McQueen never lost a step in style nor swagger as he aged—and he always looked good. Getty
STEVE MCQUEEN DIED IN 1980, but the famous Hollywood actor—known as the King of Cool—hasn’t lost a bit of fame, especially among gearheads.
One of those gearheads placed an anonymous bid of $70,200 for a pair of 1960s-era Persol Ratti 714 folding sunglasses McQueen wore in the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair. A 1967 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow from the movie fetched the same price.
Over two hundred items belonging to the Hollywood legend were sold by his widow, Barbara, at a 2006 Bonhams & Butterfields auction held at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
McQueen, an expert motorcycle and race car driver, died in 1980 of a heart attack after surgery to treat a rare form of lung cancer. In both film and on television, he portrayed the ultimate outsider, yet everything McQueen touched became “cool.”
One of his motorcycles, a 1937 Crocker Hemi-head V-Twin, brought in a world record price of $276,500 at the auction. His 1934 Indian Sport Scout went for $177,500.
Much of the actor’s collection had been sold before, but many of the remaining items showed up in the auction. McQueen’s motorcycle clothing was included, like his Belstaff jacket, which sold for $32,760, and padded motorcycle sweatshirts. A Wells Fargo MasterCard, stamped Steven T. McQueen, with the back signature section unsigned, went for $9,945.
One of McQueen’s favorite vehicles, a 1958 GMC 101 Series turquoise half-ton pickup truck, sold for $128,000. McQueen had hot-rodded its 336-cubic-inch V-8 engine. He regularly used this truck in and around Beverly Hills, the star-studded city near Hollywood that is more used to Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, and Ferraris on the street.
Then there were nostalgia items like a classic Wurlitzer Model 1015 Jukebox, still containing records of the music McQueen grew up with, such as Bing Crosby, Glenn Miller, and Perry Como, which sold for $26,910. An 8 1/2-inch Buck-style folding knife, engraved with an eagle’s head and “To Steve from Dutch,” Von Dutch being the celebrated motorcycle and automobile pin-striper, fetched $38,025.
Bidders included private collectors from France, England, and the United States, and the Petersen Museum itself bought several items. The entire auction brought in $2.9 million.
Of all the memorabilia sold, few items raised more eyebrows, got more press coverage, or appreciated more than McQueen’s folding Persol 714 sunglasses. They had custom tinted blue lenses made for him by the late optician to the stars, Dennis Roberts. A favorite of the actor’s, he wore the legendary shades both off screen and on. But as with all things McQueen, the value had less to do with the sunglasses than with the provenance.
The handmade Italian sunglasses were reportedly worn by McQueen’s business tycoon-turned-bank robber character in The Thomas Crown Affair. McQueen also wore Persol sunglasses in 1968’s Bullitt and 1972’s The Getaway, but not always 714s. McQueen was also filmed wearing Persol’s 649 model.
Founded in 1917 by Giuseppi Ratti, Persol is among the oldest brands of sunglasses in the world. Originally a designer of sunglasses for pilots and race drivers, Persol is currently famous for its sports sunglasses. The model 714 pair McQueen owned was the folding version of the model 649 sunglasses Persol brought out in 1957. Pre-dating McQueen by seven years, they entered into legend when Marcello Mastroianni wore Persol 649 sunglasses in the 1961 film, Divorce Italian Style.
However, demand was so enduring for the 714 folding model, which bowed in 1962, that Persol reintroduced a limited edition run of them in 2007. Some sales outlets in the United States even advertised them as “Steve McQueen’s Classic Sunglasses.”
McQueen’s life was filled with ironies. He played leading men in the movies, but his first starring movie role was in 1958’s sci-fi horror flick, The Blob. He was most in his element when dressed down in jeans and cotton T-shirts, yet GQ named him one of the 50 Most Stylish Men.
The King of Cool excelled at taking classic American sportswear and giving it a rugged edge. Hallmarks of McQueen’s style included sport coats, zip-up windbreakers, Baracuta jackets, khakis, wrinkled button-down shirts, Desert boots, V-neck sweaters, and shawl-collared cardigans. As a racing enthusiast, the style icon was a fan of racing jackets, aviators, leather jackets, gloves, boots, and denim. McQueen was the first man to grace the cover of fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar.
McQueen never lost a step in style nor swagger as he aged—and he always looked good. Getty
McQueen did for Heuer and Rolex wristwatches what he did for Persol 714 sunglasses. Demand was so strong for Heuer’s square blue-faced Monaco 1133B Caliber 11 Automatic watch, which McQueen wore throughout his 1971 Le Mans movie, that it was reissued twice. His own Monaco sold for $87,600 in 2009. The Rolex Submariner that he preferred off-camera also was auctioned that year for $234,000.
Interestingly, Rolex may have played a role in the real-life great escape that the 1963 film of the same name was based on. Rolex watches had acquired enough prestige by the start of World War II that Royal Air Force pilots often bought them to replace the inferior standard-issue watches. But when captured and sent to POW camps, their watches were confiscated. So Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf offered to replace watches that had been seized and didn’t require payment until after the war.
McQueen’s trademark visage beneath a stylish pair of custom, blue-tinted 60s-era Persol-brand sunglasses has become a much-loved and remembered trademark of the original Thomas Crown Affair. Silver Screen Collection
In 1943 while a prisoner of war, Cpl. Clive J. Nutting, one of the organizers of the great escape, ordered a stainless steel Rolex Oyster 3525 Chronograph by mail directly from Hans Wilsdorf in Geneva, intending to pay for it with money he saved working as a shoemaker at the Stalag Luft III camp. The watch was delivered to the camp with a personal note from Wilsdorf, who was reportedly impressed with Nutting because, although not an officer, he had ordered the expensive Rolex chronograph while most other prisoners had ordered cheaper models.
The chronograph is believed to have been ordered specifically for use in the great escape, because it could have timed patrols of prison guards, or timed the 76 ill-fated escapees through tunnel “Harry” on March 24, 1944.
After the war, Rolex sent Nutting an invoice for the shipping cost only. The watch and its related correspondence between Wilsdorf and Nutting were sold at auction. Nutting served as a consultant on the film, which was based on Paul Brickhill’s 1950 nonfiction book about the mass escape from the Nazi’s Stalag Luft III camp, in which Brickhill himself was a prisoner.
McQueen’s lead role as USAAF Capt. Virgil Hilts in that film cemented his superstar status. Insurance worries prevented McQueen from performing The Great Escape’s famous motorcycle leap over a wire fence, which was instead done by friend and fellow cycle enthusiast Bud Ekins. But through the magic of editing, McQueen was able to ride both as the escaping POW and the German soldier chasing him.
George Orwell once said that by age 50 every man has the face he deserves. When McQueen died at 50, he had a face that everyone knew. His tilted grin, china blue eyes and hard, almost weathered features had defined a generation of action heroes, from TV bounty hunter Josh Randall to big-screen Detective Frank Bullitt.
Although not the face that launched a thousand ships, as Helen of Troy’s did, McQueen’s visage sold thousands of pairs of Persol folding sunglasses. And in the process, he transformed his own $300 or so Persols into a $70,000 windfall.
That was partly due to good management and partly due to McQueen’s eye for quality, since Persols had an elegance and exclusivity that Ray-Bans never did. Those timeless shades were popularized in film too. They were first noticed on James Dean in 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause and later worn by Audrey Hepburn in 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Sean Connery also wore Ray Bans as James Bond in 1963’s From Russia With Love, but they never garnered the cache that McQueen’s Persols did.
Decades after his death, McQueen remains a magnet for big brand advertisers. Forbes ranked him number 10 on its 2007 list of Top-Earning Dead Celebrities, and Marketing Week found him as popular in 2012 as he was in the 1970s. Ironically, McQueen didn’t make that many movies and was known to be combative with directors and producers. And by today’s standards, he avoided the limelight as much as any celebrity can.
But he was real. When McQueen drove a race car or rode a dirt bike on screen, it was an extension of what he did in his own life. McQueen lived to ride and race motorcycles and sports cars.
Few people can identify with celebrities, because so many of them have known only wealth and privilege. By contrast, McQueen grew up at Boy’s Republic in Chino Hills, California, a famous reform school for boys. Before becoming a star, McQueen was a marine who saved the lives of five of his men by pulling them from a sinking tank.
McQueen wore Clark’s Desert boots, Barbour’s Baracuta jackets, Persol sunglasses, Belstaff motorcycle leathers, and Rolex and Heuer wristwatches because he liked them. Although he wore them on-screen, he already wore them off-screen in his personal life. These endorsements endured because they were authentic.
That same authenticity enabled McQueen’s cars to command above-average celebrity premiums. A prime example was the 1963 Ferrari 250 GT/L Lusso Berlinetta, once owned by McQueen, which sold at auction for $2.3 million in 2007.
In 2011 the 1970 Porsche 911S that McQueen drove during the opening minutes of Le Mans—and that became his personal car after filming—sold for a whopping $1,375,000 at RM Auction’s Monterey sale. A 1970 Porsche 911S in fantastic condition is usually worth about $60,000 to $100,000. In this case McQueen’s eternal cool was worth more than $1,275,000 to at least one gearhead.
Nineteen years after his death, and 27 years after the motorcycle racing documentary On Any Sunday, in which McQueen played himself, he was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Posthumously, McQueen still sells everything from cars to clothing, although his estate limits the use of his image to avoid commercial saturation.
Ford used McQueen’s likeness in a 2005 TV commercial for the new Mustang. In the ad, a farmer builds a racetrack, which he circles in the 2005 Mustang. But out of the cornfield comes McQueen. The farmer then tosses his keys to the actor, who drives off in the new Mustang.
In 2009, Triumph Motorcycles Ltd., licensed by McQueen’s estate, launched a line of clothing inspired by the actor’s alliance with their brand. In 1964 McQueen represented the United States on a Triumph TR6 Trophy in the International Six Days of Trial, the equivalent of the off-road motorcycling Olympics. Disguised as German BMW R75 motorcycles, Triumph TR6 Trophy models were also used in The Great Escape’s chase scenes.
No matter how many times McQueen played an outcast, he couldn’t shake free of the King of Cool tag. That’s because it was McQueen—the man, not the actor—who wore those blue-lens Persols with the tortoise housing and collapsible frame and made you forget the surgeon general’s warning every time he took a narrow-eyed drag from his cigarette.