Now apparently well “squared away” as a Marine and being recognized for bravery in rescuing his fellow Marines, PFC McQueen finished his enlistment as part of the Color Guard for the Presidential Yacht while Harry Truman was in the White House.
McQueen was Honorably Discharged in 1950 after a little over two years of service. As was the practice at the time, the 41 days he spent in the Brig would have been added to his term of enlistment.
McQueen used the GI Bill to study acting and went on to make some 14 television appearances between 1955 and 1960. He then went on to make some 29 films including, what I think are two of the most iconic war movies of all time, The Great Escape and The Sand Pebbles. Fans of Steve McQueen, who know parts of his story, might be able to tell why the characters he played in the movies were so attractive to him: In many ways, he was playing himself.
The Honeymoon Machine
In the 1961 film, The Honeymoon Machine McQueen plays a naval officer, Lt. Ferguson “Fergie” Howard who convinces a civilian scientist running a computer on a Navy Ship that it can be used to predict the winner at the roulette table at a casino in Venice, Italy. McQueen’s character manages to ward off both a confrontation with the Russians and a court-martial by marrying the daughter of Admiral Fitch.
Hell Is for Heroes
In 1962 he stared in Hell is for Heroes as Army Private John Reese, who was busted down to the lowest rank from master sergeant. Reese is a loose cannon that leaves his post to get drunk and chase girls but is returned to the line because he’s a good soldier in a fight and his unit is thinly spread out before German lines. He ends up probing enemy lines on his own initiative which gets two of his fellow soldiers killed. Promised another court-martial for this by an officer, Reese redeems himself by a great act of heroism and self-sacrifice at the end of the movie.
The War Lover
The 1962 English film The War Lover finds McQueen as Buzz Rickson a captain in the Army Air Corps. Rickson is an aggressive B-17 bomber pilot who revels in combat and walks a fine line between hero and psychopath. Like Private Reese in Hell is for Heroes, Capt. Rickson is arrogant and insubordinate but his conduct on the ground is tolerated because he takes to the enemy even if he has to do it alone. As Rickson approaches the end of 25 missions, which means a rotation back to the states, he is determined to keep fighting and do a second tour. On his final mission, Rickson reaches the target in Leipzig and drops his bomb, yet his plane is badly shot up and smoking. Over the English Channel and losing altitude Rickson fights to keep the bomber in the air long enough for his crew to bail out. Now alone in the aircraft, Rickson attempts once more to prove he is the best pilot in the Group without having to look after anyone but himself, but his ship cannot clear the high cliffs of Dover and crashes. Rickson is hailed as a hero for saving his crew and sacrificing himself.
The Great Escape
In The Great Escape, McQueen is again cast as an Army Air Corps pilot, Captain Virgil Hilts. Captain Hilts is insubordinate and a constant source of irritation and frustration to the German guards of a Luft Stalag in Germany during WWII. He has been placed in solitary confinement so often he’s earned the moniker “The Cooler King.” Hilts is desperate to escape and makes several solo attempts around the larger and more organized escape plans of the British flying officers. The British finally convince Hilts to stop trying and join them. Hilts is instrumental in the success of the escape plan. Now on his own again, Hilts leads the Germans on a long and epic motorcycle chase (no, he didn’t do the fence jump).
The Sand Pebbles
And finally, in the 1966 film The Sand Pebbles, an adaptation of a novel about U.S. Navy gunboat sailors on the Yangtze River in China in 1926, McQueen plays Machinist Mate Petty Officer First Class, Jake Hollman. PO1 Hollman has come from the battleships of the Asiatic Fleet with the hope of being able to have his own engine all to himself. Arriving on the USS San Pablo, Hollman finds a system in place whereby he is to supervise Chinese “Coolies” running the engine but cannot run it himself. Hollman rebels against the rules and finds himself at odds with the rest of the crew for upsetting the long-established order of things. But like other characters he played, his technical competence and events save him from retribution. Hollman doesn’t want to get caught in the drama the rest of the crew gets in but finds himself unable to sit idly by when he sees bad things happening. In the end, McQueen’s character must once again sacrifice himself trying to save what he loves.
Conclusion
Steve McQueen was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his role in The Sand Pebbles; he was also nominated for four Golden Globe Awards. Although he didn’t win the Academy or Golden Globe Awards, he did win a Best Actor Award at the Moscow Film Festival for Best Actor as Captain Hilts in The Great Escape.
Steve McQueen, oddly enough, never portrayed a Marine in any of his films, which seems odd to me now. He was said to fondly remember his time in the Marines Corps, saying, “The Marines gave me [sic] discipline I could live with. By the time I got out, I could deal with things on a more realistic level. All in all, despite my problems, I liked my time in the Marines.”
If we look at his roles, at his art, they were an imitation of his early life. Steve McQueen was a loner who didn’t like to go by the rules. He screwed up and redeemed himself while trying to find something to love and believe in.
In 1979, McQueen was diagnosed with mesothelioma. He died in less than a year at the age of 50. The most likely explanation for his mesothelioma was his exposure to asbestos while doing some of that shit work Marines in trouble have to do to redeem themselves. It is said that life is pain and glory which certainly seems true in McQueen’s case. It is also said that all glory is fleeting, which is not true in McQueen’s case.
He never won any major awards, but some 27 years after his death, he remains in the top 10 earners among deceased actors.
Happy Birthday to the “King of Cool” from all your friends at SOFREP, Mr. McQueen, wherever you are.
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