Steve McQueen: A Biography

Written by Marc Eliot

Narrated by Marc Eliot

One of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and '70s with now-classics such as The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Bullit, Steve McQueen is renowned as one of the most exciting actors ever to come out of Hollywood. Now, in Steve McQueen: A Biography, bestselling author Marc Eliot gives unique insight into McQueen's life, from his films to his three marriages, many affairs, and struggles with addictions. This definitive biography, filled with original research and new interviews, will dazzle fans with its eye-opening portrayal of one of America's most memorable stars.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Oct 25, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452673837

Marc Eliot

Marc Eliot is the New York Times bestselling author of more than two dozen books on popular culture, among them the highly acclaimed Cary Grant, the award-winning Walt Disney: Hollywood’s Dark Prince, and American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood. His work has been published in more than twenty-five languages, and he writes for a number of publications and frequently speaks about film to universities and film groups, and on radio and television.

Reviews for Steve McQueen

[olivermagnus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorite movies has always been The Great Escape. I've watched it dozens of time over the years. Having recently watched it again, I decided to pick up showbiz biographer, Marc Eliot's, fascinating portrait of the insecure, complex and haunted film icon who attracted women with his icy blue eyes and lopsided grin, but had a nasty habit of smacking them around and cheating on them.

McQueen was once the highest-paid film star in the world, a status earned through his roles in films like The Magnificent Seven, Bullitt, The Thomas Crown Affair and The Great Escape, but he also turned down many roles in top-rated films from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to The French Connection.

The author pointed out the difference between the acting philosophies of McQueen and Clint Eastwood. They were only months apart in age, both had lucrative careers in early TV westerns, and both formed their own production companies so they could produce the films they liked. Eliot says that Eastwood kept his eye on the franchise prize, especially with the Harry Callahan series. Instead of following up with more Bullitt movies, McQueen jumped around in genres, often coming up with critical and box office duds. In his forties he took to lazing around, eating junk food, letting his body go, and losing ambition.

It's always disappointing to find out that a favorite actor was really a self absorbed, abusive jerk but I guess many actors need to be narcissists to get ahead in that job.

I did enjoy the way the biography was written. It was well planned out, written in a logical format and very interesting for long time fans. Decades after he lost his battle against cancer, Steve McQueen still remains “The King of Cool.”

[amanda4242_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Steve McQueen was Hollywood’s “King of Cool.” With his starring roles in such classic films as The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Bullitt, he created the persona of a laconic tough guy with a taste for fast cars and beautiful women. Women wanted him and men wanted to be him.If you want to know more about him than that, I suggest you look somewhere other than Marc Eliot’s Steve McQueen: A Biography.In this self-proclaimed “revisionist” biography, Eliot spent little time relating his subject’s biographical details; in fact, the Wikipedia entry on McQueen is more informative about his life than this biography. Eliot devoted less than fifty pages to the first 28 years of McQueen’s life and spent very little time exploring any of his personal relationships, preferring instead to focus on the grosses for his movies. Steve McQueen could have succeeded as a critical study of McQueen’s films if Eliot had bothered to apply any criticism to his discussion of them. He related the cast, the budget, and the grosses for all of McQueen’s films, but Eliot’s discussion of each film’s merit is directly related to its box office performance: if it did well, he praises it and if it did poorly, he dismisses it. In the Author’s Notes of Steve McQueen: A Biography, Marc Eliot wrote that he had not found a definitive biography of McQueen. Sadly, he also failed to write one.Received via NetGalley. I originally wrote this for The Chant Online. It is reprinted with permission.