Steve McQueen Movies

Steve McQueen in 1968's Bullitt
Steve McQueen in 1968’s Bullitt

Want to know the best Steve McQueen movies?  How about the worst Steve McQueen movies?  Curious about Steve McQueen’s box office grosses or which Steve McQueen movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Steve McQueen movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Steve McQueen (1930-1980) became a major star in the early 1960s. During a 14 year time period he made classic movies like The Magnificent Seven, Bullitt, Papillon, The Sand Pebbles, The Towering Inferno and my favorite The Great Escape. By the middle of the 1970s he was no longer making movies.

In 1980 he released his final two movies Tom Horn and The Hunter. However at the age of 50 he passed away after a battle with cancer. Steve McQueen’s role in The Sand Pebbles was the only time he was nominated for an Academy Award®. He did receive 4 Golden Globe® nominations. Those films were Love With The Proper Stranger, Papillon, The Sand Pebbles and The Reivers.

His IMDb page shows 41 acting credits from 1953-1980. This page will rank 26 Steve McQueen movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Cameos, television appearances, straight to DVD movies and shorts were not included in the rankings.

Steve McQueen in 1963's The Great Escape
Steve McQueen in 1963’s The Great Escape…this is easily my favorite Steve McQueen movie.

Steve McQueen Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Steve McQueen Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort by Steve McQueen’ co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort Steve McQueen movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost…(in millions)
  • Sort Steve McQueen movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Steve McQueen movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Steve McQueen movie received.
  • Sort Steve McQueen movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
  • Use the sort and search buttons to make this table very interactive
 
Steve McQueen in 1958's The Blob
Steve McQueen in 1958’s The Blob

Famous Steve McQueen miscues.

1. When offered his role in The Blob, he had two choices. (1) Three thousand dollars for his performance or (2) 10% of the profits. McQueen took the three thousand dollars. The Blob was an unexpected hit. Costing McQueen millions of dollars.

2. Turned down the lead male role in Breakfast At Tiffany’s.

3. Turned down the chance to be in Frank Sinatra’s Ocean’s Eleven.

4. Turned down the chance to be the Sundance Kid, in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. He wanted to be higher billed than Paul Newman.

5. Turned down the lead male role in Apocalypse Now.

6. Turned down the lead male role in Close Encounter of the Third Kind.

7. Turned down the lead male role in The French Connection.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globes® are the registered trademark and service mark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.
 

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156 thoughts on “Steve McQueen Movies”

  1. Hi Steve,
    I’m a few days late on this one, but I thought your Steve McQueen video was very well done visually and your ratings quite on the mark (there are 3 films I have not seen though, The Reivers and two of his last ones). I liked especially the Nevada Smith still of McQueen followed by the two posters and the British poster of The Great Escape (with the stars above the title and John Leyton added next James Coburn). I’m less of a Paul Newman fan, but I enjoyed that video as well. Timely, as indeed it appears McQueen was obsessed with catching up with Newman ever since he had a bit role in Somebody Up There Likes Me…and he finally did by the time of the Towering Inferno.
    Who knows what would have happened to McQueen’s career had he not been struck with a cancerous disease, but I suspect he would have continued to generate attention. While he was sometimes criticized for succeeding more because of his presence than acting skills, McQueen was an intelligent actor who seemed to instinctively know what would work best for him on the screen (most of the time). He may have been a pest to work with for John Sturges in The Great Escape, but it would not be the movie we know if he had not pushed for that great motorcycle chase. There was no love lost between him and Yul Brynner in The Magnificent Seven, but in my view, McQueen created the best characterization of the seven. After he became a major star in 1963, McQueen chose his roles carefully, and as your video shows, he made relatively few films, but almost all good to excellent ones, and McQueen stood out in nearly all of them.
    If you have not seen Love with the Proper Stranger, it’s certainly worth a shot. Perhaps a bit dated, but it deals sensitively with what was very much a taboo at the time. And I find it is McQueen’s best performance in a dramatic comedy (or comic drama), showing that he had more diverse acting abilities than usually credited for. He has very good chemistry with the lovely Natalie Wood.
    Glad that Cogerson posted the link of your video. I notice, Bruce, that Steve’s James Garner video is the only one from the American cast of The Great Escape which you have not posted on your site 🙁 Just an oversight maybe?

    Reply

    1. Hi Phil, thanks for checking out my Steve McQueen video, it is appreciated.

      Glad you liked the visual aspects of it. I’m defintiely curious about Love With the Proper Stranger, if it turns up on TV I will give it a look.

      Pop Quiz- which movie character connects Alan Ladd & Steve McQueen?

      Reply

      1. Hi Steve, good trivia question, but an easy one for me: Nevada Smith 😉 Ladd played the aging Nevada Smith in The Carpetbaggers in 1964, and the character inspired the 1966 movie in which McQueen played the younger Nevada. How someone got that idea, I’m not sure, but it works for me.

        Reply

        1. Phil, you win this smiley 🙂 take it, go ahead, it’s only been used once.

          Nevada Smith eh… I wonder if that fictional name was the inspiration for “Indiana Jones” ?

          Reply

      2. Hey Phil….I knew the answer to your question….even though I have not seen The Carpetbaggers….I know Bob…I am disappointed too….lol.

        Reply

  2. 1 STEVE I have always liked McQueen ever since the days of “the Cooler King” and he was undoubtedly a big star in his heyday, so big indeed that it was thought that it went to his head and in fact by the early 1970s had earned him the nickname of “The Vulgarian” especially over the manner in which he treated Newman. His conduct toward Paul was considered so childish that I’m sure that many observers would think that when he made that quote that opens your video about acting maybe not being for grown-ups he was taking himself at his own word.

    2 However we should content ourselves with simply dwelling on the body of actual work that he left and as usual YOU help us to do that with this fine video. A high octane fast-lane career like Steve’s was bound to produce good posters and stills and many of those that you have given us, even for some of his minor movies, are for me breathtaking. Simply at random: the POSTERS for Great St Louis Bank Robbery, Honeymoon Machine, Never so Few, Baby the Rain Must Fall, Hell is for Heroes, The Reivers and Cincinnati Kid And of course there is The Towering Inferno poster demonstrating that compromise billing that was apparently surrounded by so much controversy and acrimony

    3 Scrumptious coloured STILLS were those from Le Mans [a labour of love for Steve but which apparently lost money because of steep production costs] Nevada Smith, with Dunaway in Thomas Crown, with Natalie in Love with the Proper Stranger and with his own unilaterally-appointed ‘arch enemy’ Newman in Towering Inferno.

    4 I have long concluded that like me both you and WH were big McQueen fans so I was curious about how you 2 squared off regarding perceptions of his 5 greatest films. You actually agree on 4 of the Top 5 with WH choosing Love with the Proper Stranger over the Papillon that closed out your 5. I’m in your corner this time though I’m sure you would have preferred a real authority Joel !! Anyway overall great stuff from you well worth 96% rating

    Reply

    1. Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, trivia and comparison, much appreciated.

      Glad you enjoyed the posters and stills.

      I was a big fan back in the 70s, sadly the Big C took him in 1980. He was only 50.

      I haven’t seen Love With the Proper Stranger, I’m curious to see it and figure out why it’s rated higher than some of his more popular films. If it was called Love With the Proper Strangler, I probably would have seen it by now. 😉

      I’ve read your posts on the rivalry between the two stars on Towering Inferno, their characters even had the exact same number of words in the script. If Newman was suddenly given an extra line of dialogue, McQueen would demand he be given the same amount of words too.

      Bullitt was iconic in it’s time, so many spectacular car chases have turned up in movies since 1968 but that’s still the one to beat. The fact that Steve McQueen was driving added to it’s legendary status, if the driver was Peter Fonda and the same exact chase, it would not have that lasting impact.

      “Every time I look in the rear-view mirror, I see Robert Redford.”

      “If a guy like Dustin Hoffman can become a star, what’ll happen to guys like Paul Newman and me?”

      “Sometimes kids ask me what a pro is. I just point to the Duke [John Wayne]”

      Only two McQueen films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – The Magnificent Seven & The Great Escape. Bullitt scored 9. There are several scoring 8.

      Fast Eddie Felson coming up next.

      Reply

      1. HI STEVE 1. As is normally the case your backchat has been informative and interesting. It IS a pity and a tragedy that the Cooler King was not able to provide us with a longer innings on the screen though I suppose one tiny consolation is that our memory of him relates for the most part to his heyday when he was at the peak of his powers.

        2 An irresistible force meeting an immovable object in the matter of billing often ends up with both stars losing out not to mention the movie-going public. As I’ve said before Grant was originally wanted for the Edward G part in Cincinnati Kid but the deal fell through because neither Cary nor Steve would take 2nd billing. From my personal perspective that would have been a historic pairing to equate with Stewart & Wayne in Liberty Valance, Brando and Glenn Ford in Teahouse [whatever one thinks of the movie itself] and Davis and Crawford in Baby Jane.

        3 We’ve noted Spencer Tracy’s obsession with billing and he is said to have sulked on the set of the 1938 Test Pilot because Gable was top billed. However Tracy simply generally wanted to be 2nd billed to NOBODY and never targeted any particular actor whereas McQueen seemed to be preoccupied with not being billed 2nd to Newman especially. I have often wondered if that was because in Steve’s first major*** movie Somebody Up there Likes me in 1956 Newman was the sole star and McQueen was a ‘nobody’ and indeed was uncredited.
        ***His very first movie was I think the 1953 Girl on the Run but that was a low budget independent production and he was again uncredited.
        4 However let’s give the Cooler King a bit of praise in the matter because he DID in the end accept the kind of compromise billing with Paul that both Tracy and Bogie rejected when according to Betty Bacall there were efforts to get them to team up for the 1955 Desperate Hours so that in the end Bogie made the film with just a 2nd billed Frederic March. Sad because whilst I loved Freddie’s acting a Bogie/Cantankerous pairing AS STARS would within the context of the teaming of actual top Hollywood legends been another Collector’s item. They had both appeared in the 1930 Up the River but Bogie was just a supporting actor then and Spence though the lead had not come into his own as a star.

        Reply

          1. HI BRUCE

            I think that some time ago you posted an account of your Dad’s real-life meeting with Steve McQueen. If I recall correctly it was funny and interesting and may be worth repeating sometime.

  3. I’ve now created a top 10 Steve McQueen list on letterboxd.:

    https://letterboxd.com/florar/list/favourite-steve-mcqueen-movies/

    Now that I’ve got a subscription status on youtube with a new gmail address, I have subscribed to Steve’s top 10 Charts and spend most of my online time on Steve’s videos and letterboxd.

    I have also subscrive to Cogersonmoviescrore and a woman named Anna who makes wonderful videos herself.

    It’s easy to find me.

    I’m Flora Robison.

    My gmail address robisonflora

    Don’t to make things to difficult for gmail.

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora….very cool information. Can’t go wrong on Steve’s You Tube channel or Letterbxd.com. Thanks for link to your McQueen list…good stuff there. 🙂

      Reply

  4. My favorite actor of all time. Sand Pebbles is also my favorite McQueen flick. “What happened?” WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!! Great ending!

    Reply

    1. Hey rcbrammer….thanks for stopping by….glad to see a McQueen fan found our tribute page. I agree with you about the ending of the Sand Pebbles. I appreciate the comment.

      Reply

  5. BRUCE

    EDWARD G

    1 I loved him as an actor. Apparently around about the same time as ‘Kid’ Spence was to play a cameo in John Ford’s Cheyenne Autumn starring Widmark and Eddie took over that role as well. The standing joke in Hollywood was thus apparently that the insurance companies were insisting that anytime Tracy was signed up for a film Robinson had to be on standby !

    GRANT/McQUEEN BILLING

    2 Peter Lorre once complained in an interview that too much time and energy was taken up around the Hollywood studios arguing about billing and that some of the disputes bordered on childish.

    3 However apparently the contracts had so many other caveats tha even Perry Mason would have had difficulty breaking them. For example

    (1) Dino and Monroe signed up to co-star in Something’s Gotta Give and Marilyn died after a limited number of scenes were shot so that Fox wanted to complete the film with another actress;but Martin’s contract guaranteed him ONLY MM as his co-star and he was therefore able to walk off the picture which never got completed. TV occasionally shows one of the archived scenes that MM and Dino did manage to get in the can.

    (2) Liz Taylor’s contract guaranteed her top billing in Reflections in a Golden Eye so that when Bud took over from Monty he had to accept 2nd billing. Since becoming a star in Streetcar that was the only time Bud’s name came second in a full-length non-cameo role. However he got a caveat included in his contract that he would make the final selection of stills and other promotional photographs for the film.

    (3) Big stars like Sinatra had clauses in their contracts whereby they could be asked to shoot scenes only in the afternoon and not after say 5pm.

    BOB

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob.
      1. I have read that about EGR and Spencer Tracy. Strange because from what I have read…EGR was not in good shape at all….I think only lasted 6 years longer than Tracy.
      2. Funny comment from Lorre….as we have mentioned before….billing was one of the few things a star could use to show his power..especially in the contract years.
      3. I remember reading that James Cagney was the first star to say he would not film anymore scenes with live bullets. Back then when they wanted to make it look like a bullet hit close to a star….a sharpshooter would fire live ammunition at the star….sounds safe to me.
      4. Monroe looks very pretty in that scene….it is a shame that movie never got finished.
      5. So Liz topped Bud….very interesting.
      5. By the end of Frank’s peak movie days…they say he was not too interested in staying on the set …..one take and time to go home and get ready for that night’s show. That is why people were somewhat shocked that he directed a movie….as being a director meant you had to be on the set all the time.
      As always….I enjoyed your movie thoughts.
      Stay safe.

      Reply

      1. 1 Jimmy Cagney was another Tracy substitute. Spence started making Tribute to a Bad Man (1956) but became so difficult to work with that MGM executives went to his quarters and fired him on the spot and replaced him with Cagney,

        2 It was the first time that Spencer had ever been sacked from a film and he took it so badly that he immediately broke down and sobbed.

        3 Tracy never after appeared on screen for MGM but did the narration for How the West Was Won (1962) which was produced by Cinema Releasing Corporation but distributed by MGM.

        Reply

        1. Hey Bob.
          1. Back from Italy? Is so hope you had a great time. If not….why are you here commenting….lol.
          2. Interesting Spencer Tracy trivia. So Tribute To A Bad Man was the movie that he got fired from…..interesting.
          3. Sad that his MGM days went out with a whimper versus a bang…..but probably every actor reaches the point that the studios part ways.
          4. My family trivia about Spencer Tracy…my grandmother and grandfather used to have a fruit stand in Los Angeles in the 1930s…..and Spencer Tracy was one of their better customers.
          🙂

          Reply

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