Steve McQueen
Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930 – November 7, 1980) was an American actor who was nicknamed "The King of Cool" and his antihero persona developed at the height of the counterculture of the 1960s made him a top box-office draw during the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles. His other popular films include The Cincinnati Kid, Love With the Proper Stranger, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, The Getaway and Papillon, as well as the all-star ensemble films The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape and The Towering Inferno.
In 1974, he became the highest-paid movie star in the world, although he did not act in films again for four years. McQueen was combative with directors and producers, but his popularity placed him in high demand and enabled him to command large salaries.
Terrence Stephen McQueen was born on March 24, 1930, at St. Francis Hospital in Beech Grove, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis. McQueen, of Scottish descent, was raised a Roman Catholic. His father, William McQueen (1907–1958), a stunt pilot for a barnstorming flying circus, left McQueen's mother, Julia Ann (a.k.a. Julian; née Crawford; 1910–1965), :9 six months after meeting her. Several biographers have stated that Julia Ann was an alcoholic. :72 :7–8 Unable to cope with caring for a small child, she left him with her parents (Victor and Lillian) in Slater, Missouri, in 1933. As the Great Depression set in shortly thereafter, McQueen and his grandparents moved in with Lillian's brother Claude at his farm in Slater. McQueen expressed having good memories of living on the farm, noting that his great-uncle Claude "was a very good man, very strong, very fair. I learned a lot from him."
Claude gave McQueen a red tricycle on his fourth birthday, a gift that McQueen subsequently credited with sparking his early interest in racing At the age of eight he was taken to Indianapolis by his mother, who lived there with her new husband. McQueen's departure from his great-uncle's home was marked by a very special memento given to him on that occasion. "The day I left the farm", he recalled, "Uncle Claude gave me a personal going-away present—a gold pocket watch, with an inscription inside the case." The inscription read "To Steve – who has been a son to me."
Dyslexic and partially deaf due to a childhood ear infection, McQueen did not adjust well to his new life. His new stepfather beat him to such an extent that at the age of nine he left home to live on the streets. Soon he was running with a street gang and committing acts of petty crime. Unable to control his behavior, his mother sent him back to Slater. When he was 12, Julia wrote to Claude, asking that her son be returned to her again to live in her new home in Los Angeles, California. Julia's second marriage had ended in divorce, and she had married a third time.
By McQueen's own account, he and his new stepfather "locked horns immediately." McQueen recalls him being "a prime son of a bitch" who was not averse to using his fists on McQueen and his mother. As McQueen began to rebel again he was sent back to live with Claude for a final time. At age 14, he left Claude's farm without saying goodbye and joined a circus for a short time, then drifted back to his mother and stepfather in Los Angeles—resuming his life as a gang member and petty criminal. McQueen was caught stealing hubcaps by the police and handed over to his stepfather, who beat him severely, ending the fight by throwing McQueen down a flight of stairs. McQueen looked up at his stepfather and said, "You lay your stinking hands on me again and I swear, I'll kill you."
After the incident, McQueen's stepfather persuaded his mother to sign a court order stating that McQueen was incorrigible, remanding him to the California Junior Boys Republic in Chino. Here, McQueen began to change and mature. He was not popular with the other boys at first: "Say the boys had a chance once a month to load into a bus and go into town to see a movie. And they lost out because one guy in the bungalow didn't get his work done right. Well, you can pretty well guess they're gonna have something to say about that. I paid my dues with the other fellows quite a few times. I got my lumps, no doubt about it. The other guys in the bungalow had ways of paying you back for interfering with their well-being." Ultimately McQueen became a role model and was elected to the Boys Council, a group who set the rules and regulations governing the boys' lives. He eventually left the Boys Republic at age 16. When he later became famous, he regularly returned to talk to the boys and retained a lifelong association.
At age 16, McQueen left Chino Hills and returned to his mother, now living in Greenwich Village, New York. He then met two sailors from the Merchant Marine and volunteered to serve on a ship bound for the Dominican Republic Once there, he abandoned his new post, eventually being employed in a brothel; afterwards, McQueen made his way to Texas and drifted from job to job. He worked as a roughneck, a carnival barker and a lumberjack
Reference
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق