Steve McQueen is that rare Hollywood combination of a classic actor and a style icon in the tradition of James Dean. This is the first biography to cover in detail every film that McQueen made, and to put him into the context of the movie business, showing how he had problems trying to be a Method actor where an exact contemporary like Clint Eastwood thrived at it, and how Eastwood understood the studio system and made it work for him, while an insecure McQueen struggled with his sense of himself, both on and off screen.