Almost certainly the best known victim of mesothelioma, Steve McQueen was the ultra-cool actor of the 1960s and 1970s. He remains a cultural icon: the ultimate rebel. Steve McQueen perfected the “anti-hero” persona and became tremendously popular for his roles in such films as The Magnificent Seven, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullit, and Papillon. He also starred in the archetypal disaster film and mega-hit of the 1970s, The Towering Inferno.
Some have speculated that Steve McQueen’s connection to his characters came from his own turbulent and unsettled childhood. He was involved with a street gang in his early teens, and his mother sent him to a “home for wayward boys” when he was 14. He continued to visit and support the home later in his life. Steve McQueen served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1947 until 1950. Afterward, using money from the G.I. Bill, he studied acting and was singled out to study with Lee Strasberg in New York.
Steve McQueen’s great passion was for motorcycles and race car driving. He reportedly remarked, “Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting.” He performed many of his own driving stunts in his movies, and he coveted the Ford Mustang that he drove in Bullit but was never able to own. In 1999, Steve McQueen was posthumously inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame for his enthusiasm and support of the sport and the contribution he made to improving the image of motorcycling.
Steve McQueen was likely exposed to asbestos during his service in the Marines between 1947 and 1950—the work that funded his acting studies and set him on the course to become the celebrity he was. He also was likely exposed to asbestos in the flame-retardant suits that he wore to race cars. Although he was a smoker, like many of his contemporaries, there has been no link shown between smoking and mesothelioma. Steve McQueen was diagnosed with mesothelioma in late 1979. His doctors told him that there was no cure and no treatment to offer him, so he pursued alternative treatments in Mexico. He died of a heart attack shortly after surgery attempting to remove metastatic masses.