It was his years at the garage that formulated his life-long passion for motorcycles. McQueen was the mechanic who worked on the bike. Coincidentally, the two had met previously when Landau, on the back of James Dean’s motorcycle, pulled into a garage for repairs. Only two were accepted – Steve was one and Martin Landau the other. In 1955, after getting out of the Corps, he used his G I Bill to join over 2,000 aspiring actors auditioning for Lee Strasberg’s exclusive Actor’s Studio. From there he went into the US Marine Corps. He said it was the best thing that ever happened to him that it straightened him out.
Shoplifting and stealing hubcaps would land him in Chino Reformatory in California for five years between 19.
At 16 he was a towel boy in a brothel and encouraged to sample the wares on offer. He lost his virginity at 13 to an obese teenaged hooker who accepted candy for sex. Steve McQueen’s mother was a prostitute, his father a circus stuntman and neither cared a fig about their boy.
