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Steve McQueen: The Last Mile by Barbara McQueen with Marshall Terrill Dalton Watson Publishers Excerpt, Page 81 “Yes, honey.” Much to my relief, Steve felt once the bike was dis- I DON’T KNOW WHAT assembled, the day’s lesson was Steve’s I.Q. was, but he had a over. He said he’d show me the natural aptitude for motors and next day how to put it back to- guns. He could fix anything, tear gether again. But we never got it apart and put it together again that far. He left the parts in the without having to look at a man- garage for several days and we ual. Some people are gifted that forgot about it. One of Steve’s way and Steve tried to pass on buddies got tired of looking at his wisdom and knowledge to it and put the bike back together me. He didn’t get very far when again, and then I was really off it came to engines. the hook.
One day at Trancas, he came I had much better luck with home with a pair of overalls weapons. Steve’s military training and told me to put them on. in the late 1940s stuck with him “Barbi, I’m going to teach you for the rest of his life and he was how to build a motorcycle,” he very proficient with weapons of said. “Okay,” I said, not giving all kind – pistols, handguns, ri- it much thought. I knew I would fles and shotguns. He knew how never have to rebuild the bike. to field strip a weapon blind- folded and expected me to do it An Inside Look at McQueen’s Last Years I put on my overalls and watched as well. We even had an escape by Jill Rohenberg Steve take the motor apart. He plan in case an intruder broke Three years after Barbara Mc- whom you love and who was once her relationship with her famous methodically took each piece into the house. The plan called Queen, now a real estate investor so vital, is heartbreaking, which is husband, and the stories behind off the bike, explaining the for me to roll out of bed, drop in Montana, met Steve McQueen, why I have purposely chosen not the hundreds of candid pictures function of the part, why it was to the floor, take a .45 apart, put the two hatched a plan to put to- to write about that chapter in his that she took. As I read the book, engineered that way and how it the bullets back in and have the gether a book of Barbara’s photo- life. Steve was a private man and I felt like I was sitting around the helped the motorcycle to run. I weapon ready to fire. Of course, graphs chronicling their adventures wanted that part of his life kept fire with them and the ghost of realized after about 10 minutes, it would have been much easier together, which would be accom- quiet for a reason. Besides, he McQueen as they regaled me with I didn’t have an aptitude for this and safer just to keep the safety panied by her husband’s text. They should be remembered for his life, colorful stories of the past. kind of thing, and then my eyes on, but Steve wanted me to be would call it The Long Haul and not his death. He was the most in- “I believe both men and women glazed over. My days as a grease ready for a combat situation. it would cover their years together teresting man I ever knew, and my will love this photo book because monkey were over before they from 1977-1980. “When Steve was first love.” most accounts on McQueen have started. Being the dutiful part- Guess that’s why he kicked ass later diagnosed with cancer and Steve McQueen: The Last Mile, usually been from a man’s point ner I was, I nodded my head in all of his movies. checked into Cedars-Sinai Hospital with photographs by Barbara Mc- of view,” Terrill says of the book. every once in a while and said for a blood test, we both noticed Queen and text by McQueen bi- “This is a very unique and behind- the hospital had long corridors and ographer Marshall Terrill is a treat the-scene look at McQueen’s years way across Colorado, are portraits limited collector’s edition, is signed hallways. As I rolled him along in for McQueen fans and a powerful out of the spotlight.” of a time when McQueen was the by Barbara McQueen and Marshall a wheelchair, a funny thought hit tribute to one of the great film leg- Though McQueen continued man—and not the film icon. Terrill and is only available directly him,” she writes in the introduc- ends and gearheads of all time. It’s to act from 1977-1980 (An En- “The Steve McQueen I knew from Dalton Watson
Cover Girl Barbara McQueen 24 November 2006 urbanmoto McQueen is Still the Man words by Jill Rothenberg photos courtesy of Barbara McQueen sinore, around the track at Indian always the guy you’d most like to tended to those outside the mo- and the kids just surrounded him. Peaks, or tooling around the back- join for a weekend ride, a bull ses- torcycle community as well. In his It was probably a hundred degrees roads of Montana and Idaho on sion, and a few beers. hardscrabble youth, growing up and I couldn’t take it. But he took a his beloved Indian Chief with third A friend of mine, a longtime rid- without a father and a largely ab- lot of time with them.” wife Barbara McQueen. er from Boston, vividly remembers sent mother, McQueen was left to When he got famous, he always “There are four million people racing a dirt bike as a kid and being find his own way on the streets. A made sure to answer letters and left who ride motorcycles in the Unit- captivated by McQueen, especially month shy of his fifteenth birthday, them $200,000 in his will. Today, ed States,” says filmmaker Bruce in On Any Sunday, The Great Es- he was sent to the Boys Republic in a large addition to the recreation Brown in the opening voiceover in cape, Bullitt, and The Magnificent Chino, California, a reform school building at the school is named in On Any Sunday as a pack of little Seven. “You sensed that the guy which he grew to admire and later his honor. boys pretend to vroom their old- was entirely capable—but that he supported. As generous as he could be at school stingray bikes over a bank also had humility and substance,” of dirt in the movie’s opening shot. he says. “We all wanted to be like “One of those people is Steve Mc- him.” He also recalls McQueen’s Queen.” respect for racing and for the pros That McQueen saw himself who did it. “Flat track is real iron- as a regular gearhead even as his man shit. And McQueen had a candid shot of Steve on the set of tough-guy-with-a-heart vulnerabil- lot of admiration for the purity The Hunter ity, don’t fuck with me attitude, and of racers’ competitive spirit. Here magnetic screen presence made were these guys driving in a van Lined up at the 1971 Elsinore him one of the great film stars of for twenty-four hours straight to Grand Prix with fifteen hundred all time, continues to endear him get to a race, usually with a broken other riders in the classic motorcy- to legions of riders everywhere. leg or some injury, to compete for cle documentary “On Any Sunday,” Mud-spattered and grinning after a prize of fifty bucks.” McQueen’s number 48 on the Husqvarna could his tenth-place finish at Elsinore respect for many of these racers, have been anyone--your neighbor, with his buddy, top-ranked racer like top Hollywood stuntman, pio- your coworker, the buddy you rode Malcolm Smith, McQueen was just neering off road motorcyclist and with on weekends. And that’s the another guy out for a Sunday race. close friend Bud Ekins, Six-Day way Steve McQueen liked it. The Twenty-six years after his death Enduro winner and all-around top actor and longtime pro-racer, who from cancer on November 7, cyclist Malcolm Smith, and Grand registered at Elsinore under the 1980, at age 50, McQueen is the National winner Mert Lawwill name “Harvey Mushman” to es- still the man, the hell-raiser, the was such that he became lifelong cape detection, was just one of heartbreaker, the icon of motor- friends with them, even paying many motorcyclists out for a chal- cycle cool, the King of the Bad for the five surgeries that restored lenge and thrill of riding, whether Boys, the consummate actor—but Lawwill’s busted hand after it was it was the annual 100 miles in El- caught between a fork tube and the frame of his motorcycle during a 1972 race, totally transposing his wrist. After learning that a doctor had told Lawwill that he might as well forget about the use of his hand, that he would be better off just getting it over with and hav- ing his knuckles fused to his elbow, McQueen insisted that Lawwill fly from his home in San Francisco down to L.A to see other doctors. Five surgeries and seven pins later, Lawwill’s hand was close to normal again. Peter Borsari caught Barbara and Steve and Chad (in the background) riding bikes down the Pacific Coast Highway circa 1977 “What Steve did for me is tre- mendous,” says Lawwill, now 64 and a designer of custom racing “He had a big heart,” says times, McQueen could also be a and mountain bikes and prosthet- Max Scott, the executive director pain in the ass—but only with peo- ic arms that make riding a reality of Boys Republic who knew Mc- ple he thought deserved it, accord- again for motorcyclists, bicyclists, Queen. “When he’d come to visit, ing to journalist Marshall Terrill, snowmobilers, and jetskiers. “His you didn’t get the tough guy im- author of the definitive McQueen generosity saved my racing career.” age. He didn’t talk about himself. biography Steve McQueen: Por- “Steve sent me a plane ticket down He always asked the boys about trait of an American Rebel. “Even there, took me to the doctor, and I themselves; he wanted to hear though he was a guy from the stayed at his house in Brentwood how they were doing. Scott says streets who played and befriended after the surgeries,” he recalls. “And that McQueen and second wife Ali ordinary people, he knew when to I never received a bill for any of it. McGraw visited one brutally hot be a superstar and when to throw He was a complete support wagon; August day and spent the day talk- his weight around,” says Terrill. he was always there.” ing with the boys. “He went into “But it was with studio executives McQueen’s generosity ex- his old room and sat on the floor and film moguls—not with the somewhere in Montana... urbanmoto November 2006 25 McQueen is Still the Man words by Jill Rothenberg photos courtesy of Barbara McQueen
common man. Steve chose to hang the Proper Stranger. Women are, lifetime as we crossed bridges at ley McQueen rode when he first Trials. “Steve and I didn’t finish,” out with ordinary, average guys, of course, crazy for him. “There’s top speed and zoomed down sun- lived in Greenwich Village as a Ekins recounts. “I broke my leg which makes him different and never going to be anyone like Steve ny highways. struggling actor, “He didn’t have and someone ran into Steve on the unique from today’s superstars.” McQueen,” a friend of mine sighed But I digress. the Harley back then because it third day and destroyed his bike. But it’s not just bikers who love dreamily. I sighed too. McQueen’s gift is that he ap- was the hip thing to do; he used But Dave and Cliff finished with McQueen. Of course motorcy- I grew up in 1980s suburbia pealed to everyone, especially it for transportation.” Ekins is gold.” clists and auto racers love him for about as far away from a race track those of us who grew up with his just warming up, “My shop was a It was common knowledge movies in the sixties and seventies. hangout for actors back then. As that McQueen wasn’t allowed to He had a swagger, a bravado, and soon as Steve saw these motorcy- race when he was filming a movie a quality that made you miss him cles without lights and numbered because of insurance reasons. “He when he left the screen. For most plates, he wanted to know what it could ride, but he couldn’t race,” of his life McQueen was known was all about. When he had made Ekins says. “But he did sneak out for partying, fast cars, womanizing, a little money from Wanted: Dead once in a while. He fell off his burning up the track in any way he or Alive, McQueen traded in his bike once and broke his foot. He could. But he also loved his wives, motor scooter for a motorcycle. So told the studio that he’d slipped on his kids, making the films that he I took him to the desert to race.” some oil in the back of his truck.” wanted to make and that people That was the beginning of a rela- During filming of On Any wanted to see, and most of all, tionship that lasted more than two Sunday, McQueen didn’t have to hanging out with regular guys like decades. “He was way above aver- worry about studio execs cramping himself. In the last years of his life, age,” Ekins says of McQueen’s rid- his style (not that he worried about when he visited Idaho, Montana, ing ability. “Out of an entry of five them anyway). His only job, be- and Mexico, he spent many days hundred, he’d be good for the first sides financing the film, was riding living an un-Hollywood-like life-- twenty places. And if he’d done it his bike and having a good time. doing things like looking for mo- all year long, he would have been He was there purely as himself, not torcycle parts at swap meets, fixing even better.” as a movie star. his bikes and cars, and going for McQueen could more than Longtime motocross and des- long rides with his wife Barbara. hold his own with the pros. In ert racer Randy Burak, now 56 and “To me, Steve was just my 1964, he joined Ekins, Ekins’s a chief lighting husband and an ordinary guy, not brother Dave, and rider and Hol- technician in Hollywood, met a movie star,” says Barbara Mc- lywood assistant director Cliff McQueen during the making of Queen, 53. Now a real estate in- Coleman to represent the United the film and went on to ride with vestor in Montana, Barbara was States in the International Six-Day him for months afterward. “I’d with McQueen from 1977 until he died in1980 and she has recently completed a book about her years with McQueen with biographer Marshall Terrill. “As a woman who was his wife, I can say he was hot- ter than hell, meaner than shit, a gentle soul, and a good, good man,” she says. According to Bud Ekins, Mc- Queen’s longtime friend, riding partner, and stunt-double on The Great Escape (it was Ekins who Peter Borsari caught Barbara and Steve and Chad (in the background) riding bikes down the Pacific Coast Highway circa 1977 did the infamous fence jump) and Bullit, McQueen had always been more regular Joe than movie star. “He always said, ‘I don’t like this his ballsy racing style and hardcore as you can get, with a doctor fa- movie star stuff. The only good dedication to anything on wheels ther who liked to remind me of thing about it is that it opens (he had over 120 motorcycles and the crash victims he’d seen in the doors,” says Ekins, now 75 and re- various cars and even a vintage ER as well as the black lungs that tired. The two met in Ekins’s shop GMC truck.) He is, after all, one would kill me if I took as much as in the late fifties when McQueen of them—a gearhead made good. a puff on a cigarette. Of course, was in the first flush of stardom. Film buffs admire him for the range in full-on teenage rebellion mode, “McQueen was a real motorcyclist. and depth of his roles—from the I wanted nothing more than to get You get Paul Newman or Brando, all-American aggressiveness of his on a motorcycle with a tough guy, who learned to ride after they be- riding in The Great Escape to the preferably who smoked, and fast. I came stars because it was in vogue. take-no-prisoners cop in Bullitt to fantasized about riding on the back But McQueen was a motorcycle the boyishly vulnerable, yet tough of a bike with McQueen, wrapping bum; he knew how to ride long bronco rider in Junior Bonner, to my arms tightly around his leather before he became a star.” Ekins the transformed cad in Love with jacket, having the adventure of a continues, referring to the ’45 Har- ...where the buffalo roam 26 November 2006 urbanmoto
over.” to Tag Heuer to the Tao of Steve, a knife given to McQueen by “the Though it’s been over thirty-five from odes to McQueen by Sheryl father of pinstriping,” Von Dutch. years since those afternoons racing Crow and the Drive-By Truckers “Steve and I lived with all this stuff, in the desert, Burak still remem- (“I’d drive real fast everywhere no and I’ve lived with all this stuff my- bers what a real guy McQueen was, one would ever catch me and I’d self for a long time,” says Barbara despite the fact that he was at the kick your ass if you pissed me off McQueen, who remarried fifteen height of his popularity despite the so be careful what you ask me and years ago. “I just decided I needed fact that his racing film Le Mans, I’d never have an empty bottle or to move on and give it to people released in June 1971, hit with a an empty bed and as cool as Paul who really love it.” resounding thud. Still, McQueen Newman is I bet Steve could whup The resurgence of interest (not remained a huge international star. his head”), McQueen’s brand of that it ever really went away) in “I’d usually see him two or three cool will always be in style. all things McQueen “is like Steve times a week and he was always like And McQueen’s icon status came down from Heaven and “Hey man, I’ll see you next time; is now more alive than ever. Tri- shook my ankles,” she says. Indeed, really friendly,” Burak remembers. umph’s recent release of the new- McQueen’s legacy as an action “He’s well-missed, that’s for sure. classic Enduro model allows riders hero and gearhead continues to Even today, there are no other ac- to channel their inner Steve, while live on. “The guy had a lot of guts tors like him.” a recent online survey rating the to be a leading man in Hollywood, Isn’t that the truth. Where are coolest people of all time ranked yet risking his neck to race bikes,” the McQueens of today, the men McQueen third, after Madonna says Jared Zaugg, co-founder of who are both larger than life and and Johnny Depp (um, I think Legends of the Motorcycle, which entirely human, who can light up they got it backwards). Numerous has displayed some of McQueen’s the screen with such charisma, ra- websites (the Church of Steve Mc- motorcycles and gear at their an- zor-sharp magnetism, and pure, Queen) and re-released boxed sets nual shows in May. “Every guy unadulterated testosterone that join a recent Turner Classic Docu- loves him because he’s the ultimate they dare you to look away? The mentary, Steve McQueen: The Es- man’s man, and women think he’s ones who mean busi- ness, who captivate you, who have a style all their own (as my friend Greg Dave Friedman’s pic on the set of The Hunter, Barbara’s favorite puts it: “McQueen’s zip- ride with him two or three times tion during desert races—I was up leather half boots and a week at Indian Dunes,” recalls known for it. He told me I didn’t straight-legged chinos, Burak, who first met McQueen need ‘that stuff’ and offered to buy short waisted zipper jack- when he was a brash young moto- me a new helmet,” Burak laugh- ets and turtlenecks; the cross champ of 22 and McQueen ingly recalls.” “But I guess he liked whole ensemble reeked was 41. They met at the same mo- my style because he asked me to of “don’t fuck with me”), tocross event; both the top ten of come riding with him.” For the who thought nothing of their classes. “The guy raced like a next six months Burak would join hammering over 100 miles wild bronco,” says Burak of that McQueen at Indian Dunes. “Mo- over rough desert terrain first race with McQueen. “With tocross is much more regimented with his buddies? Answer: most guys, when you’re behind and Steve was more of a desert rac- they don’t exist. them, they take the same line. With er, where you turn it up and hang Although Paul New- Steve, good luck.” Burak won the on. That’s where he had done a lot man might come close race, with McQueen finishing third of riding with Bud Ekins,” says as an actor and daredevil after sliding out on a corner and Burak. “You need to set yourself in his own right, there is coming in after racing buddy Bob up for turns and find the right line no one among my gen- Steve with his only son, Chad, on the set of Tom Horn, 1979 Kane. in motocross. Steve would go off eration who comes close “I was just a kid and starstruck the course a lot, but he’d mumble to lighting up the screen like Mc- sence of Cool. McQueen’s image sexy as hell. You can’t top that.” when he came up to me after the to himself and get back on. I think Queen. “Can you see pretty boys and likeness has been used by ap- Ultimately, for McQueen, like race, shocked at how I modified he felt confident riding next to Brad Pitt and George Clooney proximately 30 corporations and gearheads everywhere, it was all my helmet so that me that I wouldn’t run him doing the same kinds of racing companies (remember that Gap about the bike. the front was and action movies as Mc- ad where McQueen wore khakis?), Despite the movie star success a monkey Queen?” asks a friend which generates the McQueen es- and the magnetism, he was just f a c e — I of mine who grew tate millions each year. Not bad for like any other guy going for a ride. had al- up reenacting the someone who has been gone over That’s why the last scene in On Any w a y s shooting scenes a quarter of a century. Sunday holds up so well thirty-five d o n e from The Mag- We all want to be closer to Mc- years later. You feel like you’re right t h i s nificent Seven Queen and soon we will have the there, or wish you were, riding with t o with his broth- opportunity to do so. On Novem- him and his buddies Mert Lawwill g e t ers and getting ber 11, four days after the anni- and Malcolm Smith, loading the a t - into motocross versary of his death, Barbara Mc- bikes off the truck, riding across ten- after seeing On Queen will auction off a vast array the sand, having a few cold ones Any Sunday. “I of McQueen’s personal belong- in the end. don’t think so.” ings at the Petersen Automotive So rider number 48 at Elsinore The fact remains: Museum in LA, including: vintage lives on. McQueen said it best after Twenty-six years motorcycles and motorcycle gear he finished the race. “Every time I after his death, (a Belstaff motorcycle jacket), the start thinking the world is all bad, McQueen sunglasses worn in The Thomas then I start seeing some people is still the Crowne Affair, movie scripts for out there having a good time on m a n . Tom Horn and An Enemy of The motorcycles and it makes me take F r o m People, a GMC 1958 Suburban another look.” T r i - that she used to drive to the barn u m p h and back at their Montana home, On the way to Missoula Montana 1977 urbanmoto November 2006 27
Urban Moto asks Local Industry Movers & Shakers Steve McQueen’s Movies
Why is Steve McQueen Still So Cool? Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
“ I met Steve McQueen, and he was the real thing. He came out of the Hip- Never Love a Stranger (1958) ster Era where Cool was bred in the bone, not something new you put on each The Blob (1958) morning, like a jacket or a badass attitude. True Cool is still Cool.” -Philip Kaufman, Director The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (1958) The Right Stuff, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Wanderers, Quills, Twisted, Rising Sun, Henry & June, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, White Dawn, among others Never So Few (1959)
“He was a rangy guy who looked great in jeans and The Magnificent Seven (1960) had those blue eyes. We once almost had a head-on The Honeymoon Machine (1961) in LA. He turned left in front of me in his Porsche and nearly shaved off my driver’s side. But he gave Hell is for Heroes (1962) me that cool, blue-eyed Steve McQueen smile. There was nothing to do but forgive him and smile back.” The War Lover (1962) -Rose Kaufman, Screenwriter The Great Escape (1963) The Wanderers, Henry & June Soldier in the Rain (1963)
Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) “If you watch his movies, he was never Question, “Why do women find guys on motorcycles sexy?” overwhelmed by his circumstances.” Baby, the Rain Must Fall (1965) “That’s easy. Two words. Steve McQueeen.” -William Farley, Filmmaker -Catherine Bigelow, columnist, San Francisco Chronicle The Cincinnati Kid (1965) Nevada Smith (1966) “Steve McQueen, Elvis Presley, and the Carradines used to ride their bikes on Mulholland Drive. That was the motor- The Sand Pebbles (1966) cycling coup de grace. I wish I could have been there.” -Christopher Coppola, Filmmaker, President, EARS XXI The Thomas Crowne Affair (1968) Bullitt (1968)
“He was strong, but sensitive. Not a brute even though The Reivers (1969) he could have acted with brutality. And he got Ali Mc- Peter Kaufman, Christopher Coppola, Phil Kaufman Graw away from Bob Evans.” Le Mans (1971) -Christopher Upham, Screenwriter On Any Sunday (1971)
Junior Bonner (1972) “He personifies ‘the rebel’ and it’s so important to express the rebel in 2006.” -David Shearer, Future energy strategist for Toyota The Getaway (1972)
Papillon (1973) “He was a minimalist actor. The camera loved him. His acting was internal.” The Towering Inferno (1974) “There was something in his eyes that let you - Jerry Barrish, Artist & Bond Bailsman know he was the real thing. You had the sense An Enemy of the People (1978) that you could have sat down and had a beer Tom Horn (1980) with the guy. He raced cars and motorcycles, was a blackbelt in karate and was cool in his un- The Hunter (1980) derstated way whether it be smoking a cigarette, talking, walking or driving anything.” Call for entries -Dave Supple, Screenwriter LEGEND OF THE MOTORCYCLE INTERNATIONAL CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE He was a movie star. The biggest. But my im- A celebration of the art of motorcycling. pression of the man is that in a world of fakery he was the real McCoy. The real McQueen! The selection committee is now accepting entries for Probably didn’t have a bogus bone in his body. consideration for the 2007 world event. -Edwin Heaven, writer, film- All makes and models up to 1975 are eligible. maker, inventor Entry forms and information may be found on the website, www.LegendoftheMotorcycle.com To request a form by fax, call 415-673-7980. Entry deadline: 31 December 2006 Event date: 5 May 2007 Event location: The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, California