I fell in love today…
At his home in Palm Springs, McQueen practices his aim before heading out for a shooting session in the desert.
Three Weeks in Steve McQueen’s World
In the spring of 1963, Steve McQueen was on the brink of superstardom, already popular from his big-screen breakout as one of The Magnificent Seven and just a couple months away from entering the Badass Hall of Fame with the release of The Great Escape. Intrigued by his dramatic backstory and his off-screen exploits — McQueen was a reformed delinquent who got his thrills racing cars and motorcycles — LIFE sent photographer John Dominis to California to hang out with the 33-year-old actor and see what he could get. Three weeks and more than 40 rolls of film later, Dominis had captured some astonishingly intimate and iconic images, photos impossible to imagine in today’s restricted-access celebrity world. Only a handful of those photos have ever been published… but now, in celebration of what would have been McQueen’s 80th birthday (March 24), LIFE.com presents these never-before-seen gems from that legendary assignment, along with insights from Dominis about the time he spent with the man who would become known as the King of Cool.
Steve McQueen - BE HOTTER!!!
Steve McQueen & his wife, Neile Adams
“With strangers, I can’t breathe…. But I dig my old lady,” he told LIFE.
At this point the McQueens had been married for seven years and had two young children, but the spark between them was still very much alive. “They were always necking!” says Dominis, who also remarked upon their childlike way with each other in notes he filed for LIFE’s editors back in ‘63: “They chase each other around,” he wrote, “as though it were going out of style.”
Text & Photos courtesy of LIFE.com
