Daily Archives: May 21, 2012

Steve McQueen – Style Icon

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NAME: Steven Terrence McQueen
OCCUPATION: Film Actor
BIRTH DATE: March 24, 1930
DEATH DATE: November 07, 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH: Beech Grove, Indiana
PLACE OF DEATH: Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

BEST KNOWN FOR: One of the most popular actors of the 1960s and 70s, Steve McQueen had a cool, tough guy persona. One of his most famous films is The Thomas Crown Affair.

Terrence Stephen “Steve” McQueen (March 24, 1930 – November 7, 1980) was an American movie actor.[1] He was nicknamed “The King of Cool.” His “anti-hero” persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles. His other popular films include The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, The Getaway, Papillon, and The Towering Inferno. In 1974, he became the highest-paid movie star in the world. Although McQueen was combative with directors and producers, his popularity put him in high demand and enabled him to command large salaries.

He was an avid racer of both motorcycles and cars. While he studied acting, he supported himself partly by competing in weekend motorcycle races and bought his first motorcycle with his winnings. He is recognized for performing many of his own stunts, but one of the most widely claimed and cherished examples of this—that he did the majority of the stunt driving for his character during the high-speed chase scene in Bullitt—was revealed not to be true by his most trusted stuntman and stunt driver Loren James. McQueen also designed and patented a bucket seat and transbrake for race cars.

The blue-tinted sunglasses (Persol 714) worn by McQueen in the 1968 movie The Thomas Crown Affair sold at a Bonhams & Butterfields auction in Los Angeles for $70,200 in 2006.

The Rolex Explorer II 2 Reference 1655, is also now so-called Rolex Steve McQueen in the horology collectors world, but the Rolex Submariner Reference 5512 he was often photographed wearing in private moments sold for $234,000 at auction on June 11, 2009, a world-record price for the reference.

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Hardy Boys – Not So Secret Obsession

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The Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in various mystery series for children and teens.

The characters were created by Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging firm, and the books have been written by many different ghostwriters over the years. The books are published under the collective pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon.

The Hardy Boys have evolved in various ways since their first appearance in 1927. Beginning in 1959, the books were extensively revised, largely to eliminate racial stereotypes. The books were also written in a simpler style in an attempt to compete with television. Some critics argue that in the process the Hardy Boys changed, becoming more respectful of the law and simultaneously more affluent, “agents of the adult ruling class” rather than characters who aided the poor.

A new Hardy Boys series, the Hardy Boys Casefiles, was created in 1987, and featured murders, violence, and international espionage. The original Hardy Boys Mystery Stories series ended in 2005. A new series, Undercover Brothers, was launched the same year, featuring updated versions of the characters who narrate their adventures in the first person.

Through all these changes, the characters have remained popular. The books sell more than a million copies a year. Several additional volumes are published annually, and the boys’ adventures have been translated into more than 25 languages. The Hardy Boys have been featured in computer games and five television shows and used to promote merchandise such as lunchboxes and jeans.

Critics have offered many explanations for the characters’ longevity, suggesting variously that the Hardy Boys embody simple wish-fulfillment,[3] American ideals of masculinity, American ideals of white masculinity, a paradoxically powerful but inept father, and the possibility of the triumph of good over evil.

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