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Steve McQueen died of lung cancer in 1980, but you can still glimpse his coolness in a long list of movies he left.
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 7, 2002
Why was Steve McQueen so cool? Not an easy question to answer.
McQueen wasn't classically handsome. He didn't try too hard to look intimidating or romantic, his sleepy blue eyes doing most of the work on screen. We discovered more about his consistently masculine characters when he wasn't speaking. McQueen's roles had their moments of glory that seldom ended in triumph, but he never played a loser.
Come to think of it, all those traits are exactly why Steve McQueen was so cool.
McQueen died on this date in 1980 of lung cancer reportedly spurred by exposure to asbestos, likely from the insulated suits he wore as a race car driver, or perhaps from his service in the U.S. Marines. He was 50 years old. The way he died was indicative of his anti-establishment style: Keeping his diagnosis secret for nearly a year to avoid sympathetic publicity, he died in Mexico where he tried treatments that weren't approved for U.S. doctors.
Home video is where we see McQueen living with taciturn gusto. We don't have enough space to list all his movies you should see but these are good places to start:
The Cincinnati Kid (1965) -- One of the best poker movies ever with McQueen dealing to Edward G. Robinson while Ann-Margret breathes heavily on the side. The final hand is a gripping piece of cinema directed by Norman Jewison.
The Magnificent Seven (1960) -- A classic Western based on the Far East film The Seven Samurai. McQueen and Yul Brynner lead a gang of gunslingers hired to protect a Mexican village. They love their work in a lonely, Code of the West way.
The Reivers (1969) -- Based on William Faulkner's novel, McQueen gives one of his most animated performances as a "reiver" -- a fighting, womanizing cheater -- and passes along his knowledge to a 10-year-old boy. I auditioned for that role as a child in Alabama, but despite Mitch Vogel this is a good movie.
Baby, the Rain Must Fall (1965) -- McQueen plays a parolee singing in a nightclub band (voice dubbed by Glenn Yarborough) but his mother wants him back in school. Lee Remick co-stars as the estranged wife jeopardizing his freedom.
Bullitt (1968) -- The famous car chase gets so much attention that the rest of Peter Yates' lean, mean movie often is overlooked. McQueen plays a maverick detective assigned to protect a state witness against the mob. When the snitch gets murdered, Robert Vaughn looks oily enough to know something about it.
Papillon (1973) -- This is probably McQueen's best performance, matching Dustin Hoffman note-for-note as they dream of escaping a grim French penal colony. McQueen allowed his tough veneer to crumble under the pressure and audiences were right there with him to pick up the pieces.
The Getaway (1972) -- Sam Peckinpah crafted a violent bank robbery and double-cross that introduced McQueen to his second wife, Ali MacGraw. The movie is exciting, but no more than hearing MacGraw's jilted husband, producer Robert Evans, describe the situation in the recent documentary The Kid Stays in the Picture.
The Sand Pebbles (1966) -- McQueen earned his only Academy Award nomination for playing a Navy engineer assigned to a ship patrolling the Yangtze River in 1926 amid Chinese hostility. The political upheaval is tempered by a romance with a schoolteacher (Candice Bergen).
Soldier in the Rain (1963) -- Jackie Gleason plays an Army rule-breaker showing the ropes to an optimistic sergeant (McQueen). The scams concocted by Blake Edwards from William Goldman's novel are fun, but the film's late turn to tragedy shows McQueen at his finest.
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) -- Pierce Brosnan couldn't hold a candle to McQueen's charisma in the 1999 remake that changed the caper from bank robbery to art theft. McQueen also had time -- a lot of it -- for Faye Dunaway and one of the longest kisses ever filmed, set during an erotic chess game spoofed later by Austin Powers.
The Great Escape (1963) -- McQueen leaping a motorcycle over Nazi prison camp barbed wire. McQueen crouching in a cell, playing solitary catch with a baseball. Classic images in a role appropriately nicknamed "The Cooler King."