Paul Newman vs Steve McQueen: the pettiest battle in Hollywood history
The biggest stars to appear in any given movie tend to get the biggest paycheques because that’s how the industry has always worked. However, what if there are two stars of the same magnitude in the same ensemble? Common sense would suggest paying them the same, but that wasn’t good enough for a battle so ludicrously petty it entered Hollywood folklore.
When the disaster thriller craze was at its peak during the 1970s, the studios decided that in order to keep the gravy train rolling, bigger stars and higher concepts were required. Fortunately, screenwriter Stirling Silliphant had much the same idea, with the scribe penning the script that would eventually burn up at the box office as The Towering Inferno.
It was pretty much guaranteed to be a hit based on its premise alone, with a fire breaking out and engulfing a brand new high-rise building during its opening night set to follow in the footsteps of spiritual predecessors like Airport and The Poseidon Adventure, and that sure-fire status was only enhanced when the producers plucked their stars from the very top of the A-list.
Paul Newman and Steve McQueen were paid a million dollars each to play architect Doug Roberts and fire chief Michael O’Hallorhan, respectively, which was fair based on their shared standing within the business. However, the latter had an infamous inferiority complex that regularly saw him go out of his way to upstage his co-stars and seize the lion’s share of the limelight, and The Towering Inferno was no different.
After reading the script, McQueen noticed that Newman had 12 more lines of dialogue than he did, presumably after perusing the story for no other reason than to see who got the most screen time. Upon this startling discovery, Silliphant was instructed to craft a dozen additional soundbites and put them on equally verbose footing.
They received the same salary and had identical lines, which really should have been the end of it. Sadly, delicate egos and a desire for self-promotion at all costs saw the back-and-forth continue, which culminated in the silliest display of figurative dick-measuring that’s ever been seen before or since in the marketing campaign of a major motion picture.
Newman and McQueen both wanted to be billed first on the posters, in the trailers, and during the credits, and the other was refusing to budge. Naturally, then, studios Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox decided to give them exactly what they wanted, depending entirely on how any individual opted to read their names.
Newman’s name ran diagonally in the upper right, while McQueen’s occupied the bottom left. That way, if it was read from top to bottom, Newman would come first, but McQueen would take precedence if it was read from left to right. It’s remarkably petulant stuff, but at least it kept them happy.
In the end, The Towering Inferno cleared $200 million at the box office, won three Academy Awards, and was nominated for a further five, including ‘Best Picture’. Did arguments break out in the streets when the left-to-right gang met the top-to-bottom mob and threw fists over whether or not it was Newman or McQueen billed first? No, no they did not, with the pointless squabble unfolding solely to placate their shared fragility.
