“My Husband, My Friend,” Booksigning March 31

Neile Adams (Mrs. Steve Mcqueen From 1956 – 1972)
To Appear On Saturday, March 31, 2012 At 6:30 P.M.
For Book Signing Of Her Autobiography,
“My Husband, My Friend,” And Q&A Prior To

March 15, 2012 (Hollywood, CA) – Neile Adams (Mrs. Steve McQueen from 1956 – 1972) will appear on Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. for a book signing of her autobiography, “My Husband, My Friend,” and a Q&A prior to a screening of the film, “The Great Escape” starring Steve McQueen at the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre; 6712 Hollywood Boulevard; Los Angeles, CA 90028.

The film is being presented as part of the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre’s retrospective salute to the late iconic actor, Steve McQueen, in honor of what would have been his 82nd birthday on March 24, 2012. A Mini Film Series of seven movies starring Steve McQueen will be presented from March 29 – April 1, 2012.

The slate of films includes: Thursday, March 29th at 7:30 p.m. – Double Feature: “Bullitt” and “The Hunter;” Friday, March 30th at 7:30 p.m. – Double Feature: “Papillon” and “Soldier In The Rain;” Saturday, March 31st at 6:30 p.m.: Neile Adams’ Book Signing of “My Husband, My Friend” and Q&A preceding the screening of “The Great Escape;” and Sunday, April 1, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. – Double Feature: “The Thomas Crown Affair” and “The Getaway.”

Tickets are $11 each for General Admission; $9 for Seniors (65 and over) and Students with current I.D. and $7 for American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre Members. The Box Office opens one and half hour before the first program of the day/evening and closes 30 minutes after the last film of the evening begins. Tickets can be purchased by calling Fandango at 1-800-FANDANGO (1-800-326-3264), and then entering the express code for the Egyptian Theatre which is 2206. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.fandango.com/egyptiantheatre_aaofx/theaterpage. For further information please call the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre’s 24-hour information line at 323-466-3456 or visit online at http://www.americancinemathequecalendar.com/content/low-rider-the-super-charged-cinema-of-steve-mcqueen.

From his escape-artist anti-heroes in “Papillon” and “The Great Escape” to his hardboiled loners in “The Cincinnati Kid” and “Junior Bonner,” to his speed-demon cop in “Bullitt,” actor Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980) blazed across the screen with the same intensity and competitive spirit he brought to his off-screen passion for racing. One of the most popular and acclaimed actors of his generation, McQueen is arguably even more popular now, emerging as a kind of archetype for the ideal Hollywood male star: defiantly independent (but nursing a wounded soul), always close to the boiling point, a man of few words and much action. In other words, the King of Cool.

More About The Films To Be Screened:
Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. – Double Feature: “Bullitt,” 1968, Warner Bros., 113 minutes, directed by Peter Yates. In this pared-to-the-bone thriller, über-cool San Francisco police detective Sergeant Bullitt (Steve McQueen) goes up against mob hit men, as well as ambitious bureaucrat Chalmers (Robert Vaughn), as he struggles to safeguard a witness. With Jacqueline Bisset.

Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. – Double Feature: “The Hunter,” 1980, Paramount Pictures, 97 minutes, directed by Buzz Kulik. Steve McQueen plays bounty hunter Ralph “Papa” Thorson in this action-packed bio-pic, the actor’s last film. With Eli Wallach and Ben Johnson. Print courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Friday, March 30, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. – Double Feature: “Papillon,” 1973, Warner Bros., 150 minutes. McQueen gives one of his greatest performances in the true story of French convict Henri “Papillon” Charriere and his confinement in the hellish penal colony of French Guiana. Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (“Planet of the Apes,” “Patton”), with support from Dustin Hoffman as McQueen’s myopic buddy Louis Dega. Print courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive.
“Soldier In The Rain,” 1963, Warner Bros., 88 minutes, directed by Ralph Nelson. Steve McQueen and Jackie Gleason star in this military buddy comedy as Sergeants Eustis Clay and Maxwell Slaughter, the former a country bumpkin and the latter an aging career soldier with his glory days behind him. Tuesday Weld co-stars as dizzy teenager Bobby Jo Pepperdine. Print courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. – Neile Adams (Mrs. Steve McQueen from 1956 – 1972) signs copies of her autobiography “My Husband, My Friend” and is interviewed in a Q&A prior to the screening of the film, “The Great Escape,” 1963, Park Circus, 172 minutes, directed by John Sturges. World War II drama chronicling the real-life, large-scale prison camp escape of Allied POWs in Germany, featuring
Steve McQueen in his (literally) breakout role as Captain Virgil Hilts, “The Cooler King.” Nail-biting suspense and exhilarating action are punctuated with just the right amount of raucous humor, aided by composer Elmer Bernstein’s rousing score. With James Garner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Richard Attenborough, James Donald and Donald Pleasence.

Sunday, April 1, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. – Double Feature: “The Thomas Crown Affair,” 1968, Park Circus, 102 minutes, directed by Norman Jewison. One of our favorite guilty pleasures from the 1960s: Steve McQueen stars as bachelor supreme Thomas Crown, who’s just pulled off the perfect multimillion-dollar bank heist – until he runs into mondo-chic insurance investigator Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway), who cant’ decide whether she wants to make love to him or throw him in the slammer!

More About The Films To Be Screened:
“The Getaway,” 1972, Warner Bros., 122 minutes. Director Sam Peckinpah adapts writer Jim Thompson’s savage pulp classic with tightly wound Steve McQueen as escaped bank robber Doc McCoy. To spring him from the joint, devoted wife Carol McCoy (Ali MacGraw) enlistes the help of corrupt fat-cat Jack Beynon (Ben Johnson), who wants McCoy to execute a seemingly impossible robbery. Al Letteri plays the memorably sleazy killer Rudy Butler who dogs the couple’s trails after thieves fall out.

About Neile Adams (Mrs. Steve McQueen from 1956 – 1972):
Neile Adams (Entertainer; Mrs. Steve McQueen from 1956 – 1972) first saw her name on Broadway as a teenager at Billy Rose’s Ziegfeld Theatre in the original production of “Kismet,” with Alfred Drake and Doretta Morrow. She came to national attention as a featured performer for noted choreographer/director, Bob Fosse, starring in the Broadway production of “The Pajama Game.”

She was personally selected by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II to play a lead in their first National Company Tour of “Me And Juliet.” Adams starred opposite the legendary Paul Muni in the original Broadway-bound production of “At The Grand,” and also starred in numerous regional musical productions, including: “Damn Yankees,” “Bye, Bye Birdie,” “Carousel,” “Can Can,” “South Pacific,” “Connecticut Yankee,” “Where’s Charley?,” “Desert Song,” and others.

Film and Television credits include: “The Pat Boone Show” (1956); “This Could Be The Night” (MGM – 1957); “The Bob Hope Show” (NBC – Variety-Special filmed in Alaska in 1959); “The Eddie Fisher Show” (1959); “The Patrice Munsel Show” (1959); “The Walter Winchell Show” (1959); “Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Man From The South” (CBS – 1/3/60); “Five Fingers: A Shot In The Dark” (NBC – 1/16/60); “Alfred Hitchcock Presents: One Grave Too Many” (CBS – 5/22/60); “The Bob Hope Show” (NBC – Variety-Special filmed at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs on 11/16/60); “The Perry Como Show” (1960); “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Ten Minutes From Now” (NBC – 5/1/64); “The Jack Benny Program: Jack Loses A Raffle” (NBC – 11/13/64); “The Man From UNCLE: The Yellow Scarf Affair” (NBC – 1/25/65); “Fuzz” (United Artists – 1972); “Women In Chains” (ABC Movie-of-the-Week; 1/25/72); “So Long, Blue Boy” (Maryon – 1973); “The Bionic Woman: Max” (NBC – 12/3/77); “The Rockford Files: The Competitive Edge” (NBC – 2/10/78); “Vegas: French Twist” (ABC – 5/6/81); “Buddy Buddy” (MGM-United Artists – 1981); “Chu Chu and The Philly Flash” (20th Century Fox – 1981); “Hotel: Saving Grace” (ABC – 12/4/85); “Nightmare On The 13th Floor” (Movie-of-the-Week – 1990); and “Dead On The Money” (Movie-of-the-Week – 1991).

She is a member of the charitable organization, SHARE and is a board member of The Boys Republic of Chino Hills. In 1986, Adams wrote her best selling book entitled, “My Husband, My Friend,” about her life with her former husband, Steve McQueen. In December 2006 a 20th Anniversary edition of Adams’ book was re-released by AuthorHouse and is now available at www.neileadams.com and www.amazon.com. Her book in now in development as a major Hollywood motion picture. Adams’ second husband, the late businessman, Alvin E. Toffel, encouraged his wife to return to her musical roots and indeed she has.

In recent years Adams has created and presented he own cabaret shows, which have received rave reviews in New York, London, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Palm Springs. She has four CD albums. To learn more about Neile Adams, please visit the websites, www.neileadams.com, www.myhusbandmyfriend.com or www.neilemcqueentoffel.com.

About Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980):
Steven Terrence McQueen (Steve McQueen’s birth name) was born on March 24, 1930 in Beech Grove, Ind., and endured a troubled childhood which included being abandoned by his father, left to be raised by a granduncle, and then taken by his mother to California to live with her cruel and abusive second husband. He became involved in gang life, eventually ending up in the California Junior Boys Republic (a reform school for at risk youth, now known as The Boys Republic) where he finally learned responsibility. After a brief stint in the Marines, he went to New York and took up acting, winning a scholarship to Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio. Of the 2000 performers who auditioned for the Actors Studio in 1955, only two were accepted: Martin Landau and Steve McQueen.

McQueen impressed everyone who saw him and quickly earned a small role in Robert Wise’s “Somebody Up There Likes Me” as well as his first Broadway role in “A Hatful of Rain.” After a string of low-budget movies, including the cult classic, “The Blob,” McQueen landed the starring role in the Western television series, “Wanted: Dead or Alive,” playing a soft-spoken bounty hunter with a sawed-off shotgun. During this time he became a household name.

A series of movies with director John Sturges soon followed, with McQueen holding his own opposite such top stars as Frank Sinatra in “Never So Few” and Yul Brynner in “The Magnificent Seven” before receiving top billing in “The Great Escape” (the first American to win Best Actor in the Moscow International Film Festival).

In 1963, McQueen began his own production company, Solar Productions, for which he starred in the gritty police drama, “Bullitt.” The film is still famous to this day for its car chase through the streets of San Francisco. Other films which Solar Productions had involvement, and in which Steve McQueen played leading roles, include: “The Cincinnati Kid,” “Nevada Smith,” “The Sand Pebbles,” (for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award as Best Actor), “The Thomas Crown Affair,” (a film in which he countered his typical blue-collar, tough guy roles he had been cast in by taking the suave lead role), and “Le Mans.” In 1963 he appeared in “Love With The Proper Stranger” (Golden Globe Award nomination) and in 1969 he appeared in “The Reivers” (Golden Globe Award nomination). In 1967 McQueen won the Golden Globe Award for the World Film Favorite Actor. In 1968 McQueen won a Photoplay Award as the Most Popular Male Star of that year.

About the same time, McQueen’s 15 and 1/2-year marriage to Neile Adams was on the rocks over his frequent affairs. Adams is the mother to McQueen’s two children, the late Terry Leslie McQueen and Chadwick Steven McQueen. Steve McQueen and Neile Adams divorced in 1972. McQueen then married his co-star in the box office hit, “The Getaway,” Ali MacGraw. In the midst of a career high for McQueen, which included a bravura performance in “Papillon” (Golden Globe Award nomination), he once again was hit with personal problems, as he and MacGraw quickly found they were completely incompatible.

McQueen was also becoming disenchanted with Hollywood and forced the producers of “The Towering Inferno” to fork over a record-breaking $3 million for him to accept a role in the movie. Despite the enormous success of “The Towering Inferno,” McQueen entered a semi-retirement, appearing in only one movie during the next five years, turning down roles in such movies as “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Apocalypse Now.”

In 1978, McQueen and MacGraw finally called it quits, and McQueen developed a relationship with a young model named Barbara Minty. In addition, his health was beginning to fail him. He returned to the big screen for two more movies, “Tom Horn” and “The Hunter,” after which he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure. Looking towards the future and refusing to accept his doctor’s prognosis, McQueen married Minty in 1980, got a new group of friends and became a born-again Christian. He then went to Mexico for alternative treatments for his illness, but the treatments did not help, and he passed away on November 7, 1980.

On June 12, 1986 Steve McQueen received a posthumous Star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, which is located at 6834 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, CA. Today Steve McQueen is remembered as one of most iconic film stars of all time.

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