New cover of Steve McQueen: The Last Mile...revisited. Published by Dalton Watson Fine Books, August 2012.

Barbara McQueen Examiner.com interview

Tom Horn was actor Steve McQueen's penultimate film, and it was perhaps the project closest to his heart. Based on the life of the famed Wild West detective/assassin, McQueen recorded extensive notes on a tape recorder over a nearly three-year period.

The actor even went so far as to camp out one night at the gunfighter's grave in Boulder, Colorado, claiming Horn's ghost visited with him. Fortunately, McQueen's efforts paid off (he was also executive producer), as many fans consider the role to be among his best, including his good friend and fellow actor, the late James Coburn.

With a good supporting cast, including a pre-Dynasty Linda Evans, and noted character actors Richard Farnsworth, Slim Pickens, and Geoffrey Lewis, the film was still not a box office hit when released in March 1980.

Why was this? Largely, because Tom Horn came at a time when the western was virtually dead. Nineteen seventy-six was the last year when a significant continual stream of westerns hit the big screen, including John Wayne's The Shootist and Clint Eastwood's The Outlaw Josey Wales.

McQueen also didn't have the opportunity to promote the film as much as he might have liked to, as his cancer diagnosis came a few months before the film's release. Fortunately for us, Barbara McQueen is alive and well, and she was on location with her husband throughout the filming.

As part of an ongoing interview series (go here for the previous installment), what follows below are Ms. McQueen's always-entertaining recollections of life on a western movie shoot. So sit back, because the fun starts right now...



The Barbara McQueen Interview

Tom Horn was your first film shoot with Steve. How do you remember that experience?

I’ve never sat down and watched Tom Horn. But I was there, and the film was just the best adventure and my absolute favorite experience. But god, it was cold.

Being part of a movie set was every little girl’s dream, at least for me, since I grew up on a dairy farm in Oregon. I’ll always be a cowgirl, and I tended to lose myself in that western setting.

When the film company was shooting on location in southern Arizona, we had the option of staying in an upscale hotel in Tucson, but we decided to take a motor home and live there on the set.

Steve parked it out in the middle of nowhere, close to the set, and early every morning he and his good friend Pat Johnson would jog. I loved that experience.

Staying Near The Mexican Border, With a Colt .45…

We changed location about three times, and on one such occasion we were less than one mile from the Mexican border. Remember, this was in 1979 before there were serious border issues between the two countries. Steve would go in the daytime to the set, which was a couple miles away, and he’d leave me all alone.

He thought I was a nutcase since I’d dress the part of a cowgirl, putting on little petticoats, cowboy boots, the whole works. I was really diggin’ it, as there wasn’t a soul around. I could get on my little horse and ride, or I could just walk around and be in my own world.

When the crew was shooting in another area, the entire western town was virtually empty except for a few wranglers and set builders. I often seized the moment and loved riding my horse on the sidewalks, since all the buildings were facades. Even in my mid-twenties, I imagined being on horseback in the late 1800s. Such a blast.

One day before heading out on location, Steve walked over to me and put a holster and Colt .45 on my belt. He said, “If you’re gonna stay here, this will be on you at all times. The border has a lot of traffic and nobody’s gonna hurt you, but just in case, I want you to be prepared.”

He taught me how to use the pistol really well. I had a field gun permit, but it didn’t matter down there. I saw several guys crossing the border and I’d just wave at them. My thinking was, Hey, you do what you do, and I do what I do; you stay there, and I stay away.



Would Steve often go over the script with you?

I remember sitting in the trailer at night and Steve would throw a script at me. He’d say, “Here, read the other part,” and when he read his part, I’d laugh at him. I’d answer, “Good god, you’re horrible.” Steve often retorted, “Shut up and just read it please!”

Now I understand Steve was memorizing the lines. He wasn’t putting any emotion into it. He was dyslexic, so he didn’t read very well, and he went over and over that script. We laughed and giggled, I teased him, and it was just a good, fun time for us.



So, how did your dad become a shotgun-carrying extra?

My father (Gene) and mother (Wilma) visited the set one day and Steve said to them, “Would you like to dress up and be extras? It won’t be a problem at all.” My dad said immediately, “Oh yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”

Mom wasn’t too crazy about that proposition, but my dad was a huge western freak. So Dad became a general extra for a few days. Not long after the casting director had to pick five or six extras to play the jailers who were behind Steve during the final hanging scene.

The only stipulation was the extras had to have the meanest, grumpiest face you could imagine. Well, darned if they didn’t pick my dad. He went up to Steve and thanked him, but Steve said, “Thank you for what?”

My dad explained that he would get to stay an extra two weeks and play a little part in the movie. Steve said, “Mr. Minty, I had nothing to do with it; that’s all your doing.”

As it turned out, the only reason they picked my dad was because he looked mean as hell. While my dad was a pussycat to me, because I was his little girl, he wasn't a man you wanted to cross.

My dad didn’t have any lines, but he got to walk with a shotgun behind Steve to the gallows. I don’t think Steve was too nervous. My dad probably just loved that, and that became a joke around the set. I’m glad my dad got to do it because he got a kick out of playing dress up.



Did you become friends with any of Steve’s co-stars, such as the beloved cowboy actors Richard Farnsworth or Slim Pickens?

I loved Richard Farnsworth, and I kept in touch with him after Tom Horn. I played polo for many years after Steve passed away, and Farnsworth was always around the field in L.A. He’d make a point or I would to go say hello to each other.

He was the most wonderful, gentle soul; Farnsworth was exactly the man you saw on the screen. If there was ever a real thing in the world, he was the real thing. The epitome of a man’s man, he was something else.

Slim Pickens and Dirty Jokes

Slim Pickens was funny, nice, and just an all-around good guy. He was exactly what you would have wanted him to be. I don’t know any of his earlier movies, but I remember him riding on that bomb in Peter Sellers’ comedy classic, Dr. Strangelove.

Between shots and setting up, the actors would all go to this one little house. They’d sit down, and Slim would go off on these tangents of filthy, dirty jokes. For two days I sneaked in there, as nobody knew I was hiding behind one of the walls.

On the third day, all of a sudden I heard, “Barbi, get out here!” I went, “Oh god, I’m busted,” and I quickly walked out. My dad was looking at me very sternly, shaking his head, and he said, “You know better than that.” Unfortunately, that was the last time I got to do that.



Thirty years later, how does Tom Horn stack up?

Tom Horn could have been a great film, but the studio wouldn’t give them enough money. It’s too bad the film didn’t go further, but once again, I don’t know the business.

Regardless, from what I heard about Steve during the shoot, he could be difficult. That was his baby, and he wanted it his way.


See Barbara McQueen and biographer Marshall Terrill at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011 at the Ingleside Inn in Palm Springs. The two will make a presentation, answer questions and sign copies of Terrill's new biography Steve McQueen: The Life and Legend of a Hollywood Icon and McQueen's 2006 photo book Steve McQueen: The Last Mile.

To RSVP for this special event and book signing, call 760-325-0046 or visit www.inglesideinn.com.

Book Soup hosts Dave Friedman

Friedman signs My Life in the Movies at Book Soup on Oct. 18

Dave Friedman, a still photographer behind some of the greatest images in cinema, will appear at a world famous book store on the Sunset Strip this week to promote his new book.

The signing will take place 2 p.m. Saturday, October 18 at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. Friedman will sign copies of his new photo book My Life in the Movies (Dalton Watson Fine Books, 2008) .

My Life in the Movies showcases the best of Friedman’s Hollywood-era camera work. It is also a trip back in time, with the photographer sharing his memories of what it was like to be in close quarters with some of Hollywood’s greatest, making films – and imagery – that will truly last forever.

After an apprenticeship as an assistant cameraman, Friedman went on to become one of the most in-demand still photographers in Hollywood from the late 1960s until the late 1980s. While shooting on location for dozens of Hollywood’s classic films of that era, he befriended stars such as Steve McQueen, Bruce Lee, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Travolta, Michael Caine, James Caan, Goldie Hawn, Cissy Spacek, Omar Shariff, Olivia Newton-John, Jack Nicholson, Richard Dreyfuss and Jaqueline Bissett. Some of his movie credits include Brian’s Song, Summer of ’42, Little Fauss and Big Halsey, Enter the Dragon, Carrie, Grease, Superman, Rambo II, The Falcon and the Snowman, Rocky IV and The Running Man.

Friedman was also the still photographer for Steve McQueen’s last two motion pictures – Tom Horn and The Hunter – in which a chapter is devoted to each film and Enter the Dragon, which was Bruce Lee’s last film before his untimely death.

This 301-page book, priced at $69, is a special limited run of 2,500 and includes a slipcase and is signed by Friedman. Hardback books are also available at $49.

The cost to attend the signing is free, but an RSVP is required to guarantee admittance. Contact Tyson Cornell at (310) 659-3684 or e-mail him at tyson@booksoup.com to RSVP.

Publisher Dalton Watson will also take orders from buyers around the world who want to purchase a special limited edition with an inscription from Friedman. For more information, go to www.daltonwatson.com

Steve McQueen featured on IconicPhotos.com

Rare art prints of Steve McQueen available on IconicPhotos.com

IconicPhotos.com, a new Web site, has signed photographers Barbara McQueen and Dave Friedman, to an exclusive deal that offers limited edition prints of Steve McQueen to the public.

These images offer a privileged insight into a previously unseen side of one of the 20th Century's most charismatic and admired stars, and a rare treat for collectors and fans.

“For the past two years, the only way someone could purchase my limited edition prints were if you attended one of my photo exhibitions,” said Barbara McQueen. “Now they’re available to everyone online by going to www.iconicphotos.com.”

Barbara McQueen had carved a very successful career for herself as a fashion model when she met actor Steve McQueen in 1977. At a time when she was stepping back from the modeling industry, McQueen was equally beginning to turn his back on the trappings of Hollywood stardom. They were to spend the next three years together, marrying in 1980 the year of Steve's death. During that time, she captured wonderful and unique images that the very private McQueen allowed to no one else.

Barbara's photographs, approximately 400 in all, record a behind the scenes life of personal pleasures and enthusiasms — hitting the road in Steve's pickup truck, visiting collectors' shows and swap-meets, driving 700 miles for a rare World War I motorcycle, flying a vintage mail plane, and generally ducking out of Hollywood. About 150 of those photos were featured in her 2006 book, Steve McQueen: The Last Mile. (Dalton Watson Fine Books)

Dave Friedman is a world renowned photographer and motion picture Still Photographer known for his pictures of celebrities and cinema, racing and ballet. His collection also included photos of Bruce Lee, John Travolta, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson.

As the still photographer on Tom Horn and The Hunter, Friedman collection includes approximately 40 photos of the iconic superstar at work and play on the set of his last two pictures.
Friedman, who resides in southern California and is working on a photo book regarding his Hollywood years, called My Life In The Movies. (Dalton Watson Fine Books). The book is expected to have a May 2008 release date.

For more information, logon to www.IconicPhotos.com.

Barbara McQueen Nashville photo exhibit

Barbara McQueen at Nashville’s Striped Door Gallery with “Steve McQueen: The Last Mile” Exhibit

Nashville, Tn. --- October 26, 2007 ---- The Striped Door and Take 121 Arts Galleries are proud to announce that on November 10th they will be hosting “Steve McQueen: The Last Mile” an exhibition of rare and private limited edition photographs taken by Steve McQueen’s widow, Barbara McQueen. The exhibition coincides with the publication of the book of the same name, written by Barbara and acclaimed McQueen biographer Marshall Terrill.

The Striped Door Gallery and Take 121 Arts will be offering a signed copy of the book with each exclusive limited edition photograph sold during this extraordinary event being held at The Striped Door Gallery at 530 3rd Ave. South in Nashville on Saturday, Nov. 10 from 6 to 10 p.m.

Barbara's photographs record a behind-the-scenes life of personal pleasures and enthusiasms. They include hitting the road in Steve's pickup trucks, visiting collectors' shows and swap-meets, driving 700 miles to view a rare World War I motorcycle, flying a vintage mail plane, and generally ducking out of Hollywood life. But when work did call, Barbara was also on hand to capture marvelous candid shots on the sets of McQueen's two last films, “Tom Horn” and “The Hunter.”

The life and career of Steve McQueen is a classic example of the American dream made real: of a small town boy from a broken home triumphing over adversity to become one of the richest and most sought-after superstars in the world. McQueen lived every day as if it were his last, and by doing so he lived an extraordinary life, both on screen and off.

Barbara McQueen’s “Steve McQueen: The Last Mile” exhibit tells the story of a simple love affair with life. Barbara, who had carved a very successful career for herself as a fashion model, met Steve McQueen in 1977. Together for less than four years, these rare and private photographs share Steve’s rugged, blue-eyed features in relaxed and uninhibited settings, doing the things he loved. Barbara’s photographs (all of which are for sale) show a tough guy at peace but who retained an inner strength. In one particularly striking shot his hair is wild, his beard thick, and unkempt, and he is looking over his shoulder with a troubled vulnerability. Barbara catches him unaware perhaps in a deeply pensive mood.

This rare treat on November 10th for collectors and fans will be an event to remember and includes additional never produced before, private photographs reproduced by Nancy Lee Andrews just for this Nashville exhibit. The Striped Door Gallery’s Director Peggy Cooper says, “Steve McQueen’s memorabilia has always been desirable: a pair of sunglasses he wore in ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ went for over $70,000 at a recent auction in Los Angeles and one of his motorcycles, a 1937 Crocker, sold for a world record price of $276,500 at the same event. These photographs at The Striped Door Gallery will provide you an opportunity to buy and own your own collectible item from this legend.”

Barbara McQueen will be at the opening event on November 10th and available for signing your books. The exhibit will be at The Striped Door Gallery through December. For information or questions, please contact the gallery at (615) 244-4228 or go to www.stripeddoorgallery.com.