Actor Steve McQueen was a movie icon. Known as ‘The King of Cool’ he was the highest paid actor in Hollywood at that time with a string of outstanding films and awards to his credit.
Steve’s first major role was in The Magnificent Seven (1960) which had an all star cast and was a big box office success. This was followed by another fan favourite The Great Escape (1963) where he famously made a daring escape attempt from a German WW2 POW camp on a motorcycle, leaping over barbed wire fences and avoiding guards who were trying to shoot him. He nearly makes it but is finally trapped in a big role of barbed wire and reinterned.
Megastar
The King of Cool then achieved the highest accolade for his Academy Award winning role in The Sand Pebbles (1966). Yet more iconic roles came in The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Nevada Smith (1966), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Bullitt (1968), The Getaway (1972), Papillon (1973), and The Towering Inferno (1974). Bullitt included a daring car chase through the hilly streets of San Francisco. McQueen played tough police Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, who always gets the bad guy. There were no CGI graphics at the time and the riveting car chase was done with real cars and real actors.
Steve rose to fame during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, and that made him a huge box-office success. By the mid 1970s, Steve McQueen was an absolute megastar.
American Icon
In their book, ‘Steve McQueen: The Salvation Of An American Icon’, Pastor Greg Laurie and biographer Marshall Terrill wrote a comprehensive account of the King of Cool and his openness to his need of God and Christian faith.
The book explores a less publicised side to the megastar. Envied for his love of sports cars and a wild lifestyle, McQueen’s true life was very different. He suffered from anxiety and depression fuelled by the effects of a difficult childhood and a drug addiction. The writers interviewed friends and family to reveal the most important side of his latter days, the story of his faith.
Steve’s faith came late in his career, and just before his cancer diagnosis. In an interview with Jessica Toomer in ‘Guideposts’, Marshall Terrill said,
“The most compelling reason [for writing the book] was that Greg Laurie was totally sincere in wanting to tell McQueen’s life story as a way to inspire those who might be struggling with their faith or perhaps were contemplating a decision for Christ. He saw the potential and just awoke me to the fact there are life lessons in McQueen’s story which could inspire many people to come to Christ.”
Whereas fans may just see a rebellious counterculture icon on screen, the man behind the persona was shaped by his background. Pastor Laurie said,
“He was abandoned by his father and had an alcoholic mother and many stepdads, some who were very abusive. When he was a boy, he literally ran away from home and joined the circus! Who actually does that? Steve McQueen did. He got in trouble as a young man and was on a prison chain gang. He was once a towel boy in a brothel. I didn’t know several facts until I started research for [this] book… Steve McQueen once said to his Pastor, Leonard DeWitt, after he had become a Christian and found out some months later that he had cancer, “My only regret is that I was not able to tell more people about what Christ has done for me.” I wanted to right that wrong. I thought Steve’s story is an amazing one, and a story that very few people know.”
A Modern day King Solomon
Greg Laurie sees Steve McQueen as a modern-day King Solomon.
“He had it all . . . the coolest cars, the most beautiful women, worldwide fame, lots of money, and more. Steve McQueen had ‘been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt.’ In fact, he had been the T-shirt! But just like King Solomon of old, who also had massive wealth, fame, and the rest, he came to the realisation that it was “all emptiness, like chasing the wind.”
Rebel regeneration
Then, at the tail end of the 1970s, Steve shocked the celebrity world by becoming a bible-believing Christian. He began to share his faith with others and people soon noticed that the hard-drinking, quick-tempered actor was a changed man. His temperament became calm and his actions kind. Steve McQueen the rebel was now the archetypical born-again Christian.
Terminal cancer
Tragically, just a few months after his conversion to Christ, Steve was diagnosed with cancer. Although no time was wasted in treating his illness, the cancer was terminal. Pastor Laurie said that it was Steve’s faith that gave him courage and strength in this, the greatest challenge of his life,
“He sought to share his faith with other cancer patients who were in the clinic with him where he was receiving treatment. Steve wanted to live, and he wanted to share his story of what Christ had done for him. Sadly, that was not to be, at least in his lifetime.”
Steve McQueen, Iconic movie actor and The King of Cool, sadly died in 1980 aged just 50. Marshall Terrill said,
“[His faith] brought him great peace. He was such a moody and temperamental person who caused chaos on film sets, demanded certain perks, upstaged other actors, drove producers and directors crazy, and suddenly had mellowed. I remember interviewing Buzz Kulik, the director of The Hunter, McQueen’s last movie. Buzz had directed McQueen in a television episode very early in his career and said it was as if he was dealing with two different people. The young McQueen was cocky, selfish, and was willing to step over anyone to get to the top. The older version of McQueen was cooperative, easygoing and a team player.”
Half a century after his death, Steve McQueen’s films are still popular. His performance and acting style have influenced many actors who followed him. But the greatest influence he left is the story of how meeting with Jesus Christ changed the moody counterculture icon into a gracious, kind friend and neighbour.
No Longer Lost
Steve was known for his sound-bites. He once said,
“I need to have a reason why I’m doing something, otherwise I’m lost.”
In his relatively short life, and after a poor start, Steve McQueen changed dramatically from being a man influenced by the weaknesses of the world to a man who based his life on the Bible and the teachings of Jesus Christ.
In the book of Matthew, Jesus said,
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-15)
A lover of both motor racing and motorcycle racing, Steve had said in his younger days,
“Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting.”
But later on, and facing his own mortality, he found himself finishing a very different kind of race which is summed up in the Bible. Writing to his friend Timothy, the apostle Paul said,
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8)
Story by Ralph Burden
Photo: Steve McQueen in ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’. The photo is in the public domain.
With grateful thanks to guideposts.org For the full interview with Pastor Greg Laurie and biographer Marshall Terrill see:
The Untold Story of How Steve McQueen Found Faith
The book, “Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon” by Pastor Greg Laurie and biographer Marshall Terrill is available from amazon.com and eden.co.uk
Related Posts
« Marc Guéhi, Truth, Love and Football Jihadist Turns to Jesus »
