Culp of
Trackdown claimed credit for bringing McQueen to Hollywood and landing him the part of Randall. He said he taught McQueen the "art of the fast-draw". Culp said that by the second day of filming, McQueen beat him at it. McQueen became a household name as a result of the series. Eli Wallach reports struggling to conceal his amusement while watching the filming of the funeral procession scene in which Brynner's and McQueen's characters first meet. Brynner was furious at McQueen's shotgun round-twirl, which effectively diverted the viewer's attention to McQueen. Brynner refused to draw his gun in the same scene with McQueen, knowing that his character would probably be outdrawn. When
Johnny Carson later tried to congratulate McQueen for the jump during a broadcast of
The Tonight Show, McQueen said, "It wasn't me. That was Bud Ekins." This film established McQueen's box-office clout and secured his status as a superstar. Also in 1963, McQueen starred in
Love with the Proper Stranger with
Natalie Wood. He later appeared as the titular
Nevada Smith, a character from
Harold Robbins' novel
The Carpetbaggers, portrayed by
Alan Ladd two years earlier in a
movie version of that novel.
Nevada Smith was an enormously successful
Western action adventure prequel that also featured
Karl Malden and
Suzanne Pleshette. After starring in 1965's
The Cincinnati Kid as a poker player, McQueen earned his only
Academy Award nomination in 1966 for his role as an engine room sailor in
The Sand Pebbles, in which he starred opposite
Richard Crenna,
Candice Bergen, and
Richard Attenborough, with whom he had previously worked in
The Great Escape.
Bullitt was so far over budget that
Warner Bros. canceled the contract on the rest of his films, seven in all. When
Bullitt became a major box-office success, Warner Bros. tried to woo McQueen back, but he refused, and his next film was made with an independent studio and released by
United Artists. For the film, McQueen went for a change of image, playing a debonair role as a wealthy executive in
The Thomas Crown Affair with
Faye Dunaway in 1968. He signed a deal with
Cinema Center Films to star in and produce films. In 1969, McQueen made the Southern
period piece,
The Reivers, based on a novel by William Faulkner.
1970s In 1971, McQueen starred in the auto-racing drama
Le Mans, which received mixed reviews, followed by
Junior Bonner in 1972, a story about an aging rodeo rider. He collaborated once again with director
Sam Peckinpah in
The Getaway, where he met his future wife
Ali MacGraw. McQueen then took on a physically demanding role as a prisoner on
Devil's Island in the 1973 film
Papillon, alongside
Dustin Hoffman as his character's tragic companion. By the time of
The Getaway, McQueen was the world's highest-paid actor. In 1974, with
Paul Newman, McQueen co-led
John Guillermin's disaster film,
The Towering Inferno. McQueen played a fire chief assigned to stop a fire in a skyscraper. He was originally asked to play the architect who is the other hero of the story, but he requested to play the fire chief, thinking the part was "showier". The role of the architect went to Newman, a part that had more lines, hence McQueen requested more dialogue to even it out. McQueen was paid $1,000,000 plus a percentage of the gross, and he insisted on doing his own stunts. The film was a success, and its North American gross was $55,000,000. After that, McQueen disappeared from the public eye to focus on motorcycle racing, traveling around the country in a
motor home and on his vintage
Indian motorcycles. He did not return to acting until 1978 with
An Enemy of the People, playing against type as a bearded, bespectacled 19th-century doctor in this adaptation of the
Henrik Ibsen play. The film was never properly released theatrically, but it has appeared occasionally on
PBS. McQueen's final two films, both released in 1980, were loosely based on true stories:
Tom Horn, a Western adventure about a former Army scout turned professional gunman who works for big cattle ranchers hunting down rustlers, and later hanged for murder in the shooting death of a sheepherder; and
The Hunter, an urban action movie about a modern-day
bounty hunter.
Missed roles McQueen was offered the lead male role in ''
Breakfast at Tiffany's but was unable to accept due to his Wanted: Dead or Alive
contract. He turned down parts in Ocean's 11, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' (his attorneys and agents could not agree with Paul Newman's attorneys and agents on top billing),
Apocalypse Now,
Dirty Harry,
A Bridge Too Far,
The French Connection (he did not want to do another cop film), Spielberg offered to take the crying scene out of the story, but McQueen demurred, saying that it was the best scene in the script. The role eventually went to
Richard Dreyfuss.
William Friedkin wanted to cast McQueen as the lead in the action thriller film
Sorcerer (1977).
Sorcerer was to be filmed primarily on location in the Dominican Republic, but McQueen did not want to be separated from Ali MacGraw for the duration of the shoot. McQueen then asked Friedkin to let MacGraw act as a producer, so she could be present during principal photography. Friedkin would not agree to this condition and cast
Roy Scheider instead of McQueen. Friedkin later remarked that not casting McQueen hurt the film's performance at the box office. Spy novelist
Jeremy Duns revealed that McQueen was considered for the lead role in a film adaptation of
The Diamond Smugglers, written by
James Bond creator
Ian Fleming. McQueen would play John Blaize, a secret agent gone undercover to infiltrate a diamond-smuggling ring in South Africa. There were complications with the project, which was eventually shelved, although a 1964 screenplay does exist. McQueen and
Barbra Streisand were tentatively cast in
The Gauntlet (1977), but the pair could not get along and both withdrew from the project The lead roles were filled by
Clint Eastwood and
Sondra Locke. McQueen expressed interest in the
Rambo character in
First Blood when
David Morrell's novel appeared in 1972, but the producers rejected him because of his age. He was offered the title role in
The Bodyguard (to star
Diana Ross) when it was proposed in 1976, but the film did not reach production until years after McQueen's death; the film eventually starred
Kevin Costner and
Whitney Houston in 1992.
Quigley Down Under was in development as early as 1974, with McQueen in consideration for the lead, but by the time production began in 1980, McQueen was ill. The project was scrapped until a decade later, when
Tom Selleck starred. ==Stunts, motor racing and flying==