TOM HORN & THE HUNTER (OUR FINAL FILMS)!

(Today's my Birthday ;-) And here's our final "Steve McQueen Film Festival" selection as it winds down this Sunday:

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Producer/Director Lawrence Kasdan ("The Big Chill") describes our final selection for tonight TOM HORN this way: "That was a very sad, odd movie where this is the end. The mature Western figure at the end of his journey". In fact, there is a sense of coming full-circle with "Wanted Dead or Alive" through "The Magnificent Seven" and "Junior Bonner" to this film. Steve made one more movie after this one, a drama/comedy called "THE HUNTER". Steve had been diagnosed with advanced Mesothelioma, a virulent form of Cancer associated with Asbestos exposure. In the Marines, he once had to work in the bowels of a ship removing Asbestos without proper breathing equipment. He also worked in a tire factory. It is absolutely amazing to me that he made both of these films when he was so ill. Nevertheless, his performances in each were terrific! Co-Star Linda Evans while a Guest on "Larry King Live!" last year, called this "an excellent Western that strangely enough, wasn't seen by too many people". At the time I remember thinking, 'Linda would know, having appeared in the Western TV Series "The Big Valley" so long ago. The Plot: McQueen starred in and executive-produced this gritty recreation of real-life Legend Tom Horn, a well-known former government army scout hired by ranchers to hunt down rustlers but later finds himself on trial for the murder of a boy that he never committed--a set-up for carrying out his job too well. Tom Horn finds that the simple skills he knows are of no help in dealing with the ambitions and manipulations of ranchers and corrupt officials at the turn-of-the-century Old West. Cast: Linda Evans, Richard Farnsworth, Billy Green Bush and Slim Pickens (also memorable in the final scene of "The Getaway"). Directed by William Wiard.

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Steve's final film is "THE HUNTER".

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This is a story about a modern day Bounty Hunter who drives a Yellow 1952 Chevy convertible around Chicago picking up people who skip their bail bond hearings. Co-star and long-time friend Eli Wallach recalls: "He was just so happy to see me, I couldn't believe it! We hadn't seen each other in fifteen years and here I was a stage actor and Steve, the big star of Hollywood and by now at the top of his craft. But we knew he wasn't feeling well throughout the film. But we had no idea! One day, I'll never forget this--we were filming in a tall building and Steve looked out the window and watched a young guy in jeans and a T-shirt climb into a truck and drive off. And he said to me, 'You know what? That's what I want to do. Just fire everyone who works for me and just get in a truck and drive away' ".

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In 1974, Steve's paycheck for "The Towering Inferno" was 10 percent of the gross, which friend and Actor Robert Vaughn today says is an extremely difficult deal to make in Hollywood. Steve netted $14 Million (which today would exceed $32 million) for the film. In a controversial move, Steve stopped acting for 4 years, and following a divorce from Ali MacGraw, later married model Barbara Minty. According to Barbara their first date was a very casual dinner and then a long ride on Steve's motorcycle until 4 A.M. Barbara recalls: "It was instant attraction". Interestingly, Barbara was not familiar with Steve's celebrity status as a Hollywood Legend when they met. After they began living together, she recalls often having to leave the room (to laugh) as Steve went over his lines from scripts finding it hard to believe he "was paid millions of dollars to do that!" Steve had one contractual obligation left in 1978 with First Artists to make a film. While at a swimming pool one day he picked up a paperback of Henrik Ibsen's classic "An Enemy of the People" and said "I'm going to do this" . In that film, he plays the role of the doctor who discovers that the town's water supply has been poisoned.

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During their wedding ceremony, according to wife Barbara, Steve appeared ill and she assumed it was just the Flu. Some time later, he stopped by Neille Adams' home, and she was shocked to look out her front window to see Steve using a cane to walk up the driveway. Doctors felt he needed to leave the desert environment, so he and Barbara purchased a neat little house in Santa Paula, California. While waiting for the house to be remodeled, the couple lived in Steve's airplane hanger where he had neatly assembled his collection of toys from childhood, antique motorcycles, and racing cars. Both Steve and Barbara became general aviation pilots and later bred horses. It was a happy time, but McQueen sensed instinctively that something was going wrong with his health. One day Barbara found him alone miles away from the house. He had taken a long ride on his motorcycle. She encouraged him to see a doctor. Biopsies revealed advanced Mesothelioma and Steve was told he had a short time left to live. After Steve received his diagnosis, he asked Barbara "Well, do you want to spend it out here or should we try and get well?" Her immediate answer was "Try and get well". During the latter part of 1980 Steve recorded an audio message to all of his fans from his hospital bed in an Alternative Cancer Clinic located in Juarez, Mexico thanking them for their years of loyalty and assuring them that he would get better. It was aired on television's "The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite". After enduring a regimen of alternative medical treatments, Steve elected a radical surgery to remove the tumors. Neille Adams visited Steve with their two children Terry and Chad in Mexico, and later consulted her own doctor back in the United States who said "He'll not survive that surgery". Following surgery on November 7, 1980 Steve McQueen died of a massive heart attack that night. He was just 50. Today, 27 years later--his legacy endures.

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Steve took notice of Actor Levar Burton and liked his work. Steve felt that Levar needed to be featured in more films and so he hired him for a role in "The Hunter".

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A few BLOGS ago, I listed a website to type in and click onto where long-time stuntman Loren Janes described Steve's generous heart during the filming of this movie, from visiting the dying Mother of a young girl who served as a film extra and taking her in, to providing footballs to the city's many needy children. If you missed it, simply go to http://www.mcqueenonline.com/lorenjanesremembers.htm. Click On "DOWNLOAD". (One of these days, I'll learn how to "button" this for you). So much for my crude skills. Thanks so much to all Bloggers and Lurkers alike who have shown so much patience throughout this feature since February. I sincerely hope what follows through this Sunday is something you will really come to enjoy and I submit it with great Respect to Steve McQueen.

---Michael