Steve McQueen: A Biography
Written by Marc Eliot
Narrated by Marc Eliot
3/5
()
About this audiobook
Marc Eliot
Marc Eliot is the New York Times bestselling author of more than two dozen books on popular culture, among them the highly acclaimed Cary Grant, the award-winning Walt Disney: Hollywood’s Dark Prince, and American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood. His work has been published in more than twenty-five languages, and he writes for a number of publications and frequently speaks about film to universities and film groups, and on radio and television.
More audiobooks from Marc Eliot
Charlton Heston: Hollywood's Last Icon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Titan: Searching for John Wayne Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reagan: The Hollywood Years Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Steve McQueen
Related audiobooks
Cary Grant: Dark Angel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5William Powell: The Life and Legacy of One of Early Hollywood's Most Acclaimed Actors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing John Wayne: The Making of the Conqueror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker's Journey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Camera Lies: Acting for Hitchcock Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Life in Movies: Stories from 50 years in Hollywood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Steven Spielberg: A Life In Films Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Starstruck: My Unlikely Road to Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way They Were: How Epic Battles and Bruised Egos Brought a Classic Hollywood Love Story to the Screen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Real Peter Sellers Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Real James Dean: Intimate Memories from Those Who Knew Him Best Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray: A Critical Appreciation of the World's Finest Actor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dolls! Dolls! Dolls!: Deep Inside Valley of the Dolls, the Most Beloved Bad Book and Movie of All Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be in My Trailer: The Creative Wars Between Directors and Actors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Can I Go Now?: The Life of Sue Mengers, Hollywood's First Superagent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rat Pack Confidential: Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, Joey and the Last Great Show Biz Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hope: Entertainer of the Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Garner Files: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Elvis in Vegas: How the King Reinvented the Las Vegas Show Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Entertainers and the Rich & Famous For You
The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Paris: The Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pageboy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down the Drain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pretty Boys Are Poisonous: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Is this Anything? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hello, Molly!: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inside Out: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If You Would Have Told Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wishful Drinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5BRITNEY: Breaking Free Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Open Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whiskey in a Teacup Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Happy People Are Annoying Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Black Unicorn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scrappy Little Nobody Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Here We Go Again: My Life In Television Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Steve McQueen
16 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One of my favorite movies has always been The Great Escape. I've watched it dozens of time over the years. Having recently watched it again, I decided to pick up showbiz biographer, Marc Eliot's, fascinating portrait of the insecure, complex and haunted film icon who attracted women with his icy blue eyes and lopsided grin, but had a nasty habit of smacking them around and cheating on them.
McQueen was once the highest-paid film star in the world, a status earned through his roles in films like The Magnificent Seven, Bullitt, The Thomas Crown Affair and The Great Escape, but he also turned down many roles in top-rated films from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to The French Connection.
The author pointed out the difference between the acting philosophies of McQueen and Clint Eastwood. They were only months apart in age, both had lucrative careers in early TV westerns, and both formed their own production companies so they could produce the films they liked. Eliot says that Eastwood kept his eye on the franchise prize, especially with the Harry Callahan series. Instead of following up with more Bullitt movies, McQueen jumped around in genres, often coming up with critical and box office duds. In his forties he took to lazing around, eating junk food, letting his body go, and losing ambition.
It's always disappointing to find out that a favorite actor was really a self absorbed, abusive jerk but I guess many actors need to be narcissists to get ahead in that job.
I did enjoy the way the biography was written. It was well planned out, written in a logical format and very interesting for long time fans. Decades after he lost his battle against cancer, Steve McQueen still remains “The King of Cool.” - Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Steve McQueen was Hollywood’s “King of Cool.” With his starring roles in such classic films as The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Bullitt, he created the persona of a laconic tough guy with a taste for fast cars and beautiful women. Women wanted him and men wanted to be him.If you want to know more about him than that, I suggest you look somewhere other than Marc Eliot’s Steve McQueen: A Biography.In this self-proclaimed “revisionist” biography, Eliot spent little time relating his subject’s biographical details; in fact, the Wikipedia entry on McQueen is more informative about his life than this biography. Eliot devoted less than fifty pages to the first 28 years of McQueen’s life and spent very little time exploring any of his personal relationships, preferring instead to focus on the grosses for his movies. Steve McQueen could have succeeded as a critical study of McQueen’s films if Eliot had bothered to apply any criticism to his discussion of them. He related the cast, the budget, and the grosses for all of McQueen’s films, but Eliot’s discussion of each film’s merit is directly related to its box office performance: if it did well, he praises it and if it did poorly, he dismisses it. In the Author’s Notes of Steve McQueen: A Biography, Marc Eliot wrote that he had not found a definitive biography of McQueen. Sadly, he also failed to write one.Received via NetGalley. I originally wrote this for The Chant Online. It is reprinted with permission.