Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel - Softcover

Terrill, Marshall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0859654591 ISBN 13: 9780859654593

Publisher: Plexus Publishing, 2011

Synopsis

Rough around the edges, driven by passion, at once a leader and a loner, Steve McQueen embodied the rebel image. As Hollywood insiders quickly learned that McQueen’s hard edge was no act, the former street kid earned the respect of his fellow artists. This book, the result of over three years of research and interviews with more than 60 of McQueen’s friends and associates, paints a riveting portrait of a man whose power both on- and off-camera is legendary.

About this title

About the Author

Marshall Terrill teaches special interest writing classes at Glendale Community College.

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Plexus Publishing
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0859654591
• ISBN 13: 9780859654593
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512