Q & A with McQueen author Andrew Antoniades

Interviewer: You have just released a new book called “Steve McQueen: The Actor and his Films”. Why is McQueen so popular even today?



Andrew: In essence it is because what Steve McQueen stood for in his lifetime is still as relevant, if not more so, today. He was a no-nonsense person who was essentially an underdog and that story is always appealing. He was a rebel but he could also act, so his films remain relevant and well-loved today. For example, Bullitt is still influencing modern cinema through its cinematography and its car chase. Aside form the films there is McQueen fashion sense and his love of fast cars and motorbikes. So for every person there is nearly always something they can relate to and admire. In an age where cinema really has no tough guys like McQueen, people have to look back and appreciated him for the maverick he was, since there is no one that comes close these days. He died just over 30 years ago but remains as relevant and as big as ever.
Interviewer: How did you come to write a book on Steve McQueen?

Andrew: I had just edited Marshall Terrill’s latest biography Steve McQueen: The Life and Legend of a Hollywood Icon. That was a great experience for me as I had read Marshall’s first biography on McQueen from 1993 when I was just in my late teens. Marshall always felt, having written the definitive biography on McQueen that the story of his films needed to be told. Marshall graciously suggested that I be the one to tell this story and put in contact with his publisher. From there I teamed up with Mike Siegel who has one of Europe’s leading film memorabilia archives with so many great images and film posters. We teamed up with the idea being that I did most of the writing and Mike providing most of the images. In a sense, the book now has the best of both worlds and benefits from two very big McQueen fans to ensure that the text and imagery are of the highest caliber. The partnership worked well and, with Marshall and the publisher’s support, the end product exceeded all our hopes.

Interviewer: Why did you focus on Steve McQueen’s films?

Andrew: McQueen’s life was a miracle in its own way. He was born into poverty and managed to somehow work his way from a teenage delinquent to a Hollywood megastar, defying the odds. His life story is completely interwoven with his films. The reason being two-fold. Firstly, being an actor was his way to a better life, a way of achieving success. Without films he could have easily drifted from job to job, just as he had as a young man. Secondly, McQueen used acting as a means of developing himself. He used all his hardships and life experiences to create some of cinema’s richest and most subtle characterizations.

However, McQueen also managed to do the reverse too, in the latter half of his career, his movies became his confessional of sorts. He would invest in scenes to achieve catharsis and to understand his own personal anxieties and fears. For example, in Junior Bonner there is the scene between McQueen’s character and his father, Ace, in which the two have a very strained relationship, but a deep respect. McQueen himself grew up never knowing his father and this scene allowed McQueen to examine his own feelings of abandonment and being denied a conventional father-son relationship. It is an incredibly poignant scene, but really highlights just how important McQueen’s films are.

Interviewer: Which part of the book are you most proud of?

Andrew: It is hard to pick one. The reason being is the book covers so much in text and in words. This was a conscious decision as we wanted to give fans everything we like ourselves. With the text of the book, I guess I’m most proud of the dissection of McQueen’s acting. I wanted to offer a unique and in-depth insight into McQueen’s technique, his subtleties and his motivations, to really get under his skin. This is something that has never been done in such detail.

Interviewer: Visually, what are the books strengths?

Andrew: We were adamant that the book should look impressive and possess great quality. As a collector myself, I always want things that look good and impress. The book is literally huge; at nearly 500 pages I don’t think there is another book on McQueen of this size. It is presented in hardback too with a wonderful gold embossed logo on the cover, underneath the dust jacket. When I got my own copy of the book I had no idea about this and was blown away. My publisher did a great job and I believe that little touches add to the overall presentation.

With the images, even the biggest McQueen fan will be blown away. With over a 1,000 images there are so many never-before-seen photos. So many books on McQueen have been released that simply repeat the same images. Steve McQueen: The Actor and his Films has something for casual and die-hard fans alike. Whether it’s an unseen image of McQueen taking a nap between takes on The Getaway or a rare Italian poster for Bullitt, there is something new and fresh.

Interviewer: What makes your book so different?

Andrew: The word I would use, and I use it with caution, is “definitive”. I do not say this lightly. I own practically every book published on McQueen over the years. I must say that, as an account of McQueen’s films, it really is definitive. Other books that try to cover his films either are outdated, not richly presented or omit key details. With this book every aspect is dealt with in great detail and new angles discovered. I clearly have a bias, but I believe that there is nothing on the market that comes close.

Interviewer: Thank you Andrew, this book sounds great, I wish you every success. Any closing comments?

Andrew: Yes, thank you too, this has been great. To close I’d just like to say that I am very grateful to have had this opportunity to put together a book on a subject that I am so passionate about. It has really been a labor of love. At the end of the day, I am a McQueen fan so I wanted to put something together that would really do him justice. I hope that I have achieved that.

Q: Tell us something you've never revealed to anyone else?

Andrew: I love Tiny Tim's "Tiptoe Through The Tulips."

Steve McQueen: The Actor and his Films, by Andrew Antoniades and Mike Siegel

Is available from Dalton Watson Fine books www.daltonwatson.com

http://www.daltonwatson.com/78-celebrities/130-steve-mcqueen-the-actor-and-his-films

ISBN 978-1-85443-253-7

Hard cover with dust jacket

Publication Date November 2011

Page Size: 300mm x 230mm. 492 pages.

Illustrations: 1,020 illustrations: 790 photos incl. 44 full page photos. 230 artwork reproductions incl. 48 full page poster reproductions & 10 full page lobby card reproductions

Price: US$69/£39

Book Soup hosts Robert Relyea on Sept. 10

Movie executive was Steve McQueen's right hand man

Producer Robert E. Relyea, a fifty-year veteran of the movie industry and Steve McQueen’s right hand man at Solar Productions, will appear at a world famous book store on the Sunset Strip this month to promote his new action-packed autobiography.

The two-hour signing will take place 7 p.m. Wednesday, September 10 at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. Relyea will be signing copies of Not So Quiet On The Set: My Life In Movies During Hollywood’s Macho Era, which promises to become a must read for anyone who yearns to know the “real” stories about the movies.

Co-authored by son Craig Relyea, Not So Quiet On The Set provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes, first person look into Hollywood’s movie-making landscape during the turbulent pre-and post-Kennedy years in America. The book also chronicles Relyea’s friendship, business relationship and canon of films with McQueen, which includes Never So Few, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Bullitt, The Reivers and Le Mans.

The 348-page work includes candid photos of Relyea on the sets of epic films and presents rare insights into the mechanics and politics of film making, defining a dynamic period in motion picture history. A unique collaboration between father and son, Not So Quiet On The Set not only illustrates how the movie industry really works, but also provides a revealing portrait of Hollywood’s loss of innocence.

For more information, go to www.booksoup.com or www.NotSoQuietOnTheSet.com.

McQueen's main main releases new book

ROBERT RELYEA'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY: BEHIND THE ... Celebrating Films of the 1960s & 1970s

When I first moved to Los Angeles about a dozen years ago, the one person I wanted to meet was Robert Relyea. Now, this may seem like an odd choice since his is hardly a household name, but Bob Relyea’s credit was on just about every one of my favorite movies growing up. And if you’re reading Cinema Retro, the odds are these films are favorites of yours as well - “The Alamo,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “West Side Story,” “The Great Escape,” and “Bullitt,” to name a few of the classic movies he worked on.

His nominal title on a picture like “The Great Escape” was assistant to the producer but this hardly begins to describe what he actually contributed to that film. He scouted locations, he was the production manager, directed all the night scenes (because John Sturges didn’t like working nights), he even flew the plane that James Garner piloted in the film and was courageous enough to take on the hazardous job of stunt pilot when the plane needed to crash. Oh, and that immortal shot of Steve McQueen jumping the barbed wire fence on his motorcycle? Yup, Bob Relyea directed that.

They say it’s best not to meet your heroes, that they will only let you down. Well, as usual “they” are wrong. I finally got to meet Mr. Relyea and it has been one of the great pleasures of my life to be able to call him my friend. A finer, more decent man I have never met and he is also one of the best storytellers I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Now, with the publication of his memoirs of a life in the motion picture industry, “Not So Quiet on the Set,” you, too, have the opportunity to meet Robert Relyea and I urge you to do yourself a great favor and read one of the funniest and most moving books about the movie industry I have ever read. The style of the book perfectly captures the voice of the man I know - understated, honest, slightly amazed at the things he has seen and been a part of, and full of a puckish wit that infuses the incredible goings on.

And what a cast of characters! Grace Kelly, Marlon Brando, Elvis, John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen, Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner, June Allyson, Yul Brynner, Burt Lancaster, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Cliff Robertson, David McCallum and Peter Sellers, even the Beatles make an appearance.

And the directors he’s worked with are here as well - Vincente Minnelli, William Wyler, Robert Wise, Blake Edwards, Peter Yates, Mark Rydell and his mentor, the great John Sturges. In fact, the story about how Sturges happened to make “Bad Day at Black Rock” is worth the price of admission alone, as they used to say. It’s hard to pick out a favorite anecdote, they are all so well told, but there are a couple of stories about the making of “The Alamo” that are priceless, including one about Relyea having a conversation with John Wayne as a horse proceeded to bite the Duke on the ass. Wayne turned around and socked his equine attacker squarely on the snout without missing a beat in the conversation with Relyea. And this was years before Mongo in “Blazing Saddles!” “I realized then,” Bob once told me, “He wasn’t acting. He really WAS John Wayne!”

John Wayne with director John Ford, who visited the set“The Alamo” provides the book with some of its funniest moments as well as one of the most dramatic. During the long, arduous shoot, Relyea developed a bleeding ulcer that came within minutes of killing him. Thanks to the blood transfusions of the many stuntmen on the film, he survived, thanks to the massive infusions of stuntmen’s blood, almost all of it laced with copious amounts of tequila, Jack Daniels and Scotch. In fact, there’s a funny story that Bob Relyea once told me about that film, that isn’t in the book so I won’t be giving anything away if I recount it here.

“On the first day of shooting, one of my responsibilities was to watch Duke play the scene, since they didn’t have video monitors in those days for him to look at after the shot was completed. Well, I got so pre-occupied with the set-up and and everything that I didn’t notice until we all saw the dailies that because he had lived so long with this project, Duke not only knew his lines, but knew every other actor’s lines in the scene as well. And when we saw the dailies, there he was, silently mouthing the other actor’s lines as they were delivering them. I was so focused on everything else, I missed it, and I can assure you that I caught hell for that one!”

Relyea was such a consummate professional that top directors like Sturges and Wise and Wyler clamored for his assistance on their films. In fact, one of the dramatic highlights of the book is when he is forced to choose whose company he will become a part of - Wise, who offered him a signed contract to become partner of his production company, or an identical proposal from John Sturges, his mentor. He had agreed to both men’s requests, figuring that it was unlikely that either proposal would pan out and yet when offers arrived on the same day from both directors, Relyea was forced to choose. It goes to show how a good man can find himself in an untenable position and I know that Bob Relyea still smarts over his own perceived shortcoming in the affair. In a highly charged scene in the book, he visits the man he is forced to turn down and receives a devastating dismissal. It just goes to show that the choices that the business forces to make can test the moral resolution of even the most upright man. I think that Relyea is too hard on himself in the matter but his own moral code doesn’t let himself off the hook any easier than it does anyone else in the book.

One of the interesting concepts of the book is the twin narrative than flows through the pages. Relyea’s son Craig introduces many of the chapters by placing the films in a social and familial context and though it is a concept that is fraught with hazards, Craig Relyea pulls it off superbly. His introductions are concise, well-written and illuminate the innate decency of his father. The book is a tremendously entertaining read and more knowledge on the inner workings of the American movie industry can be found between its covers than that in any undergraduate film school.

The petty politics, the logistical challenges, the studio machinations, the human emotions that all go into making a motion picture are delineated here with utmost precision.
Steve McQueen in "The Great Escape" I have had the great pleasure over the years to interview and in many cases, befriend, great directors like Frank Capra, Billy WIlder, Robert Wise, Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone, to name a few, but I have learned more about filmmaking from Robert Relyea than the lot of them combined. There is wisdom here aplenty but it is never didactic; simply the hard-earned truths of a man who has done it all. The last section has an elegiac quality to it, starting with the sale of Warner Bros. just as “Bullitt” was commencing principal photography. And if I had any nitpicking's about the book, it is that stops in 1971, after the debacle of “Le Mans,” and the dissolution of Relyea’s partnership and friendship with Steve McQueen. I understand his reason for doing so, but ending such a wonderful tale on such a sour note felt a bit awkward. Would that he had continued a few more years to the wild tales of “Day of the Dolphin” with Mike Nichols and George C. Scott, or how Relyea chose Michael Cimino to direct his production of a Vietnam script that became “The Deer Hunter,” only to walk away from the project in a bitter dispute with the young director.

Bob Relyea understands the old show biz maxim of always wanting to leave the audience wanting more and this book certainly does that. Alas, he has said there will be no sequel, this is the story he wanted to tell and I urge you not to miss it. This is a book, rich in anecdotes and wisdom, so do yourself a favor and buy a copy and then do your friends a favor and buy them copies. To borrow a couple of adjectives from the two classic John Sturges movies he worked on, this is a MAGNIFICENT book, written by a very GREAT man. - Mike Thomas

To order a copy of "Not So Quiet On The Set," visit http://www.notsoquietontheset.com/ or http://www.amazon.com/.

2nd annual Steve McQueen Days March 28-29

Steve McQueen fans from around the world will gather in Slater, Missouri, the actor’s boyhood hometown, to celebrate the life and work of the legendary actor on Friday and Saturday, March 28 and 29.

The 2^nd Annual Steve McQueen Days is timed around the actor’s birthday; McQueen would have been 78 years old on March 24^th. McQueen was born in Beech Grove, Indiana but moved to Slater, when he was an infant and remained there for most of the next decade. Slater is located in central Missouri in Saline County and has approximately 2,100 residents.

Among those attending will be McQueen’s widow, Barbara McQueen, who will be signing copies of her book Steve McQueen: The Last Mile about her years with McQueen. Also attending will be McQueen’s friend from his early days in Greenwich Village and later, in Hollywood, Richard Martin. Martin has just produced a documentary on McQueen’s life titled An American Rebel. The film is based on the book Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel by noted biographer Marshall Terrill, who will be a key speaker during the festivities in Slater.

McQueen’s stuntman, Loren Janes, who worked with McQueen throughout his professional career from his television western series, Wanted: Dead or Alive to the last film he made, The Hunter will be presenting rare behind the scenes footage from Nevada Smith and The Sand Pebbles.

Highlights of the festival will include a Steve McQueen Lookalike Contest and a Classic Car and Motorcycle Show. McQueen was an accomplished and competitive semi-professional car and motorcycle racer who owned over 100 antique motorcycles. An auction of McQueen-related memorabilia to benefit the Boy’s Republic School in Chino, California will also be held during the weekend. McQueen attended the Boy’s Republic shortly after he left Slater and continued to visit and support the school throughout his life.

McQueen was a worldwide box-office champion in the '60s and '70s and starred in such blockbuster films as The Great Escape, Papillon and The Sand Pebbles, which garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. This year also marks the 40^th Anniversary of Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair, which are among McQueen’s most acclaimed films. At the time of his death in November of 1980 from asbestos-induced cancer, McQueen was the most-popular and highest-paid actor in the world.

For additional information about the 2nd Annual Steve McQueen Days visit www.cityofslater.com.

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2nd annual Steve McQueen Days March 28-29

2nd Annual Steve McQueen Days

Steve McQueen fans from around the world will gather in Slater, Missouri, the actor’s boyhood hometown, to celebrate the life and work of the legendary actor on Friday and Saturday, March 28th and 29th

The 2nd Annual Steve McQueen Days is timed around the actor’s birthday; McQueen would have been 78 years old on March 24th. McQueen was born in Beech Grove, Indiana but moved to Slater, when he was an infant and remained there for most of the next decade. Slater is located in central Missouri in Saline County and has approximately 2,100 residents.

Among those attending will be McQueen’s widow, Barbara McQueen, who will be signing copies of her book Steve McQueen: The Last Mile about her years with McQueen. Also attending will be McQueen’s friend from his early days in Greenwich Village and later, in Hollywood, Richard Martin. Martin has just produced a documentary on McQueen’s life titled An American Rebel. The film is based on the book Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel by noted biographer Marshall Terrill, who will be a key speaker during the festivities in Slater.

McQueen’s stuntman, Loren Janes, who worked with McQueen throughout his professional career from his television western series, Wanted: Dead or Alive to the last film he made, The Hunter will be presenting rare behind the scenes footage from Nevada Smith and The Sand Pebbles.



Highlights of the festival will include a Steve McQueen Lookalike Contest and a Classic Car and Motorcycle Show. McQueen was an accomplished and competitive semi-professional car and motorcycle racer who owned over 120 antique motorcycles. An auction of McQueen-related memorabilia to benefit the Boy’s Republic School in Chino, California will also be held during the weekend. McQueen attended the Boy’s Republic shortly after he left Slater and continued to visit and support the school throughout his life.

McQueen was a worldwide box-office champion in the ’60s and ’70s and starred in such blockbuster films as The Great Escape, Papillon and The Sand Pebbles, which garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. This year also marks the 40th Anniversary of Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair, which are among McQueen’s most acclaimed films. At the time of his death in November of 1980 from asbestos-induced cancer, McQueen was the most-popular and highest-paid actor in the world.

For additional information about the 2nd Annual Steve McQueen Days visit www.cityofslater.com.

San Francisco Sentinel on McQueen exhibit

By PJ Johnston
Sentinel Film Critic
Copyright © 2007 San Francisco Sentinel

I’m not one to use this space to regurgitate press releases. After all, I write press releases in my day job, among other things, and by the time I sit down to work on Moving Pictures, I’m sick of the sight of them. This column is about movies, and life, and how much juice I can squeeze out of the two.

On the other hand, it would be ungracious, vile and arrogant of me to blow off press releases altogether in my capacity as film critic for Your San Francisco Sentinel – all the while expecting editors and writers at other publications to take note of mine all week long. What comes around goes around, after all.

So when an announcement of some kind catches my fancy, I feel obliged to share it with you, dear reader. And just such a press release crossed my desk this week.

Seems Steve McQueen – that’s right, Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, San Francisco detective, all-time badass of all-time badasses – is returning to the city where he made his most famous movie … but it won’t be in a second-run movie theater or a San Francisco State film class.

Instead, McQueen will be brought back to life on the walls of one of San Francisco’s finest art galleries.

According to my source, intrepid biographer Marshall Terrill, Barbara McQueen’s photos of her superstar husband will make its world premiere on May 5 at the San Francisco Art Exchange, 458 Geary Street.

“The idea of having a photo exhibit has been a longtime dream of mine,” said Barbara McQueen. “And the perfect place to host such an exhibit is in the city where Steve filmed ‘Bullitt.’”

I’d love to report to you that the lovely Ms. McQueen actually told me this – but alas, I got it from Senor Terrill’s press release. I intend to actually speak to her, art-reception wine and hunks of cheese in hand, on Cinco de Mayo.

Terrill’s first book, “Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel,” was a big hit in 1993. This year he collaborated with Barbara McQueen on “Steve McQueen: The Last Mile,” a 250-page photo book that, I have a hunch, just might be available at the Art Exchange show.

Terrill, interestingly enough, is noted for his biographies on McQueen, Elvis Presley and Pistol Pete Maravich, the basketball great. Even more interestingly, Terrill worked for financier Charles Keating back in the 80s. By 1989 Keating’s company, Lincoln Savings & Loan, was the poster child of the savings and loan scandal that brought down the industry and cost you, dear taxpayer, billions in bailout dough. Keating, a rich, ultraconservative anti-porn crusader who put the “critter” in hippocrit, was sent sentenced to jail and Terrill suddenly found himself unemployed. At age 26, he moved back into his parents’ home in Virginia and began his second career, as a biographer. His first subject was McQueen.

Nice choice. Who didn’t love the King of Cool? Star of countless great, half-great and okay-not-so great movies, most notably “The Magnificent Seven” (1960), “The Great Escape” (1963), “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968), “Papillon” (1973) and, of course, “Bullitt,” the 1968 thriller that made the world fall in love with San Francisco, Ford Mustangs and Jacqueline Bisset. We San Franciscans still love to marvel at the way that green GT flew off the ground on Potrero Hill and landed in Russian Hill! Yeah, baby!

McQueen was the quintessential Hollywood bad boy and one damn fine actor. (He died of complications from liver cancer in 1980.) He lived larged, burned rubber as a motorcyclist and race car driver, and burned through a marriage with “The Getaway” (1972) co-star Ali MacGraw … and really, if you’re going to burn through a marriage, wouldn’t we all like it to be with Ali MacGraw, the Scarlett Johanson of her era?

(Incidentally, MacGraw wrote a 1991 autobiography, “Moving Pictures” – no relation to this column.)

McQueen later married the beautiful Barbara Minty, a model with a talent for photography, and spent his final years with her.

This exhibition is a personal collection of about 40 photographs taken by Minty nee McQueen, who has remained silent about her relationship with her husband for more than 25 years. Now she’s ready to talk about their life together and her photographs, which offer an extremely personal insight into the final years of Steve McQueen.

The photos offer candid shots from 1977 to 1980 – the actor’s years in a fading spotlight. It also chronicles her times with McQueen at Trancas Beach; Ketchum, Idaho; and Santa Paula; as well as behind-the-scenes shots from the sets of his final films, “Tom Horn” and the underappreciated “The Hunter,” (both 1980)

“It will be a fun gathering of family and friends and an eclectic mix of people,” said Terrill, who is organizing the exhibit. “I’m sure there will be people from all walks of life including bikers, artists, poets, actors, accountants, writers and McQueen fans. Everyone is welcome.”

Both Barbara McQueen and Terrill will give short presentations on the photos (some of which have never been seen before) and take questions afterward.

And if I gulp enough of that gallery wine, I’m gonna ask Terrill about Charles Keating’s jowls, and how Pistol Pete might’ve fared against Kobe. No matter how much wine I put down, however, I promise to leave Ali MacGraw out of it.

The cost to attend the Barbara McQueen photo exhibit at the San Francisco Art Exchange on May 5t is free, but an RSVP is required to guarantee admittance. Contact Theron Kabrich at (800) 344-9633 or e-mail at theron@sfae.com.

SFAE hosts Steve McQueen exhibit May 5

Steve McQueen is returning to the city where he made his most famous movie, but it won’t be at a theater or film retrospective.

Instead, McQueen will be brought back to life on the walls of a world famous art gallery in San Francisco, California.

Barbara McQueen’s photos of her superstar husband will make its world premiere on May 5 at the San Francisco Art Exchange, 458 E. Geary Street. The exhibit takes place from 7 to 10 p.m. The event is co-hosted by Bonhams and Butterfields, a San Francisco-based firm which hosted a McQueen memorabilia auction in November 2006.
“The idea of having a photo exhibit has been a long-time dream of mine,” said Barbara McQueen. “And the perfect place to host such an exhibit is in the city where Steve filmed Bullitt.”

This exhibition is a personal collection of approximately 40 photographs taken by Steve's widow and former model Barbara McQueen, who has remained silent about her relationship with husband Steve McQueen for more than 25 years. Now she is ready to talk about their life together and her photographs, which offer an extremely personal insight into the final years of Steve McQueen.

The photos offer candid shots from 1977 to 1980 – the actor’s years out of the spotlight. It also chronicles her years with McQueen at Trancas Beach, Ketchum, Idaho and Santa Paula as well as behind-the-scenes photos on the set of Tom Horn and The Hunter. “It will be a fun gathering of family and friends and an eclectic mix of people,” said author Marshall Terrill, who is organizing the exhibit. “I’m sure there will be people from all walks of life including bikers, artists, poets, actors, accountants, writers and McQueen fans. Everyone is welcome.”

Both Barbara McQueen and Marshall Terrill will give a short presentation on the photos (some that have never been seen before) and then take questions afterward.

The cost to attend the exhibit is free, but an RSVP is required to guarantee admittance. Contact Theron Kabrich at (800) 344-9633 or e-mail at theron@sfae.com.