Who is today's Steve McQueen?

[hatophile]

Willie Nelson- very cool!

I agree with you there!

 

[RichardH]

Nobody. There can only be one Steve McQueen, and he's up there drag-racing with god himself!

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

I would rather want to know who is todays Alexander McQueen (I regarded him as a newer version of Schiaparelli... and Schiap is the greatest)

 

[motorpsycho67]

There's no actor today who is even half as good as Steve McQueen. I never met the man, but I was fortunate enough to meet his former wife Neile Adams at a memorial service for Bud Ekins. It was an honor to meet someone who even knew Steve McQueen.

 

[JumpBoot]

Daniel Craig is the same guy who hates guns because they're "silly" and wants James Bond to have a gay lover to be more...progressive. I have to vote against this. He's NO Steve McQueen.

Agreed on Daniel Craig. Like him a lot! Adding Jeremy Renner...

 

[The Good]

Daniel Craig is the same guy who hates guns because they're "silly" and wants James Bond to have a gay lover to be more...progressive. I have to vote against this. He's NO Steve McQueen.

Good point. He's got some similar looks, but he doesn't have the same attitude. I like Daniel Craig because of his movie roles, but his politics and personal life may be disagreeable. I think the way he portrays Bond is a bit Steve McQueen-esque (especially in Bullitt), but his personal life doesn't match.

 

[winter_joe]

My vote would be jamrs hetfield of metallica, he has the same passion for vehicles, and his voice is just awesome, and his guitar palying is cool to watch.

 

[winter_joe]

*james

 

[winter_joe]

Oh yeah he adores and loves his wife and childern as well.

 

[potemkin_city_limits]

Reviving this random old thread but I would go with Ewan McGregor personally. I have always thought he was awesome. Except for his role in Star Wars. Daniel Craig is great as well but I think Ewan McGregor is cooler offscreen. He also rides motorcycles.

 

[Matt Crunk]

Don't know much about him off-screen, and really not much about his recent on-screen roles either, but Anthony Michael Hall bears a striking resemblance to McQueen in a few things I've seen him in.

 

[Gregg Axley]

Don't know much about him off-screen, and really not much about his recent on-screen roles either, but Anthony Michael Hall bears a striking resemblance to McQueen in a few things I've seen him in.

This guy?

Sorry, couldn't resist.
I'm not much into the newer actors, but I haven't seen too many that have McQueen's coolness factor.
It's not about looking like him, or even acting like him, it's an embodiment of sureness that I just don't see.
As I said though, I don't pay much attention to newer actors.
Maybe there is one that I missed.

 

[Atomic]

Bringing an old conversation back, but I would disagree on Mr. McGregor. I'm a huge fan of his and love that he rides motorcycles and his hugely into the lifestyle, but he wimped out on multiple occasion on his documentaries, something Mr. McQueen never would have done. McQueen was fearless.

Reviving this random old thread but I would go with Ewan McGregor personally. I have always thought he was awesome. Except for his role in Star Wars. Daniel Craig is great as well but I think Ewan McGregor is cooler offscreen. He also rides motorcycles.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Never much cared for McQueen, some of the films are cute period pieces, but I found him bland. I don't really follow today's actors but the equivalent McQueen type in movies today is probably Jason Statham, although he has made very few cool films. Paul Newman was way more cool than McQueen.

 

[Panadora]

Cool as any - in his own way

 

[Edward]

Never much cared for McQueen, some of the films are cute period pieces, but I found him bland. I don't really follow today's actors but the equivalent McQueen type in movies today is probably Jason Statham, although he has made very few cool films. Paul Newman was way more cool than McQueen.

I can't call on his acting ability other than what we got on screen, but McQueen did seem somewhat one-dimensional. Quite likely he got hit by the usual A-list thing. Tom Cruise is a good example. I'm not a fan, but when he gets a chance - Valkyrie, for instance, he can act... however, he's more often hired, as are all big A-list names that can open a film, to play the Tom Cruise Persona.... if they're hired and directed that way, they might be amazing actors, but... Stallone was another one who suffered from this - see Rocky, Rocky II and Copland for the quality of his acting, and most anything else for him playing the Sly Stallone persona... Hopefully this is something that will eventually change.

Cool as any - in his own way

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Yes, he's a genius. I first saw him in In the Line of Fire, though I think his absolute career highlights are probably Being John Malcovich and Shadow of the Vampire.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Malcovich is certainly an interesting character actor but I've never seen a film of his I've really enjoyed. Not that I can remember, anyway. The ones named above were for me in the category of "intriguing, but...".

 

[TAutry]

Very interesting thread. I've sat here in the middle of the night/wee hours of the morning and read most of it. I have the same cancer that McQueen had and my pain meds aren't letting me sleep.

I don't know much about the current crop of actors. On the whole, I fnd them less than inspiring. I think the 24-hour news and information cycle destroys the actors and others in the public eye. We know too much about them. There's no mystery left. In the past there was a little left to the imagination. Without that mystery we know too much. We see them on the screen, large or small, and if we want, we can go look up the details of their daily lives.

Even worse, the actors or their people will post every waking minute conveniently on Facebook and/or twitter. I think the mystery helped make McQueen and others cool. The actors of that era didn't have to try so hard. Cool isn't something that can be manufactured. One either is, or is not cool.

I agree with the previous posters that the lack of manliness is a huge obstacle for today's actors. Daniel Craig comes across as manly, but I don't care for him.. The guys from Duck Dynasty are also manly, although they really aren't actors.

On the whole, I believe that our society has degenerated to the point that true manliness and cool have been lost. Our actors and politicians cater to the homosexual crowd. It's all over TV and the movies. I have a 10-year-old son and its hard to find anything decent to watch on TV. I have Hulu Plus and my son has discovered the Lone Ranger and watches episodes of that and other old shows for his TV time.

Has the world gone mad? Is it going to get better? The world hasn't changed. The insanity that we see today has always been there, we just know too much about it. We didn't know every detail of Rock Hudson's or Raymond Burr's lifestyles. Now the actors and sports figures brag about it and are celebrated for it.

It would be nice if we could turn back the clock some, to the day where men were men, women were women, and both appreciated the differences. Unfortunately, those days are gone. With the formation of CNN, Ted Turner opened the Pandora's Box and to keep pace everyone else had to follow suit. They had to find stories to run. It is unlikely we will ever go back to what was and seemed a simpler time.

 

[GuyLdeB]

What about Tom Hardy, he's a guy who doesn't seem to try too hard.

 

[Edward]

If Macqueen's apparent cool was so bound up in half-baked notions of "manliness", it's probably a good thing it's gone. Obsessing over what is and is not "manly" is really frightfully tedious.