Steve McQueen, nicknamed "The King of Cool," was one of Hollywood's most beloved and recognizable stars. In a career spanning three decades, McQueen starred in almost 30 films. While the King of Cool was known for his dramatic roles in Westerns, war movies, and crime thrillers, he demonstrated a wide range of acting skills, featuring in horror, comedy, and romance movies.
While Steve McQueen (not to be confused with movie director Steve McQueen) first became a household name as the bounty hunter Josh Randall, the star of CBS's Western series, Wanted Dead Or Alive, he would soon move on to bigger things. Over the course of the next few decades, McQueen would emerge as one of American cinema's most iconic stars. His laconic, macho style would garner him popularity with a wide demographic.
Unfortunately, Steve McQueen ed away at the age of 50. After developing a persistent cough in 1978, the star was diagnosed with cancer and would succumb to his illness only two years later. To this day, McQueen is ed as one of the most important American actors of the '60s and '70s. Here is every feature film he starred in, ranked from worst to best.
28. Girl On The Run
Steve McQueen's first feature film role was an uncredited background appearance in the ultra-low-budget 1953 crime drama, Girl On The Run. The film stars Richard Coogan as Bill Martin, a newspaper reporter investigating a criminal ring working out of a carnival. McQueen appears in the background of two scenes. While the movie has a kind of low-budget charm, and its setting does lend itself well to a strange, almost surreal, atmosphere, Girl On The Run remains a fairly underwhelming detective flick.
27. The Honeymoon Machine
The Honeymoon Machine is one of the three unsuccessful Steve McQueen flicks (alongside The War Lover and Hell Is For Heroes) sandwiched between The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape. The 1961 Richard Thorpe-directed comedy stars McQueen in the role of Ferguson "Fergie" Howard, a Lieutenant working aboard the United States Navy ship, USS Elmira. McQueen was apparently the second choice for the part after Cary Grant turned the movie role down. The film is a somewhat underwhelming comedy built around the idea of three men devising a plan to use a Navy super-computer in order to win at roulette. While it's interesting to see McQueen in a comedic role, it's easy to see why he rarely gravitated towards these kinds of characters.
26. Never Love A Stranger
Never Love A Stranger is a crime drama featuring John Drew Barrymore (Drew Barrymore's father) as Frankie Kane, who grows up in a Catholic orphanage but runs away and turns to a life of crime after finding out that he's actually Jewish and will therefore be removed from the orphanage and moved to a Jewish home. Steve McQueen plays Kane's Jewish friend, Martin Cabell. After he becomes romantically involved with Cabell's maid, Julie, Kane decides to Cabell (who works as a district attorney) in bringing down the crime syndicate.
25. Somebody Up There Likes Me
Steve McQueen first moved to Los Angeles in 1955. Soon after, McQueen played the uncredited role of Fidel in Robert Wise's Somebody Up There Likes Me. The film, based on the life of middleweight boxer Rocky Graziano, stars Paul Newman (who McQueen would later collaborate with on The Towering Inferno) as Rocky, a rebellious youth who undergoes a long and winding journey from street gangs to prison to the U.S. Army until he eventually starts boxing in order to make some money. Steve McQueen appears briefly as a member of Rocky's gang.
24. The War Lover
The War Lover is a British war film that stars Steve McQueen as Captain Buzz Rickson, an arrogant pilot in command of "Flying Fortress" during World War II. McQueen's character takes pleasure in destruction and, when asked, another character comments that he's unsure whether Buzz is a hero or a psychopath. While this antihero role is, in some ways, a good fit for McQueen, the film devolves into a story of romantic jealousy and love triangles. One critic at the time, Bosley Crowther, wrote (via The New York Times), "The fellows who sit in the cockpit of the one plane on which the actions center are a dull pair and are rendered even duller by poor acting and weak direction."
23. The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery
The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery is a Steve McQueen heist movie released in 1959. Directed by Charles Guggenheim, the film stars Steve McQueen in his second leading role in a feature film (after The Blob). McQueen plays George Fowler, a college dropout who is hired by a gang to serve as a getaway driver for a bank robbery. The Great St. Louis Ban Robbery is a particularly dark and tragic crime film that features George's ex-flame, Ann, being pushed to her death off of a fire escape, and her brother, Gino, committing suicide. The film ends with the heist going terribly wrong and George being dragged away by police.
22. The Hunter
The Hunter would be Steve McQueen's final film before his death in November 1980, and it sees the "King of Cool" returning to his crime drama roots. In The Hunter, McQueen plays Ralph "Papa" Thorson, a bounty hunter who is pursued by one of his former convicts, Rocco Mason. The film shows Thorson chasing a number of criminals and ends with a climactic confrontation with Mason, in which he fills a classroom with flammable gas, thus causing Mason to blow up once he starts firing his gun. The Hunter is an unfortunate final movie for McQueen as it's certainly not one of his strongest performances, and the movie itself is all over the place. Despite some good stunt work, it's a weak picture.
21. Tom Horn
Following the commercial disaster that was An Enemy Of The People, Steve McQueen struggled to find work, due to his habit of turning down roles that didn't offer a high enough fee. McQueen apparently wanted to adapt a Harold Pinter play, but First Artists insisted that he take a role in Tom Horn, a script they had owned for a while. The film would be McQueen's final Western. Due to the fraught production (multiple rewrites and changes in directors) and post-production (multiple re-edits), the film is extremely uneven, and McQueen's performance comes off as tired and disinterested.
20. Hell Is For heroes
Hell Is For Heroes is a suspenseful World War II drama movie about an infantry division that must hold a defensive line against an entire German company for two days until reinforcements arrive. Writer/director Robert Pirosh was originally set to direct the film, based on his own script, but he walked away from the project after encountering trouble with Steve McQueen. Don Siegel took over as director but also experience issues with the star. Apparently, the two almost came to blows multiple times during the film's production and in one scene where McQueen's character was meant to cry, Siegel supposedly slapped the actor in the face. The film underwent a very troubled production, with multiple actors wanting to leave the film, and many budget cuts. McQueen himself was angry at his agent for not securing the fee he was originally promised when g on to act in the film.
19. Baby The Rain Must Fall
In 1965, Steve McQueen starred alongside Lee Remick in Baby The Rain Must Fall. The film was McQueen's second collaboration with filmmaker Robert Mulligan. It tells the story of Georgette Thomas (Remick) who travels to Colombus, Texas with her six-year-old daughter in order to meet up with her husband, Henry Thomas (McQueen), recently released from prison after stabbing a man in a drunken brawl. The film takes a tragic turn when Henry is unable to overcome his traumatic past and ends up back in prison. While McQueen and Remick's performances are strong, the film suffers from a number of unresolved plotlines due to editorial cuts.
