Member-only story
Steve McQueen: The King of Cool is My Favorite Celebrity Veteran
Happy Veterans Day
I normally don’t write on Veterans Day, instead celebrating my Army time by doing a lot of nothing on a day when I actually have such an excuse. But this year I decided to direct people’s attention to the coolest veteran who ever served (and the coolest man to ever walk the planet). You might think Springsteen at first, given my love for him and all the hoopla over the woefully misinterpreted “Born in the USA,” but the Boss is neither a veteran nor can he lay claim to being the “King of Cool.” That honor belongs solely to Steve McQueen.
Best known for films like Bullitt, Papillon, The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, and The Sand Pebbles, most today are unaware that Steve McQueen’s acting career was made possible through his use of the G.I. Bill to study acting at Sanford Meisner’s Neighborhood Playhouse and HB Studio. Those G.I. Bill funds were available because from 1947 to 1950 McQueen served as a U.S. Marine.
His period of active duty would be considered “colorful” today, though at the time it was not unusual. After Basic Training at Parris Island he was assigned to an armored unit; he was promoted six times and then demoted back to private seven times for various and sundry infractions, most of them due to a youthful lack of discipline. The most…
