by Greg Laurie
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT
STEVE McQUEEN: THE SALVATION OF AN AMERICAN ICON
“Steve McQueen was one of my boyhood heroes. I watched his Westerns and was always excited to see his latest movie. But shortly before he was diagnosed with cancer he put his faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Four days before Steve’s death, my father paid him a visit and gave his own personal Bible to Steve, who died with this Bible in his arms. Pastor Greg Laurie explores this bigger-than-life film star and shares in-depth interviews with those closest to McQueen in a fast-paced book. Don’t miss Greg’s riveting account of “Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon.”
Franklin Graham
CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
“When Greg Laurie shared the story with me of Steve McQueen finding faith and hope at the end of his life, I was deeply moved. Everyone knows of Steve as an American icon, but few know of this chapter in his life and I’m glad Greg is shedding light on it.”
Mel Gibson
Academy Award-Winning Director and Actor
“When I first picked up this book I thought to myself, How have I not heard Steve McQueen’s story until now?! Greg Laurie has done extensive research along with McQueen biographer Marshall Terrill, and tells a story very few people know … that Steve McQueen came to faith in Jesus Christ. You will not believe this until you read it; and it’s all true!”
Bart Millard
Lead singer of MercyMe
“Greg Laurie has one of the most powerful life-change stories of anyone I know. That’s why he’s the perfect person to share the inspiring, yet little known story, about Steve McQueen’s transformation by Christ. Greg’s carefully researched book will draw you closer to Jesus and move you to share your faith with others.”
Craig Groeschel
Pastor of Life.Church and New York Times Best-selling author
“A big thanks to Greg Laurie and Marshall Terrill for bringing to light this amazing story of Steve McQueen coming to faith in Jesus Christ. You will love reading this book!”
Phil Wickham
Contemporary Christian musician
“My friend Greg Laurie has written a captivating true story of Steve McQueen’s spiritual journey. Greg carefully researched, interviewing McQueen’s widow, friends and many others. He writes in the first-person, intertwining parallels between McQueen’s life and his own. The result is a unique, personal and compelling account that kept me from putting the book down until I read the final words.”
Randy Alcorn
Best-selling Author and Director of Eternal Perspective Ministries
“Steve McQueen was basically Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Johnny Depp all rolled up into one. An icon, a heartthrob and a legend. But what the tabloids never told is what happened in this movie star’s heart after the cameras stopped rolling. I am thankful that Greg took the time to research and to share the legacy of the great American icon Steve McQueen. I am inspired by his fight and faith. I can’t wait to meet Steve McQueen in Heaven. Do yourself a favor and read this book by my great friend, Greg Laurie, as he shares all that Christ did in the life of this Hollywood star.”
Levi Lusko
Pastor of Fresh Life Church, Founder of Skull Church and O2 Experience
Best-selling author
“Greg Laurie’s new book about Steve McQueen is something special. The conversion of McQueen happened when he was the number one movie star in the world. But how did this happen? Greg, in first person interviews with people who knew Steve, gives us the answers.”
Chris Tomlin
Christian Recording Artist
“At the sound of Steve McQueen’s name my mind breaks free and I immediately get a sense of the highway moving beneath him. Images of James Dean, John Lennon, and Ernest Hemingway join the ride as they bunch up and blend together in selfless worship of rebellion, sacrifice, heart, grit and something incredibly unique that reaches a part of us that very few people can put their finger on. It’s the kind of tingle felt when God touches our heart and turns us inside out. So, in a few words it’s a restless journey, a seeking heart and a loving God we are treated to here as Greg Laurie, who knows a lot about searching, heads out on the road with God at the wheel and the deep expectation of discovering Steve McQueen in his sights. What he encounters is often painful, rock bottom mesmerizing, deep down lonely, but eventually a triumphant life that touched the souls of so many on its way to spend eternity with the King of Kings.”
Ken Mansfield
Former U.S. Manager Beatles’ Apple Records, Producer, Author
“From the time I was a young man sitting in a dark movie theater, I admired Steve McQueen. I was taken with the way he drove cars and rode motorcycles. His daring. His style. I wanted to live with his kind of fearlessly adventurous spirit. And I remember being saddened at his death at such a young age. But until I read this book, I didn’t know the remarkable story of his stepping out in faith, embracing the most important journey of his life. You will love this book.”
Dr. Jack Graham
Best-selling Author and Senior Pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas
“An extraordinary portrait of one of the most compelling icons of the 20th century. Greg Laurie brilliantly and lovingly examines the agony beneath the surface of Steve McQueen’s inimitable life, and exposes the hitherto unknown and rather shocking truth about one of our most famous American figures.”
Eric Metaxas
#1 New York Times Bestselling author of Bonhoeffer,
and host of the nationally syndicated Eric Metaxas Show.
STEVE McQUEEN: The Salvation of an American Icon
By Greg Laurie with Marshall Terrill
Copyright © 2017 by Greg Laurie
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, website, or broadcast.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. (Later editions copyright, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation.)
Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version, copyright © 1982, 1983. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson Publishers, Inc, Nashville, Tennessee, 37214.
Cataloging-in-Publication data on file with the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-1-94689-106-8
Published in the United States by American Icon Press™
Distributed to the general market trade by Greenleaf Book Group
For ordering information or special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Greenleaf Book Group at PO Box 91869, Austin, Texas 78709, (512)891.6100.
www.greenleafbookgroup.com
Manufactured in the United States of America
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This book is dedicated to those who had all the odds stacked against them. Those who were written off and told they would never amount to anything. Those who were abandoned by their parents, but loved by God. There is hope.
– Greg Laurie
CONTENTS
Author’s Note
Introduction
Chapter 1.All I Need
’s a Fast Machine
Chapter 2.The Widow and the Preacher Man
Chapter 3.The Last Chance Ranch
Chapter 4.Don’s Garage
Chapter 5.Laurieland
Chapter 6.Julian and Charlene
Chapter 7.Hog Heaven
Chapter 8.The Father Who Wasn’t There
Chapter 9.House of Horrors
Chapter 10.Two Schools of Thought
Chapter 11.A Death Sentence
Chapter 12.New York State of Mind
Chapter 13.The Blob and the Bible
Chapter 14.California Dreamin’
Chapter 15.The American Dream
Chapter 16.A Man and His Castle
Chapter 17.Motherless Child
Chapter 18.The Canyon
Chapter 19.The Monster Within
Chapter 20.The Fall
Chapter 21.A Jamaican Seed
Chapter 22.The Towering Babel
Chapter 23.Nothing New Under the Sun
Chapter 24.The Visitor
Chapter 25.Broad Beach Memoirs
Chapter 26.Learning to Fly
Chapter 27.Hello, Preacher Man!
Chapter 28.Somebody Up There Likes Me
Chapter 29.A Test of Faith
Chapter 30.Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Chapter 31.See You in Heaven
Postscript: Good News in a Bad World
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Writing a fictional book is something I’ve really wanted to do for a long time. But friends of mine who are very successful nonfiction authors and have made the leap to writing fiction tell me it’s actually not as easy as it looks. Rocket science for the rank amateur. “Stick to nonfiction, Greg,” they say. “You’re a preacher with a story. Write about what you know.”
Well, what I know best is my own strange, crazy life and the power of God’s Word, the Bible. But I’ve also come to know quite a lot about something else, and he is the main subject of this book.
Terrence Steven McQueen.
Everything you’re soon to read about him here is fact. And everything I’ve written about my own life here is also fact. For instance, I do indeed own and cherish a 1967 Bullitt Mustang— not the actual car that Steve McQueen drove in the movie Bullitt but what is called a “tribute car,” a very close reproduction. And in this book it serves as a great vehicle—pun intended—to tell the actor’s story.
The only thing in the book that’s not true is something I wish were true, and possibly someday may be true. I’d love to actually strike out in that Mustang on the cross-country motor trip I write about. But it didn’t really happen. Or hasn’t happened. Not yet anyway.
Truth is, I’m the busy pastor of a church in Southern California attended by more than twelve thousand people and, at least for right now, I can’t take that cross-country ride behind the wheel of this legendary car. So this part of the book, yes, is fiction—a literary device to help connect the dots between Steve McQueen’s lifelong search for spiritual enlightenment and, ultimately, his eternal salvation. But by joining me on this make-believe road trip, you’re about to learn things about Steve McQueen that have never before been made public.
My collaborator Marshall Terrill is a celebrated author and the undisputed “go-to” guy for all things McQueen. He has written five books on the life of the man, and this one would never have happened without Marshall’s mind, his memory, and his elegance with words.
Marshall and I personally interviewed many of the people you will meet here. Some of the interviews were conducted by Marshall on his own in doing research for his previous McQueen books. And when we get down to the true story of what really happened to arguably the number-one movie star in the world, you will be surprised and inspired.
My road trip is an allegory, a metaphor. Steve McQueen’s life was not. It was real. Tracing it fired me up, and I believe it will do the same for you.
Greg Laurie
June 2017
INTRODUCTION
A popular men’s magazine recently posed one of the most intriguing pop culture questions of all time: “Who was cooler: Steve McQueen or James Dean?”
The question topped a mano a mano examination of the lives and careers of both iconic actors that rated them in a whole gamut of categories, from fashion and style sense to roguish masculinity to career accomplishments.
Dean was rightly celebrated as a pinup boy for teenage disillusionment and the archetype of disobedience for his portrayal in Rebel Without a Cause. He was the silver screen’s first post-World War II maverick heartthrob. His squinty good looks, tousled hair, cuffed blue jeans, and white T-shirt never went out of style, and his tragic death at age twenty-four eternally cemented his youthful image and appeal in the public mind.
Interestingly, both Dean and McQueen were contemporaries, born a year apart, and were actors at the same time. But while McQueen struggled in his early career, Dean shot to success. In fact, McQueen even did mechanical work on James Dean’s motorcycle, but Dean had no clue who McQueen was.
The magazine reporter deftly noted that McQueen built on what Dean accomplished in the 1950s and took advantage of the antiestablishment phenomena of the 1960s. He made rebellion a favorite pastime—both on and off the screen. He fought producers and directors, dated beautiful women, drove fast cars, and broke enough bones tumbling off his motorcycle to be considered authentic. He had the scratches on his movie star face to prove it. Yet somehow he managed to keep a low personal profile behind his massive public image.
He only made it through the ninth grade and did a stretch in reform school. His alcoholic mother abandoned him repeatedly throughout childhood, and he never even knew his father, also an alcoholic who died of cirrhosis of the liver.
So, not surprisingly—to me—the magazine’s nod went to McQueen. Guess that’s why he’s been crowned by pop culture historians as the “King of Cool.” Almost four decades after his death, people still revere the image he crafted and projected through his art. The fact is, James Dean wasn’t even in the same league as Steve McQueen.
But what was this flesh and blood human being like when there was no script to read and the cameras weren’t rolling? That’s a much tougher question because Hollywood legends don’t come more complex than Steve McQueen.
As Winston Churchill famously said, and it certainly applies to Steve McQueen, he was “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
Many of the things that have been written about him seem wildly contradictory. We’ll go back across a lot of them in this book. McQueen was a loving father and husband, yet he was also a womanizer and at times a shameless male chauvinist. Nobody hung on to a dollar any tighter than he did, yet he made large (and strictly anonymous) donations to charity. He was a loyal friend yet trusted nobody. He was capable of jaw-dropping cruelty to colleagues yet was a sucker for kids and old folks.
If you graduated with honors from business school, wore a suit and tie, and had a title next to your name, God help you. But his own lack of formal education was an embarrassment to him. He only made it through the ninth grade and did a stretch in reform school. His alcoholic mother abandoned him repeatedly throughout childhood, and he never even knew his father, also an alcoholic who died of cirrhosis of the liver. But McQueen rose above such desolate underpinnings through sheer force of character and determination to succeed.
McQueen was invited to Sharon Tate’s house the night that she and four others were brutally murdered by the Manson Family.
Nobody in Hollywood was more disciplined and hardworking than the man whose capriciousness often made movie sets as tense and downright chaotic as war zones. He was famously antiauthority yet regularly visited the young male residents at the Boys Republic in Chino, California, and counseled them about straightening themselves out.
Politics bored and often repelled him, but it didn’t keep him off President Nixon’s infamous “Enemies List” nor stop FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover from keeping official tabs on him. He made it onto anothe
r notorious list as well: Charlie Manson’s celebrity hit list. In fact, McQueen was invited to Sharon Tate’s house the night that she and four others were brutally murdered by the Manson Family.
The fact that he became a wildly successful actor is astonishing in itself. By all accounts, he fell into the profession in order to escape menial labor—no more, no less. He had no lofty cinematic dreams, only the desire to avoid the drudgery of a routine 9-to-5 job, plus he figured it would be a good way to “meet chicks.” Even after becoming so good at it—acting, that is—he never thought of it as a “real man’s job.”
What McQueen really respected were cars, motorcycles, and the men who raced them at breakneck speed. His first passion was machines, and he had a natural affinity for them. He was mechanically adept, fiercely competitive, and completely fearless. No vehicle was safe as long as he was behind the wheel. On the set of Hell Is for Heroes, McQueen wrecked three rental cars—and the count would have been higher had the studio not made clear that the cost of anymore wrecks would be deducted from his salary. On another film he punished a brand-new rental car until the engine caught fire. When it did, he leaped out of the burning vehicle like a seasoned stuntman and laughed about it with a friend. When not making movies, he entered car and motorcycle races and held his own against the best drivers in the world. Many of these men formed McQueen’s inner circle of friends, admiring and respecting him not as a Hollywood figure but as a man after their own macho hearts.
Steve McQueen, bottom line, was the biggest movie star in the world in the 1960s and ’70s, the ultimate alpha-male of his generation.
Steve McQueen, bottom line, was the biggest movie star in the world in the 1960s and ’70s, the ultimate alpha-male of his generation. His tough-guy persona melded an unlikely combination of willfulness, unpredictability, strength, and vulnerability, which riveted audiences in such unforgettable films as The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Cincinnati Kid, The Sand Pebbles, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, The Getaway, Papillon, and The Towering Inferno.