STEVE MCQUEEN

THE LEGENDARY ACTOR

LIFE STORY

Terence Stephen McQueen was born on March 24, 1930, to a single mother at St. Francis Hospital in Beech Grove, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis.

McQueen, of Scottish descent, was raised Roman Catholic.

His parents were never married: his father, William McQueen, a stunt pilot for the Flying Circus, left McQueen's mother, Julia Ann, six months after he met her.

His mother, Julia Ann, was an alcoholic and unable to care for her child, she left the boy with her parents in 1933.

Shortly after the Great Depression, McQueen, his grandparents, and Lillian's brother Claude and their family moved to their farm in Slater.

McQueen later said that he had fond memories of living on the farm with his uncle Claude, and that he was a very good man, very strong and very honest. Learned a lot from him.

Claude gave McQueen a red tricycle for his fourth birthday, which McQueen later credited with his early interest in car racing.

McQueen's mother remarried when McQueen was eight years old and brought him from the farm to live with her and her new husband in Indianapolis.

His uncle Claude gave McQueen a special gift, a gold pocket watch with the words "Steve - I had a son" written inside the case.

Dyslexic and partially deaf due to childhood ear infections, McQueen did not adapt well to school or his new life.

At the age of nine, he left home and was beaten by his stepfather to live on the streets.

He soon ran into a street gang and committed petty crimes. Unable to control his behavior, his mother sent him to his grandparents and great uncle in Slater.

When McQueen was 12, Julia wrote to her uncle Claude, asking him to return her son to her so she could live with her second husband in Los Angeles, California.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3mbhCSluIc