Steve McQueen

Burdened by the imprecise diction of a modified New York City accent, Marc Eliot's narration of his own work does not strengthen this audiobook's impact and appeal. Further, his detailed, if not particularly original, examination of the life and career of movie legend Steve McQueen does not lock in on any specific focus to place a complex life in an insightful context. The absence of variation in emotional tone becomes monotonous. Nonetheless, fans will likely appreciate the evolution of a tough kid who later used vulnerability, talent, and drive to become both famous and infamous. W.A.G. (c) AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

June 27, 2011
Following his biographies of Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Walt Disney, Phil Ochs, and others, Eliot now traces the "tragically short" career of McQueen, ranking him as "one of those actors, who, along with Eastwood and Newman, became a seminal force in the wake of the postwar Brando cinematic tsunami." This uneven biography devotes only a few pages to McQueen's turbulent, troubled youth (including 14 months in reform school), quickly moving on to Broadway, where he appeared in A Hatful of Rain. In 1958, after the top-10 success of his Wanted: Dead or Alive series on CBS, McQueen became "Hollywood's number one hotshot." During the 1960s, he ascended as a superstar in such films as The Great Escape, The Cincinnati Kid, The Sand Pebbles (which brought him an Oscar nomination), and Bullitt, moving into the 1970s with The Getaway and Papillon. By 1974, he was the world's highest paid actor, indulging in "drugs, fast cars, faster women" and confrontational, "idiosyncratic behavior'' on film sets. Eliot manages to capture the powerful drive and rough-hewn qualities of the adventurous actor, but many pages rehash the same anecdotes found in a dozen previously published McQueen biographies.