He was, and always will be the “King of Cool.” He developed the beloved anti hero persona. He created a rebellious image during the height of the Vietnam counterculture movement. He was a strong actor and a fast driver. He is Steve McQueen.

Tough guy actor Steve McQueen was born in Beech Grove, Indiana in March 1930. During infancy his father left, then when he was a small child his mother gave him to her parents. He and his grandparents moved in with his uncle in Slater, Missouri, during the Great Depression. His mother reclaimed him when he was eight years old, though he did not adjust well to the new life in Indianapolis and within a few years he joined a street gang, committing petty crimes. For the next few years he bounced between his uncle’s farm and his mother’s different locations.

At the age of 14 he left his uncle’s farm and joined a circus, then went back to his mother and stepfather’s house in Los Angeles, California and resumed his life in a gang. Like his previous stepfathers, his new one did not like McQueen and convinced his mother to send him to the California Junior Boys Republic correctional facility. The troubled young man began maturing and decided to give Boys Republic a fair chance. He was elected to the Boys Council, the group that helped make and govern rules within the group’s lives. At the age of sixteen, he left Boys Republic but never forgot the facility or its impact on his life. Later after he became famous, McQueen regularly went back to speak to the boys, as well as personally responding to every letter he received from a boy there.

In 1947 McQueen joined the United States Marine Corps. Unfortunately his former rebelliousness returned and he was reverted back to the status of Private on multiple occasions. After going AWOL on a weekend pass and resisting returning, he decided to focus on improving himself while embracing the Marines’ credo, and ended up saving the lives of five Marines during an Arctic exercise. He served until 1950, including time as an honor guard member for then U.S. President Harry Truman’s yacht.

In 1952 he began studying acting at Sanford Meisner’s Neighborhood Playhouse. While studying acting he supported himself by racing motorcycles on the weekends and used money he earned in the military. He performed in several stage shows, including Peg o’ My Heart, before his first movie role in Somebody Up There Likes Me with Paul Newman. He performed on Broadway in 1955 then appeared in the two part TV movie The Defenders, before starring in a string of B movies, including The Blob and Never Love a Stranger at the encouragement of his manager Hilly Elkins.

McQueen’s breakout role came in the TV series Wanted: Dead or Alive as a bounty hunter. The role was originally played by Robert Culp, but McQueen made it his own and became a household name. His film break came when he was 29 in Frank Sinatra’s Never So Few. The director, John Sturges, enjoyed McQueen so much that he cast the young actor in The Magnificent Seven in 1960 and The Great Escape in 1963. The Magnificent Seven was his first major starring role and led to his withdrawal from Wanted, Dead or Alive. In 1966 he starred in The Sand Pebbles, which earned him an Oscar nomination, then went on to star in 1968s Bullitt, which involved an unprecedented chase scene through San Francisco that McQueen actually performed himself. He then starred in Le Mans, The Getaway, Junior Bonner, and Papillon. The 1974 film The Towering Inferno made him the highest paid movie star in the world. His final films were Tom Horn and The Hunter both released in 1980. 

Along with acting McQueen was an avid motorcycle and car racer. He planned to release the film Day of the Champion with John Sturges about Formula One racing, but unfortunately other movies ceased the project. During his acting career he considered becoming a professional race car driver. He won the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring race with Peter Revson in the 3 litre class, and competed in off-road motorcycle racing, competing in top West Coast races like the Baja 1000, the Mint 400, and the Elsinore Grand Prix.

McQueen died at the young age of 50 in November 1980 after two heart attacks and a diagnosis of mesothelioma the previous year. He remains one of the film industry’s biggest stars, and has been referred to in literature about racing, various films and TV shows, including the main character Lightning McQueen in the animated hit Cars, and he is the subject and title, of a song by pop rocker Sheryl Crow.

This week EMoviePoster.com is auctioning a 1960 title card from McQueen’s hit movie The Magnificent Seven, also starring Yul Brynner and John Sturges. The original theater used lobby card measures 11 X 14”. It was auctioned on Tuesday, September 9, 2008 on EMoviePoster’s website for $131.