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 passed 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 remembered 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 join 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 signing 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.
18. Never So Few
Steve McQueen got the role in John Sturges' 1959 war film, Never So Few, when Frank Sinatra removed Sammy Davis Jr. from the movie because of some negative comments Davis supposedly made about Sinatra during a radio interview; McQueen replaced Sammy Davis Jr. in the role of Corporal Bill Ringa. At the time, McQueen was mainly known for his role in the television Western, Wanted Dead or Alive, as well as his leading role in The Blob. Never So Few would be McQueen's first collaboration with director John Sturges, who would go on to cast Steve McQueen in the classic Western, The Magnificent Seven, the next year, and in The Great Escape in 1963.
17. Nevada Smith
Steve McQueen's second role in a Western was Nevada Smith, directed by Henry Hathaway. The film is a revenge tale about Max Sand (a.k.a. Nevada Smith), who sets out to avenge the deaths of his white father and native Kiowa mother. The story is structured around Sand tracking down each of the three murderers separately. He kills the first two, but lets the last live after non-fatally shooting him multiple times; he decides he's not worth killing. Although McQueen's performance is solid, his casting is somewhat puzzling as he appears to be playing a character much younger than himself (and also half Native American).
16. An Enemy Of The People
An Enemy Of The People is certainly one of Steve McQueen's most surprising performances. After two decades of Westerns, war movies, and action flicks, here, McQueen takes on Arthur Miller's adaptation of a Henrik Ibsen play. He plays the scientist, Thomas Stockmann, who writes an article exposing the contamination of the small Norwegian town's springs in the local newspaper. This causes the townspeople to turn on Stockmann's family. It seems that McQueen wanted to do something different from his usual roles. However, what is most memorable about the film are the details surrounding its marketing and release. Not knowing how to promote the film, due to McQueen's unrecognizable appearance, Warner Brothers decided to use a poster showing McQueen as Stockmann surrounded by artwork of his previous roles. The film only had a very limited release and was a commercial failure.
15. Soldier In The Rain
Soldier In The Rain, directed by Ralph Nelson, found itself in the unlucky position of being released five days after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, meaning that American audiences weren't really in the mood to go to the movies. The movie is a buddy comedy that sees Steve McQueen acting alongside comedy legend, Jackie Gleason. McQueen plays the young country bumpkin Sergeant Eustis Clay, and Gleason plays Master Sergeant Maxwell Slaughter. Soldier In The Rain is a light comedy that follows the various hijinks McQueen and Gleason's characters find themselves embroiled in as Clay awaits the end of his peacetime service.
14. The Blob
The Blob was Steve McQueen first leading role in a feature film, and while the B-movie was a financial success, a New York Times review was not favorable to McQueen and his co-star, stating, "The acting is pretty terrible itself, there is not a single becomingly familiar face in the cast, headed by young Steven McQueen and Aneta Corseaut." The by-the-numbers horror script doesn't leave much room for McQueen to show off his acting chops, making for a fairly underwhelming performance. However, The Blob (whose original title was The Glob) has become something of a sci-fi horror classic and was even remade in 1988.
13. The Cincinnati Kid
The Cincinnati Kid sees Steve McQueen playing Eric "The Kid" Stoner, a young poker player seeking to establish himself as the best during the 1930s Depression. Upon its release, The Cincinnati Kid was negatively compared to Robert Rossen's 1961 crime drama, The Hustler, due to the plot similarities. Film critic Howard Thompson wrote (via The New York Times), "The film pales beside The Hustler, to which it bears a striking similarity of theme and characterization." However, later reviewers praised the film's stylized and dreamlike aesthetic.
12. The Reivers
The 1969 adaptation of William Faulkner's novel, The Reivers, stars Steve McQueen as Boon Hogganbeck. This adaptation of Faulkner's very unique picaresque story follows the adventures of Hogganbeck and a new 1905 Winton Flyer, which he steals ("reives") from the McCaslin family. The film is hard to categorize, starting out as a light comedy, but exploring difficult topics such as racism and prostitution. While the film's atmosphere it pleasant and it's nice to see McQueen in a comedic role again, the movie is a bit of a mess.
11. Love With The Proper Stranger
In 1963, Steve McQueen was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance in Love With The Proper Stranger, in which he stars as Rocky Papasano. After a one-night stand with Papasano, Natalie Wood's character, Angie Rossini, finds herself pregnant; she decides to track Rocky down, but he doesn't remember her. Nevertheless, the two gather enough money to pay for a backroom abortion. Rocky refuses to let her go through with it when he realizes the man who will be performing the abortion isn't an actual doctor. The two end up falling in love and the film concludes with McQueen romantically playing the banjo outside Wood's apartment.
10. The Thomas Crown Affair
Steve McQueen stars opposite Puzzle of a Downfall Child's Faye Dunaway in 1968's The Thomas Crown Affair. McQueen plays the titular Thomas Crown, a millionaire who pulls off the perfect crime, orchestrating a $2 million dollar bank heist. Dunaway plays Vicki Anderson, an insurance investigator who is contracted to look into the heist. A cat and mouse chase occurs between Crown and Anderson; it turns out. McQueen does a perfect job portraying the charismatic Thomas Crown who, it is revealed, doesn't even need the money from the heist, he simply did it as a game. Anderson soon starts to fall for Crown and in the end must choose whether or not she wishes to join him after his next heist. The film features two strong lead performances and stylish production, but the plot can, at times, appear rather minimal.
9. The Sand Pebbles
In 1966, Steve McQueen starred in yet another war movie: The Sand Pebbles, directed by Robert Wise (their second collaboration). McQueen was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for his performance as Machinist's Mate 1st Class Jake Holman. Holman transfers to the Yangtze River Patrol gunboat, the USS San Pablo, nicknamed "the sand pebble." This war drama follows the tensions that arise aboard the sand pebble between Holman and the others and conflicts with the Chinese. This three-hour epic features what is undoubtedly one of McQueen's greatest performances.
8. Le Mans
Steve McQueen plays the role of racing driver Michael Delaney in Le Mans. The film deals with Delaney's struggles to overcome the trauma caused by the recent death of his rival, Piero Belgetti, and the romance that emerges between him and Belgetti's widow. Using actual footage from the 1970 24-hour Le Mans race, the film is clearly dedicated to a realistic portrayal of car racing. In fact, Le Mans is a very minimalistic picture in most respects; little dialogue, straightforward plot progression, simply character arcs. The movie is focused almost entirely on the races, in gruesome mechanical detail. McQueen's performance is simple, yet effective.
7. Papillon
Papillon sees Steve McQueen playing the role of the French safecracker, Henri Charrière (a.k.a. "Papillon") opposite Dustin Hoffman's Louis Dega. The two are sent to a penal colony in French Guiana where Charrière offers to protect Dega in exchange for Dega funding Charrière's escape attempt. On the island, the two become friends and eventually escape together. While Papillon certainly isn't Steve McQueen's best prison escape feature (see the top pick on this list), it's god to see two great actors like Hoffman and McQueen act alongside one another, and McQueen was even nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his performance in the movie.
6. The Towering Inferno
The 1974 classic disaster movie, The Towering Inferno, finds Steve McQueen co-starring alongside Paul Newman. McQueen plays the no-nonsense fire department chief who must rescue the inhabitants of the blazing Glass Tower. McQueen was paid $12 million to star in the film, making him the highest-paid actor in the world at that point in time. McQueen's performance is not as impressive as some of his other roles on this list, but the film itself sustains the tension throughout its 165 min runtime with excellent set-pieces and sympathetic characters.
5. Junior Bonner
Sam Peckinpah's 1972 rodeo drama sees McQueen playing J.R. Bonner, a veteran rodeo rider of Prescott, Arizona, who returns home after years of absence. Uncharacteristically for Peckinpah, who is known for his more brutal and nihilistic works, the film takes the form of a melancholy ride through the past as Bonner deals with his father's infidelities and his mother's discontent. Here, McQueen displays the quiet, solemn pain of cowboy past his prime, and while the movie was not a hit by any means, it is certainly one of Steve McQueen's most subtle performances.
4. The Getaway
Steve McQueen's second collaboration with Sam Peckinpah is certainly more violent and disturbing than the first. The Getaway sees Peckinpah returning to familiar material and themes. This adaptation of Jim Thompson's existential crime novel tells the story of Carter "Doc" McCoy who is released from prison thanks to the help of corrupt businessman, Jack Beynon, who now wants Doc to take part in a bank robbery. The heist goes awry when Rudy, one of Beynon's henchmen, attempts a double-cross. Doc ends up escaping with his wife, Carol (Ali MacGraw), and the money. What ensues is essentially a road movie where Doc and Carol must overcome the underlying tensions of their marriage. The film differs from the source material, offering the couple a happy ending. While initial critical reception to the movie was negative, modern reappraisals have been more appreciative.
3. Bullitt
The noir detective is certainly a role tailor-made for McQueen. The King of Cool stars as the titular detective Lieutenant Frank Bullitt who is tasked with guarding the Chicago mobster, Johnny Ross, so that he may be used as a witness for a senate hearing on organized crime. While the film takes the shape of a moody slow-burn, Bullitt's gruelingly realistic car chase is certainly the highlight of the movie (it was listed as one of the major influences on Edgar Wright's Baby Driver). Bullitt was a box office hit and received critical acclaim for its attention to detail and realism, notably in its use of actual locations. Steve McQueen himself stated that "the thing we tried to achieve was not to do a theatrical film, but a film about reality."
2. The Magnificent Seven
Steve McQueen's performance as Vin Tanner in The Magnificent Seven catapulted the actor's career. The film is a western-style remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 classic, Seven Samurai, and sees seven gunfighters banding together in order to protect a small Mexican village from marauding bandits led by the sinister Calvera. The Magnificent Seven was a commercial and critical success, McQueen's first major feature film role, and it led to him leaving Wanted: Dead or Alive, the television series that had already made him something of a household name.
1. The Great Escape
The Great Escape is undoubtedly Steve McQueen's most iconic role. Released in 1963, The Great Escape tells the story of a historic mass escape from a German prisoner of war camp during World War II. Having received top billing of the cast, the '60s classic established McQueen as a box office superstar. In the film, McQueen plays the role of Captain Virgil Hilts, nicknamed "The Cooler King" for the amount of time he spends in the "cooler" (solitary confinement). Hilts' habit of bouncing a baseball on the wall while in isolation, and the film's climactic motorbike stunt (performed by McQueen's friend Bud Ekins) are what give this McQueen role its iconic status. The Great Escape also garnered Steve McQueen a Silver Prize Award for Best Actor at the Moscow International Film Festival.