It’s Steve McQueen’s birthday on Saturday March 24.  (Steve McQueen the actor, not Steve McQueen the artist and film maker, who is equally cool in a different way). Here he is with his cat, Kitty Cat, photographed by William Claxton in 1964.

Birthday Steve was the antihero icon of 1960s and 70s movies, becoming the highest paid movie actor in his time. He was, it seems, “combative” on set, but audiences adored him, so studios paid up to retain him. His movies include The Cincinnati Kid (1965), The Sand Pebbles (1966), Nevada Smith (1966), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), The Reivers (1969) and The Getaway (1972).  

McQueen was nicknamed the King of Cool (how cat is that?). Two of the best movies showing just how cool he was are The Great Escape and Bullitt.

The Great Escape (1963) is an ensemble piece, telling the story of a group of Allied servicemen in a German P.O.W. camp. They are all trying to escape, but Captain Virgil Hilts (McQueen) more than most. Every time he is recaptured he is thrown into solitary., and becomes known as the Cooler King (see where we are going?). 

Bullitt (1968) is an existential cop noir wrapped round the most iconic car chase ever filmed. McQueen plays cool, monosyllabic   Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, out to get the gangsters who slew a witness in his protection (spoiler: he does).  Even when hurling his Ford Mustang around the rollercoaster streets of San Francisco, Bullitt remains remorselessly focused on his prey.  

Effortlessly cool; fast yet focussed; charismatically handsome; adored despite occasionally behaving badly: Belvedere and I cannot help thinking that McQueen was secretly a cat.  So of course he loved cats.   

Happy Birthday to the King of Cool.