McQUEEN

Montana police were so worried by STEVE McQUEEN's filthy appearance and suspicious behaviour that they once forced him to leave town - not realizing he was a movie icon.

Writing in her memoirs STEVE McQUEEN: THE LAST MILE, McQueen's widow BARBARA reveals he was often stopped by police in the small town of Whitefish, Montana because of his unusual lifestyle. The widow recalls, "He looked like a dirty old man. He had long, wild hair, a thick, untamed beard and looked much older than his 48 years. I was 25 years old but looked like a schoolgirl he'd abducted in his crappy pick-up truck. "More than once, people stopped us to ask if I was OK. We were buying gas and beer, and Steve paid for everything with $100 bills, which looked even more suspicious. The police came and questioned us, and ran us out of town. But they never knew it was Steve McQueen."

McQUEEN's WIDOW: 'AMERICA TURNED ITS BACK ON STEVE'

The widow of screen legend STEVE McQUEEN has blasted former US President RONALD REAGAN, claiming the former actor ignored her pleas to introduce experimental new cancer drugs into America to save her ailing husband.
BARBARA McQUEEN insists Reagan's refusal to help her late husband forced him to seek cancer treatment in Mexico, where he was prescribed a controversial blend of pancreatic enzymes, 50 daily vitamins and minerals, massages, prayers, psychotherapy, coffee enemas and injections of a cell preparation made from sheep and cattle fetuses. The actor felt his health improving but died on 7 November 1980 aged 50 - the day after undergoing surgery to remove cancerous growths from his abdomen and neck.
Writing in her memoirs STEVE McQUEEN: THE LAST MILE, she fumes, "America turned its back on Steve McQueen. I wrote a letter to President Ronald Reagan asking him to please bring these drugs into America so that he could be treated at home. I never had a reply." And the widow is still bitter over her late husband's medical treatment, claiming American doctors lied to her about how long her late husband had left to live.
She recalls, "His doctors lied to me. They said he had five to seven years, yet he passed away in five to six months. They said they didn't want to hurt me but I couldn't have been more hurt by his passing. It still pains me."

McQUEEN CLASHED WITH MOON

Late actor STEVE McQUEEN frequently clashed with his neighbour Keith Moon and once fired a shot into THE WHO drummer's bathroom to settle a feud.
Screen legend McQueen lived in a Malibu, California beach home next door to the wild rocker, and the pair argued furiously, recalls McQueen's widow BARBARA in her memoirs STEVE McQUEEN: THE LAST MILE.
She writes, "Keith's bathroom light shone directly into our bedroom and kept Steve awake at night. Steve repeatedly asked Keith to turn it off. After the fifth time, Steve just grabbed a shotgun, blew out the light and went back to bed.
"We never heard another word from Keith Moon."