Jensen Ackles vs. Steve McQueen (picspam galore)

[growyourwings]

I was inspired by a comment by laurondo  to do a tribute post to Steve McQueen after Todd Farmer's interview referred to Jensen Ackles as a "young Steve McQueen." 

I admit it's been years since I've watched a Steve McQueen movie.  So I went out and downloaded "The Great Escape" from iTunes and rewatched it this afternoon.  I wanted, at the least, to nab some screen caps of the solitary scene comparing those images of Hilts to Dean in FPBs. 

Plus while I definitely associate Jensen with McQueen, I wasn't sure that McQueen had the same abilities as Jensen to express so much by the raise of an eyebrow, the look in his eye, his body language, etc.  I wouldn't be able to tell that for sure from one action movie.  But I wanted to look for it.

Read on for my McQueen tribute and comparisons to Jensen.  (Note none of the images are mine unless I mention I took a screen cap.)  At the end I make my pick between who wins--Steve McQueen or Jensen Ackles.

About Steve McQueen

I loved this description of McQueen from Wikipedia's Steve McQueen entry:

"was an Academy Award-nominated American movie actor, nicknamed "The King of Cool".^[1][2] His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s."

McQueen on the left and Dean in Provenance on the right.

  

"The King of Cool"--kinda like Dean?

And this...

"After appearing in the 1974 film The Towering Inferno, he became the highest paid movie star in the world."

Hee!  I remember the Towering Inferno--amongst the first of the cheesy "disaster movies" of the 70s.

THIS part is definitely not like Jensen (and I hope it never will be).  So Jensen wins here.  One of the things I love about both Jared & Jensen is just how nice they are.  I'm constantly crossing my fingers that success never changes that

"McQueen was combative with directors and producers"

McQueen was an avid Car-Dude and was into racing.  (Again kinda like Dean?)

"He was also an avid racer of both motorcycles and cars. While he was studying acting, he supported himself partly by competing in weekend motorcycle races and bought his first motorcycle with his winnings. He is recognized for performing many of his own stunts and for doing much of the driving during the high-speed chase scene in Bullitt."

McQueen had troubles as a youth.  Again NOT like Jensen.  Perhaps this is why Jensen is so easy to get along with and it's sounds like perhaps McQueen--not so much?  He was referred to as "incorrible" and a "prime son of a bitch."

"McQueen, who was dyslexic^[5] and partially deaf as a result of a childhood ear infection,^[5] did not adjust well to his new life. Within a couple of years he was running with a street gang and committing acts of petty crime."

Sounds like he straightened himself out as he grew up. 

"McQueen resolved to focus his energies on self-improvement and embraced the Marines' discipline. He saved the lives of 5 other Marines during an Arctic exercise by pulling them from a tank just before it fell through the ice into the sea.

And...

"He was also assigned to an honor guard responsible for guarding then-US President Harry Truman's yacht."

Again with the "Dean-type" hero and cool stuff.  I love this next part.  Some of his jobs prior to "making it."

"He worked as a towel boy in a brothel, an oil rigger, a trinket salesman in a carnival, and a lumberjack."

"Towel boy in a brothel???"  Huh.  Not directly related, but here's McQueen with Dunway in The Thomas Crown Affair in a sauna.

He started to study acting in 1952 and after some small parts in movies and in plays, his manager decided that B-movies would be a good place for an actor to make his name.  Again, Jensen anyone?  Aka "Devour"?  One of the first B-movies was "The Blob"  Hee!  I remember that!

   

I had to paste this whole section here because of the SAA-type "it's all about Supernatural" references in it.  I've highlighted them--not that you couldn't pick them out for yourself.

Wanted: Dead or Alive

McQueen's first breakout role would not come in film, but on TV. Elkins successfully lobbied Vince Fennelly, producer of the Western series Trackdown, to have McQueen read for the part of a bounty hunter named Josh Randall in a new pilot for a Trackdown companion series. The Josh Randall character, played by Robert Culp, was introduced in an episode of Trackdown, after which McQueen filmed the pilot episode. The pilot was approved for a new series, now titled Wanted: Dead or Alive on CBS in September 1958.

McQueen would ultimately make this role his own and become a household name as a result.^[5] Randall's holster held a sawed-off Winchester rifle nicknamed the "Mare's Leg," instead of the standard six-gun carried by the typical Western character. This added to the anti-hero image of a man infused with a mixture of mystery, alienation, and detachment that made this show stand out from the typical TV Western. Ninety four episodes, filmed at Apacheland Studio from 1958 till early 1961, kept McQueen steadily employed in television.

And that last part about "anti-hero image of a man" kinda reminds me again of Dean.


And then some about McQueen beginning to get noticed (as hopefully Jensen will be).  (I added the bolded emphasis.)

At 29, McQueen got his most significant break when Frank Sinatra removed Sammy Davis, Jr. from the film Never So Few, and Davis's role went to McQueen. Sinatra saw something special in McQueen and ensured that the young actor got plenty of good shots and close-ups in a role that earned McQueen favorable reviews. McQueen's character, Bill Ringa, like future characters he would come to play, brought a new kind of cool to the screen and was never more comfortable than when driving at high speed — in this case, at the wheel of a jeep. John Sturges directed this film, and then used McQueen in The Magnificent Seven a year later, and in The Great Escape in 1963.

Images from the movie "The Great Escape"




Note the leather jacket and the baseball mit. 

And while not quite the same.  Here's Hilts (McQueen) and Alec (Jensen) on motorcycles.

  

And here's the solitary scene.

Compared to Dean in FPB...  Where he says "I wish I had a baseball.... You know, like Steve McQueen."

And then later in FPB Dean says, "It's a good thing I'm like James Garner in the The Great Escape".

More on McQueen's motor racing interests..

During his acting career, McQueen considered becoming a professional race car driver. In the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring race, Peter Revson and McQueen (driving with a cast on his left foot from a motorcycle accident two weeks before) won with a Porsche 908/02 in the 3 litre class and missed winning overall by a scant 23 seconds to Mario Andretti/Ignazio Giunti/Nino Vaccarella in a 5 litre Ferrari 512S. The same Porsche 908 was entered by his production company Solar Productions as a camera car for Le Mans in the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans later that year. McQueen wanted to drive a Porsche 917 with Jackie Stewart in that race, but his film backers threatened to pull their support if he drove. Faced with the choice of driving for 24 hours in the race or driving the entire summer making the film, McQueen opted to do the latter.^[12] However, the film was a box office flop that almost ruined McQueen's career. In addition, McQueen himself admitted that he almost died while filming the movie. Nonetheless, today, Le Mans is considered to be the most historically realistic, accurate, and dramatic representation of one of the most famous periods in the history of the race, as well as being considered one of the greatest auto racing movies of all time.

And...

McQueen was interested in collecting classic motorcycles. By the time of his death, his collection included over 100 motorcycles and was valued in the millions of dollars.

And kinda like Jensen wanting to own one of the Impala's after SPN ends (What!  It's going to END some day!!! *whimpers*)...

To his dismay, McQueen was never able to own the legendary Ford Mustang GT that he drove in Bullitt, which featured a highly-modified drivetrain that suited McQueen's driving style. There were two cars used for filming. According to the October 2006 issue of Motor Trend Classic, in its cover story on the film, one of the cars was so badly damaged during filming it was judged to be unrepairable, and scrapped. The second car still exists, but the owner has consistently refused to sell it at any price. The owner plans a "minimal restoration" to make the car roadworthy, yet still retain the original patina.

McQueen died at the age of 50...

McQueen died at the age of 50 in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico from two heart attacks caused by blood clots following a seven-hour operation to remove or reduce a metastatic tumor in his stomach. He had been diagnosed with mesothelioma in December 1979, and had travelled to Mexico in July 1980 for unconventional treatment after his doctors advised him that they could do nothing more to prolong his life.^[13] McQueen was cremated, and his ashes spread in the Pacific Ocean.

Hmmm..  I found this bit interesting.  Perhaps it's why some of the younger generation aren't aware of McQueen?  Perhaps they are taking the wrong approach...

Posthumously, McQueen remains one of the most popular stars, and his estate limits the licensing of his image to avoid the commercial oversaturation experienced by some other deceased celebrities.

I know I DON'T want to see McQueen doing some kind of CGI TV advertising.  But still.

Okay guys?  THIS PART below means that Jensen wins in the acting capability:

He was also the first choice for director Steven Spielberg for his film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. According to Spielberg on a documentary on the Close Encounters DVD, Spielberg met McQueen at a bar, where McQueen drank beer after beer. Before leaving the bar, McQueen told Spielberg that he couldn't accept the role because he was unable to cry on film. The role eventually went to Richard Dreyfuss.

CONCLUSION:  Who wins?  McQueen or Jensen? 

While the "image of cool" and "anti-hero" reminds us of Dean.  And his chiseled good looks reminds of Jensen as well as his ability to play "anti-heros". 

I definitely think Jensen wins. 

I mean really ladies.  We all know that Jensen can do bad-ass and action like McQueen.  But we now know via McQueen's own words that McQueen cannot do what Jensen can do....cry and still remain manly and hot.  Here's the evidence.

1) From 2x02 Everybody Loves a Clown as watching his father's body burn...



2)  From 2x04 Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things while confession to Sam that he and his father mean everything and that he feels he's to blame for his father's death.





3)  The legendary "single manly tear" from 2x17 Heart.



4)  Not exactly tears, but the emotion on his face as he hugs his mom for the first time as an adult in 2x20 What Is and What Should Never Be.



5)  And then later in WIaWSNB when he asks his father why they always have to be heroes.



6)  And in 2x21 All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1 when he holds his dying brother.



7) And in AHBL Part 2 as he is talking to his dead brother.



8)  And again not exactly tears, but the emotion in his face as he sees the spirit of his dead father.

Someday perhaps I'll do a "bad ass" Dean picspam.  But for now I hereby declare Jensen Ackles to be the New and Improved Steve McQueen.


But you know what?  Any public comparison of Jensen as a young Steve McQueen can only help draw attention to Jensen, where he can then blow them away with his acting and all-around nice-guy while still being cool abilities.  Being associated with McQueen's "mystique" can only be a good thing.