“We are ‘The Magnificent Seven’”: How Steve McQueen almost died in a Mexican brothel
Some of the stories involving iconic actor Steve McQueen can, quite understandably, seem too ludicrous to possibly be true. But, the storied life of McQueen is one with enough twists and turns to make a film director salivate. He was a race car driver, an esteemed Hollywood heartthrob, a combination of tough and artistic and the kind of romantic that would make Casanova blush. A man given the nickname ‘The King of Cool’ had a reputation to uphold and, without fear of repercussions, the true antihero of Hollywood didn’t hold back.
With a legacy defined as having become a pioneering figure of the 1960s counterculture, McQueen’s personal life and his ‘unique’ lifestyle choices attracted a wide range of personalities. It didn’t help that he was so incredibly charismatic, but McQueen had a habit of finding himself in some sticky situations, most notably when avoiding the murderous Manson family.
With heavy drug use and a tendency to disappear for days at a time, McQueen was known throughout every production he took part in as a party animal. It made him a popular co-star for many. No matter the movie, McQueen would find himself a drinking buddy and make his way to the nearest town to sink a few cold ones. He took his The Magnificent Seven co-star Robert Vaughn under his wing in 1960 as a night away from filming took an unconventional turn.
The iconic western film, directed by John Sturges, tells the tale of a group of seven gunfighters hired to protect a small village in Mexico from a group of marauding bandits. McQueen, taking method acting to a whole new level, found himself holed up in a Mexican brothel on Good Friday after getting wasted on margaritas in the hours that proceeded that moment.
Recalling the bizarre situation, actor Vaughn explained: “They said, ‘How many girls would you like?’ And Steve said, ‘SEVEN! We are ‘The Magnificent Seven’ and we want seven girls’. Even though not all seven of us were there,” in an interview with The Daily Mirror. However, as a huge star usually frequenting the bars and hotels of Los Angeles, there was one thing about McQueen that the fledgling actor was unaware of: “Steve was notorious for never carrying money. I didn’t know this as it was the first time we’d ever been out together.”
“It seemed to me that we were just two very drunk Americans, and I wasn’t feeling very magnificent, but I did not object to Steve’s gluttonous suggestion,” Vaughn would later detail in his memoirs. Vaughn took on the role of financier for the evening: “I was flush with both pesos and dollars, having been too sick with an upset stomach in Cuernavaca to spend my daily allowance. So Steve and I adjourned to a room with many large pillows and the seven women”.
After hours inside the brothel with their seven women, the sobering morning light crept through the windows, and reality dawned for Vaughn and McQueen as a return to the set of the huge budget blockbuster was calling them. With two bouncers watching their every move, it was time to pay up. “He pulled out his Diners Club card, the madam of the house looked at it and went over and got a very tall, big Mexican guy and he shook his head and said, ‘NO’,” Vaughn remembers.
It was at this point, more than slightly dishevelled and feeling the remnants of the night before, that the actors knew a decision needed to be made. “We just ran,” Vaughn added. “I jumped out the window and ended up climbing over a wall, and as I dropped down on to a street I thought, ‘This is the end for me’.”
Vaughn continued: “I landed on moist grass, sprang up and ran to the high wall surrounding the villa grounds, where I scrambled up a trellis and flung myself on to the edge of the wall.” More closely resembling McQueen’s own Great Escape than either actor would have liked, a serious threat was now very much a part of their thinking. Security at such establishments is rarely just for show and even more rarely for understanding of a customer without the funds to pay their bills.
With only one way out, escape by any means necessary was the only gameplan: “Eyeing the 12ft drop to the street below, I saw two bulky Mexicans standing there as if on guard. I dropped to the ground, expecting to be apprehended if not beaten to a pulp. I stood up and smiled wanly at the two men. They merely smiled, remarked, ‘Buenos noches,’ and strolled away.”
McQueen was likely threatened an innumerable amount of times. Whether it was Bruce Lee or the Manson family, the actor usually took such things in his stride. And, when faced with possible death or at least a very sore head after a drunken night at a Mexican cathouse, McQueen dusted himself off and took himself to work: “The next morning, Steve arrived on the set 45 minutes late and badly hungover.”
The Magnificent Seven is one of the more controversial periods of McQueen’s life, but it also became one of his most beloved pictures. McQueen had a storied life, but his professionalism reined supreme whether that was behind the wheel, on set or in a bar, he too things very seriously.
