“Always felt guilty”: The iconic scene Steve McQueen admitted he didn’t take part in
It takes quite the style icon to be recognised and immortalised by Quentin Tarantino, with the director having a particular fondness for Steve McQueen, so much so that he included him in his 2019 movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. An icon of 1970s cinema, McQueen thrived in action flicks and thrillers, collaborating with the likes of Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson and Dustin Hoffman along the way.
Rising to prominence in the 1950s, McQueen peddled countless middling roles before finding success with the western TV show Wanted: Dead or Alive, where he starred as Josh Randall, a Civil War veteran turned bounty hunter, across 94 episodes of small-screen entertainment. This platform allowed him to be recognised by director John Sturges, who considered him perfect for his American remake of Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven.
Shining alongside the likes of Yul Brynner and Eli Wallach, with the former famously detesting the newcomer, McQueen proved his worth, instantly becoming a bright Hollywood star destined for greatness. Such came almost immediately, too, with McQueen taking a starring role in the iconic 1963 classic The Great Escape, a war flick which would later become his magnum opus.
Also helmed by Sturges, the movie, which was based on Paul Brickhill’s book of the same name, told the story of several Allied prisoners of war who plotted to escape from their camp and the clutches of the German army during WWII. A gripping thriller and a remarkable true story, the tale starred McQueen as Hilts, the suave leader of the rebellious group who is known for his wise talking.
No doubt, one of the most influential scenes in the movie comes when he’s trying to evade the German soldiers on his motorbike and performs a stunt jump over the barbed wire fencing. Considered to be one of cinema’s greatest-ever stunts, McQueen is widely thought to have performed the jump himself, yet the actor later admitted that this wasn’t the case, considering the case of mistaken identity rather embarrassing.
Instead of McQueen, the stunt was actually performed by the body double Bud Ekins, with the actor stating: “I always felt a little guilty about that. A lot of people thought it was me making that jump, but I’ve never tried to hide the truth about it. I could handle the jump now, I’m sure. Back in ’62, I just didn’t have the savvy”.
Claiming to have not had the experience of riding motorcycles back when the movie was being made to properly perform the stunt, McQueen has publicly admitted to having no part in the iconic movie moment.
Such would be worse if this stunt became the only thing he was ever famous for, but the Hollywood king of cool claimed several cinematic successes throughout his 20th-century career, including such later hits as 1968’s Bullitt, 1973’s Papillon and 1974’s The Towering Inferno with Paul Newman.
Revisit the classic movie moment when Hilts (almost) escapes the German army by way of motorcycle below.
