Posted on 03/24/2010 1:06:39 PM PDT by Daffynition
Three Weeks in Steve McQueen's World
In the spring of 1963, Steve McQueen was on the brink of superstardom, already popular from his big-screen breakout as one of The Magnificent Seven and just a couple months away from entering the Badass Hall of Fame with the release of The Great Escape. Intrigued by his dramatic backstory and his off-screen exploits — McQueen was a reformed delinquent who got his thrills racing cars and motorcycles — LIFE sent photographer John Dominis to California to hang out with the 33-year-old actor and see what he could get. Three weeks and more than 40 rolls of film later, Dominis had captured some astonishingly intimate and iconic images, photos impossible to imagine in today's restricted-access celebrity world. Only a handful of those photos have ever been published… but now, in celebration of what would have been McQueen's 80th birthday (March 24), LIFE.com presents these never-before-seen gems from that legendary assignment, along with insights from Dominis about the time he spent with the man who would become known as the King of Cool.
Pictured: At his home in Palm Springs, McQueen practices his aim before heading out for a shooting session in the desert.
After laying down their firearms, the couple take a stroll. At this point the McQueens had been married for seven years and had two young children, but the spark between them was still very much alive. "They were always necking!" says Dominis, who also remarked upon their childlike way with each other in notes he filed for LIFE's editors back in '63: "They chase each other around," he wrote, "as though it were going out of style."
Steve McQueen in His Jaguar XKSS
Trailing Steve McQueen was Dominis' first Hollywood gig. "I liked the movies, but I didn't know who the stars were; I was not a movie buff," Dominis, now 88, tells LIFE.com. But he got the assignment because he and McQueen shared one vital passion point. "When I was living in Hong Kong I had a sports car and I raced it," Dominis says. "And I knew that Steve McQueen had a racing car. I rented one anticipating that we might do something with them. He was in a motorcycle race out in the desert, so I went out there in my car and met him, and I say, 'You wanna try my car?'" Later the two of them would zip around Los Angeles, including Sunset Boulevard (pictured). "We went pretty fast — I mean, as fast as you can safely go without getting arrested — and we'd ride and then stop and trade cars. He liked that, and I knew he liked it. I guess that was the first thing that softened him."
I wonder if Steve McQueen would be a leftist nut if he were around today. Any guesses?
Steve McQueen. Just reminded me of a story involving Yogi Berra. Seems he was in a hotel room when a McQueen movie came on tv. Berra is reputed to have said, “Steve McQueen. He must have made that movie before he died.”
Rest in Peace, McQueen. Left us way too soon.
Nice collection over on the Life site. I always liked McQueen.
Original Badass!!
Coolest guy ever. I would love to have known him.
Steve McQueen later developed a love for airplanes and pilots tend to be a conservative bunch. He liked guns, cars, motorcycles, planes, and when he was sick he went to Mexico for Laetrile which the conservative Birchers supported (re: pharmacy free-choice issue rather than FDA deciding). He sounds like he would have grown more conservative had he not been taken too soon.
Absolutely not. McQueen was one of my childhood heroes, and as such, I've read quite a bit about him. He frequently expressed what would be described by today's standards as a conservative philosophy. He was a former Marine, and support the war efforts during Vietnam - a position that wasn't very well regarded in '60s Hollywood.
Finally, before his death (and ironically just a few months before his diagnoses of fatal cancer), he became a born-again Christian, and really embraced his faith in the twilight of his life.
No way! From the description of his demeanor near the time of his death I would say he was a Christian - I don't see how it would be possible to be both a true leftist nut and a Christian.
I just watched him the other day in “The Cincinnati Kid” opposite Edward G. Robinson. A pair of bad asses.
Don’t know. But he hung out with my family. Even left his hangar at Santa Paula Airport and many of his cars and item to my family.
And ... they are all Conservatives. Farmers to be exact, as was my dad.
Steve McQueen had purchased an airplane from my son-in-law. Steve died before taking delivery of the plane.
He left his airplane hangar at Santa Paula airport to my family. My cousin lives there now. Left a lot of cars and planes as well.
My family auctioned a lot of the items off 2 years ago at the Peterson Museum of Cars in Los Angeles.
Von Dutch also lived at my family’s farm at the same time.
My family are all farmers, all Conservative, not one Leftie.
We already had a thread about that, I believe.
If you read one of the last photos there, it says that Steve McQueen wanted to get out of Hollywood...
That is one valuable piece of equipment.
Me too. [But not in the same way as I imagine you mean, Andy! LOL] ;)
Very cool!
My daughter is currently going to college there just outside of Santa Paula. Whenever we drive down for a visit we see the dark green hanger just off the freeway off ramp and think of Steve McQueen.
Last summer we watched a bunch of McQueen films. My kids had never seen any of his films besides "The Great Escape".
With his dog, a Malamute named Mike
“...My family are...all Conservative, not one Leftie.”
I wish I could say the same but in my extended fam we seem to have a few that readily drink the Kool Aid.
I am pretty sure I saw that car in a show at the “Allure of the Automobile” show at the High Museum in Atlanta last weekend.
See my post 27.
Great photo! I thought at first that it was a wolf.
Steve McQueen...sigh.
sw
Let me fine tune my earlier post - I think I saw THAT VERY CAR in a show at the “Allure of the Automobile” show at the High Museum in Atlanta last weekend.
Here is just part of the collection. If you Google Steve McQueen ... and my last name, you’ll see much more.
http://public.fotki.com/wackydave/car_shows/car_shows_2006/the_brucker_collect/
My uncles and cousins still fly out of Santa Paula. I totally love Santa Paula.
Also, most of the Von Dutch stuff and Big Daddy Roth. My uncle owned Robbie the Robot and his “car”, the Bat mobile and lots of other cars.
He sold it years ago.
http://www.leatherneckmagazine-digital.com/leatherneckmagazine/200906/?pg=32#pg32
for info on his time in the Corps, click the link.
McQueen: “I live for myself and I answer to nobody.”
John Dominis was (is?) a great photographer.
What ever “it” is in terms of masculine coolness, e.g., women love him,
guys want to be like him...
Steve McQueen had a mega-dose of it.
I saw one documentary on him on PBS in Los Angeles over five years
ago...the guy was even trying to go deeper in literature and philosophy
before he exited the scene.
Maybe he’d never have made it to “renaissance man”, but he was
giving it a good try.
Actor Steve McQueen (R) and pals Jim Corbin (L) and Dave Resnic (C) practicing shooting during hunting trip in Sierra Madra Mountains.
Wow. I had no idea he was such a mensch.
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