Steve McQueen is considered to be one of the greatest movie stars of his generation. On the 25th anniversary from his passing many audiences still feel that he still defines what being “cool” is.

McQueen was hailed by critics as “The King of Cool” due to his captivating on and off screen rebel persona in the 60s and 70s. This was manifested in his love of fast cars and motorcycles that would later become his trademark.

Terence Steve McQueen was born on 24 March 1930 in Beech Grove Indiana.

Shortly after he was born his father abandoned him and his mother. He was then sent to live with his uncle and aunt in Slater, Missouri. At the age of 12 McQueen joined his mother in Los Angeles where she sent him to a reformatory school. In school he excelled in sports and drama. Soon McQueen left the school and drifted before joining the Marines in 1947.

His father’s abandonment and the general absence of his mother would put an indelible mark on what he was to become. A close friend of his once said: “Steve wanted to be memorable as an actor but in his private life you got the impression he was trying to speed up, to get into the next hour without quite living out the last one.”

James Dean was a major influence on McQueen after having watched him in East of Eden. Dean’s iconic look and attitude played an important part for Steve as he was able to bring out his rebellious character onto the big screen. As soon as Dean became a star McQueen wanted to follow in his footsteps. By a twist of fate the two actors would cross paths in New York when Steve was working as a mechanic in a garage. Dean walked in to have his motorcycle repaired and the two clicked instantly. Although Jimmy was a year younger than Steve they had a lot in common, both were blond Midwesterners from Indiana. Furthermore they shared a certain sulky arrogance, irresistible charisma and a common rival in the form of Paul Newman.

McQueen’s rivalry with Newman would be seen in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as Steve was initially cast to play the latter, a role which would later go to Robert Redford. This qualm arose from McQueen’s desire to have more lines than Newman something which would be repeated while filming The Towering Inferno.

Prior to Dean’s death McQueen took to following Jimmy around copying everything he did. Steve would analyse what made Dean a star and this resulted with him auditioning to study at Lee Strasberg’s method actor’s studio in New York.

Steve’s stage debut came on Broadway when he played a drug addict in Michael V. Gazzo’s A Hatful of Rain. His initial break into films came with bit parts in Somebody Up there likes me and Girls on the Run.

His first film role finally came in 1958 when he starred as Steve Andrews in the cult science fiction film The Blob directed by Irvin S.Yeaworth Jr. Despite the Blob’s popularity in American drive in cinemas McQueen’s popularity escalated with the Western TV series Wanted: Dead or Alive. Right from the start the show was hailed a success due to the mood instilled in the opening credits where the camera focuses on McQueen’s bounty hunter Josh Randall as he slowly walks up to a wanted poster and rips it away from the board.

McQueen’s western look in Wanted: Dead or Alive earned him the part of Vin the Sardonic gunman in John Sturges’ memorable 60s Western The Magnificent Seven.

Based on Kurosawa’s superb The Seven Samurai it tells the story of intimidated villagers who hire gunfighters to protect them from ruthless bandits.

Co-starring Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson and a terrific Oscar nominated soundtrack by Elmer Bernstein, its success spawned three sequels but none measured to the original.

However, it was not until McQueen’s turn as a daring prisoner of war in John Sturges’ The Great Escape that he rose to international stardom. With a twist of irony McQueen was reluctant to star in another film set around WWII due to the disappointing box office failure of his earlier films Hell is for heroes and Soldier in the Rain.

Featuring an all star cast starring Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Gordon Jackson and Donald Pleasance, The Great Escape will always be remembered as the movie that introduced WWII to the 60s generation. Based on a true story it tells how the Germans opened Stalag Luft North, a maximum security prisoner of war camp designed to hold the craftiest escape artists.

The movie depicts how the Nazis unwittingly assembled the finest escape team in military history. One of the most ingenious and suspenseful films of all time, The Great Escape proved to be another successful hit by director John Sturges that became defined by Elmer Bernstein’s rousing march tune and the now classic scene when McQueen (Hilts the Cooler King) is being pursued by the German army in a spectacular motorcycle chase across the Swiss border.

Come this Christmas when it will be shown on TV for the umpteenth time, many viewers including myself will be desperately wishing that McQueen will make that final leap for freedom, despite knowing the outcome.

McQueen’s role as Hilts the Cooler King was followed by a string of successes with Love with the Proper stranger (1963) Baby, the rain must fall (1965) and The Cincinnati Kid (1965).

However McQueen’s much deserved Oscar nomination would come for The Sand Pebbles (1966) directed by Robert Wise. McQueen would be reunited again with Richard Attenborough aboard an American warship sailing the rivers of China in the 1920s. To this day The Sand Pebbles is considered by many film critics as a period depiction of the United States involvement in the Vietnam War despite anti-Vietnam feelings reaching their culmination three years later. A surefire commercial hit came with The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) directed by Norman Jewison that featured McQueen playing a suave millionaire playboy who, out of boredom, wants to successfully pull off the perfect crime. McQueen starred alongside a flamboyant Faye Dunaway (Chinatown) playing Vicki Anderson a woman who begins to suspect Crown’s involvement.

The movie features the longest kiss in cinema history and the famous chess sequence that took over eight hours to film over a number of days.

McQueen’s love of action and stunts led him to one of his most successful films Bullitt directed by Peter Yates. He played detective Frank Bullitt who is assigned to protect a Mafia witness with devastating results.

Bullitt is memorable for its famous car chase sequence through the streets of San Francisco which was very influential in the movie The French Connection starring Gene Hackman. This classic scene which features Bullitt in a dark green Ford Mustang chasing two hit men has been used for countless adverts over the years.

By 1972 Steve McQueen was badly in need of a hit. If The Great Escape (1963) and Bullitt (1968) turned him into an iconic 60s superstar his last two films Le Mans and Junior Bonner would be the biggest box office disasters of his career.

The Getaway directed by Sam Peckinpah would be McQueen’s entry to the 70s lean and mean death wish genre as for once he was playing a gangster alongside Love Story’s Ali McGraw.

The film will be forever remembered for the off-screen rivalry between McQueen and producer Robert Evans husband of Ali McGraw as McQueen and McGraw during the shooting of the film were head over heels in love with one another.

1973 saw McQueen going back to his roots as he played yet another ‘never say die’ prisoner in Papillion directed by Franklin Schaffner and costarring Dustin Hoffman.

McQueen played Henri Charriere aka Papillion, a man, wrongly convicted of murder, who is imprisoned and becomes motivated to escape at all costs. The film’s poster boasted the tagline: ‘The Greatest Escape Ever Filmed’ becoming a box office hit all around the globe because of its portrayal of a defiant man who manages to overcome all odds.

Following on the disaster movie genre set by The Poseidon Adventure McQueen ventured into The ToweringIinferno directed by John Gullermin. Steve McQueen played Fire Chief Michael O’Hallorahan along side Paul Newman as Doug Roberts.

McQueen and Newman’s off screen rivalry sparked once again because of the way their credits were placed. Steve’s last movie role would be as Ralph ‘Papa’ Thorson in The Hunter directed by Buzz Kulik during which he was diagnosed with lung cancer. During the filming of The Hunter McQueen was a former shadow of himself unlike his 60s heyday when he was at the top of his game.

Before McQueen passed away in 1980 his last words were in Spanish Lo Hice for “I did it”. This summons up McQueen’s whole life purpose, a life once fast but well lived. 25 years later he is still imitated by today’s major movie stars but none come close. There will only be one Steve McQueen…