Speeding Bullitt: The Life and Films of Steve McQueen

In 1965, John Norris scored a job as Steve McQueen's stand-in and photo double for The Sand Pebbles. The two developed a friendship, which led to Norris working with McQueen again for 1972's The Getaway. John joins me to share stories about filming the American war epic, and to talk about his friend, Steve McQueen.

Writer J.R. Jordan discusses his book, Robert Wise: The Motion Pictures, as well as the life and career of the director. The second half of the show features a conversation with Jerry Figgiani, one of McQueen's buddies from his days in Greenwich Village.

Writer and Steve McQueen expert Marshall Terrill and I explore Steve McQueen's time filming the The Sand Pebbles, an American war epic directed by Robert Wise. The second part of the show looks at the curious life of the woman who played Maily, Marayat Andriane.

Film historian and writer Alan L. Gansberg and I discuss Steve McQueen's Hollywood, exploring various aspects of the industry that impacted McQueen's life and career.

In 1965, Steve McQueen and John Sturges set out to make the first authentic grand prix racing film, Day of the Champion. The movie was shelved before being completed, leaving McQueen fans with plenty of questions about the project. Filmmaker Alex Rodger's new documentary Steve McQueen: The Lost Movie helps answer many of those questions, he joins me on Episode 31 to talk about his film.

Veering from Speeding Bullitt's chronological exploration of McQueen's life and films, Episode 30 puts the Bullitt Mustang in reverse, and takes a deeper look at 1958's Never Love a Stranger and Steve's time spent at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. John Blyth Barrymore discusses his father's turbulent life and acting career, followed by Pamela Kareman, Executive...

What if Steve McQueen starred in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, or Rambo: First Blood? Steve McQueen expert Marshall Terrill and I discuss the films Steve McQueen missed out on, movies he passed on, and projects that never got made.

Writer and host of the Six-Gun Justice podcast, Paul Bishop, provides insight into McQueen's 1966 Western, Nevada Smith, after which Peter Bernstein, son of Academy Award-winning composer and conductor Elmer Bernstein, joins me to talk about his father's life and music.

Writer and filmmaker Dana Schoel discusses his book, Young Steve McQueen: His Incredible Life Before Stardom, and the process of trying to get his work onto the screen.

Marshall Terrill discusses his new book, Steve McQueen In His Own Words, 40 years after McQueen's passing.

Tune in to this Halloween bonus episode of Speeding Bullitt with The Blob-centric conversations with Steve Vertlieb, cinema archivist, journalist, film historian, and film music educator; as well as Mr. Lobo, horror host of the nationally syndicated American television series Cinema Insomnia, as well as the host of Blobfest.

On this episode of Speeding Bullitt, Alan L. Gansberg, author of Little Caesar: A Biography of Edward G. Robinson, and someone who has dedicated almost his entire life to film and film education, working in both entertainment and academia, discusses the life, career, and legacy of the great Edward G. Robinson.

Writer and Steve McQueen expert Marshall Terrill explores Steve McQueen's experience filming the classic 1965 poker movie The Cincinnati Kid. Dr. Robert Joseph, PhD joins me during the second half of the show to discuss the history of filmmaking in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Steve McQueen expert Marshall Terrill shares stories from Steve's time filming Baby, the Rain Must Fall, including anecdotes about Steve McQueen expensing drugs to the studio, his connection to JFK, and "The King of Cool's" rivalry with "The King of Rock and Roll," Elvis Presley.

Matt Stone, author of McQueen's Machines and McQueen's Motorcycles: Racing and Riding with the King of Cool, joins me to discuss some of McQueen's most popular machines, as well as to tell me about his newest book, Bullitt: The Cars and People Behind Steve McQueen.

Go behind the scenes of HBO's documentary, Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind with director Laurent Bouzereau, a pioneer of "making-of" documentary film making and the director of Netflix's Five Came Back.

On this episode of Speeding Bullitt, Marshall Terrill and I look at McQueen's life immediately after The Great Escape, following the "King of Cool" to New York City as he films Love with the Proper Stranger with the Magnificent Natalie Wood. After that, Dr. Gretchen Sisson, PhD joins me to explore representations of abortion and reproductive decision-making in film and television.

Tyler Trafford joins me to share the emotional story behind his 2014 W.O. Mitchell Award, the Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Non-Fiction, and the Alberta Readers' Choice Award winning novel, Almost a Great Escape. It's an incredible story about his mother's love affair with Norwegian pilot Jens Müller, one of only three men to escape to freedom from German POW camp Stalag Luft III.

Film writer and critic Sheila O'Malley discusses her essay Not Caught, part of the Criterion Collection release of The Great Escape, after which film historian Steve Rubin explores how the film came together.

On this episode of the show, I am joined by writer and Steve McQueen expert Marshall Terrill to talk about McQueen's experience in England filming The War Lover, and by Matthew Burchette, Senior Curator at Seattle's Museum of Flight to explore the history of one of The War Lover's biggest stars, the Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress.

Bruce Lee: A Life author Matthew Polly joins me to discuss how his 2018 definitive biography of Bruce Lee came together, share stories about the martial arts legend, and to dismiss popular rumours about the Enter the Dragon star.

After watching Bao Nguyen's ESPN 30 for 30 documentary Be Water, I connect with the Steve McQueen expert Marshall Terrill to discuss McQueen's relationship with Bruce Lee.

In 1979, Alexander Hamilton High School student Rick Penn-Kraus had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Steve McQueen. It was the Hollywood icon's first interview in almost a decade, and the last formal interview he ever gave. This is Ricks's story about one of the most amazing moments of his life.

Episode 15B is my conversation with Steven Jay Rubin, an internationally recognized author, film historian, producer, screenwriter, and promoter. He has written nine books, including Combat Films: American Realism, 1945-2010.

Episode 15A is a conversation with Jeanine Basinger, founder of the department of film studies at Wesleyan University, a program that is considered to be one of the best of its kind in the world. She is the author of ten books on film including The World War II Combat Film: Anatomy of a Genre. Basinger is a trustee of the National Board of Review, a trustee emeritus of the American Film Institute,...