Читать книгу 1001 Steve McQueen Facts - Tyler Greenblatt - Страница 9

Introduction

Few people, if any, really knew the man known to the world as Steve McQueen. He lived one of the fullest lives of any man to walk the earth, and yet, he was an enigma to even his closest friends and family. He compartmentalized his worlds and friend groups in such a way that no one person truly saw all sides of him.

Steve McQueen competed for roles and screen time with the best actors of his time including Yul Brynner, Paul Newman, and Frank Sinatra. Meanwhile, he held his own against the legendary Mario Andretti in one of the world’s toughest races, losing by only seconds in a significantly slower car. He rose to the top of Hollywood, and came crashing down with the financial failure of his magnum opus, Le Mans. Over the years, he built up one of the largest and most valuable collections of cars and motorcycles of the time, the contents of which today fetch several times the sale price of an identical vehicle without the Steve McQueen provenance. Toward the end of his life, when wheeled transportation couldn’t get him to where he wanted to go, McQueen earned a pilot’s license and took to the sky.

It seems as if every new biography written about Steve McQueen paints a different picture and brings in previously unknown perspectives, not all of them flattering. This collection of 1,001 Steve McQueen facts is less about breaking new ground or revealing scandalous information as it is a culmination of the life of a man who meant so much to so many people around the globe and still means so much today. Broken down into five categories: personal life, movie facts, movie automobile facts, automobile collection, and racing, this book contains everything that a Steve McQueen fan could ever want to know about his or her hero.

He died at the young age of 50 leaving behind two children, a widow, and grieving fans all over the world. He also left behind a legacy so great that even today, nearly 40 years after his death, his name is still used in daily conversation. His likeness appears in ads selling cars faster and more technologically advanced than anything of which he ever could have dreamt. His films, namely Bullitt and Le Mans, are still regularly watched and enjoyed by viewers who may not have even been born when the films were released.

1001 Steve McQueen Facts: The Roles, Rides, & Realities of the King of Cool is a tribute to the man Steve McQueen was and the legend he remains today.