1963. "Three Weeks In Steve McQueen's World".

Left to right, top to bottom: Steve hunting, camping with the boys in the Sierra Madre Mountains, at his Palm Springs home and at home in Hollywood.

LIFE photographer John Dominis hung out with 33-year-old Steve McQueen in California and captured these shots - 4 from more than 40 rolls of never-released film. You can see more pictures here. A few months later, "The Great Escape" would be released, cementing McQueen as the "King of Cool".

Here are a few of my previous blog posts on Steve - McQueen and "The Sand Pebbles" and McQueen's upcoming biopic. Thanks, Tony, for the heads up!

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Separated at birth? Who'll play Steve McQueen in his biopic?

Steve McQueen is a favorite of mine. I've blogged about him here. I'm in the middle of McQueen: The Biography by Christopher Sandford. Sandford's written a number of bios - I'm about half-way through it. Very interesting. McQueen could be a prick, but....my only dig on the book is that Sandford's a bit of a blow hard. His flowery exposition and narration takes you away from McQueen's story.

From either Variety or The Hollywood Reporter: "The race is on to bring a Steve McQueen biopic to the bigscreen. Weeks after producers Michael Cerenzie and Christine Peters revealed that they are developing a film on the life of the iconic actor, producer David Foster ("The Mask of Zorro") unveiled plans that he is spearheading a project based on a memoir penned by McQueen's first wife, Neile McQueen Toffel.

Foster started in Hollywood as McQueen's publicist before segueing to a successful producing career bringing such films as McQueen's "The Getaway" to the bigscreen. He is teaming on the biopic, which will be titled "McQueen," with producer Kevin Kasha, who acquired Toffel's memoir "My Husband, My Friend" when he was an acquisitions executive at New Line. Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom, the majority owner of the St. Louis Rams, is also producing. Toffel is exec producing.

So I'm thinking, "who's gonna play Steve?". Naturally, I'm not a big enough draw at the box office, so I thought about some high-profile actors who might bring McQueen's style and nuances to the big screen. For some reason, I couldn't get dark-haired actors out of mind. Than I thought about Damien Lewis (who's a red head) and I saw something about him and McQueen on a fan website.

Clive Owen. John Hamm. Dylan McDermott. Damien Lewis. My picks. Gotta think personality - not JUST looks.

Continuing the biopic article: "The producers have tapped the father and son writing team of Roderick and Bruce Taylor ("The Brave One") to adapt. The Taylors will have complete access to the McQueen estate, which Toffel controls with son, Chad McQueen, and granddaughter, Molly Flattery. Story will chronicle the relationship between McQueen and Toffel, which began in 1956 when Toffel was a Broadway star and under contract at MGM. The couple were married for more than 15 years and had two children and four grandchildren together."

If you go to Amazon (and do it through the Amazon link at the top of this blog page), you can purchase The Steve McQueen Collection/Two Editions. The first one includes: The Great Escape, Junior Bonner, The Magnificent Seven and The Thomas Crown Affair. The 2nd one includes: Bullitt Two-Disc Special Edition, The Getaway Deluxe Edition, The Cincinnati Kid, Papillon, Tom Horn and Never So Few.

Where's The Sand Pebbles? It's McQueen's greatest movie and the only one he was nominated for an Oscar. Must be a legal tie-up with 20th Century Fox who owns a piece of it. Never seen it? Then you're not a true Steve McQueen fan. Watch the trailer in the post below.

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Elvis Mugshot for $10,350???

I'm a huge Elvis fan. HUGE. Elvis was never arrested - this was done as a joke. Some say it was for the ID that went along with his honorary drug enforcement badge he received from President Nixon, but that was a different picture.

Anyway, there's a retail specialty magazine called, Vivre - from which I received my most treasured gift one Christmas (or was it my birthday?). Excellent gifts. So I get the magazine and they're selling celebrity mugshots - Elvis, Jim Morrison, Steve McQueen and Sid Vicious - silkscreen on canvas measuring 37" x 29" - starting at $10,350 (see left, the Sid one is $28,000). What the 'ef?

Google "Warholizer". You can take your own photo - like the Elvis mugshot - and do something similar - as I've done above (you can even make high quality, larger prints) for pennies compared to the prices Vivre is offering (see above). Granted, these may be a limited edition - I notice the Elvis one says "edition of 10", whatever that means.

Thank you...thank you very much. Now sit down, baby.

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Steve McQueen = The Essence of Cool

Steve McQueen. In the Webster's Dictionary, it says, "the essence of cool", next to Steve's name. 'Course, everyone knows that. If you ever wanna test someone who says they're a Steve McQueen fan, ask them what's Steve's best movie. You'll hear The Great Escape, Papillon, The Getaway, etcetera. Uh-uh. A true McQueen fan will tell you The Sand Pebbles, directed by Robert Wise, who did West Side Story and The Sound of Music, is McQueen's greatest movie. Kick-ass...I mean a KICK-ASS score by the late, great Jerry Goldsmith. The movie - well, just go to Imdb you can read all about it (see picture above). There are multiple storylines that gel well together, and a supporting cast that includes Richard Crenna, Mako and Candice Bergen. It's an epic. Go rent it - rent it right now. Steve got his only Oscar nomination doing this flick. I love the movie so much that I adapted the screenplay to the stage a couple years ago - mostly 'cause I wanted my actor-friends to read it and be as turned on as I was. And the critics back in 1966 even made mention that many of the scenes in the movie play like a stage play (I read this after I adapted it). Steve, in my book, has always been the King of underplaying a role - you know, less-is-more, master-of-the-non-verbal (Paul Newman ain't bad either). This flick is no different.

The Sand Pebbles. This is McQueen at his best.

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