title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Occupied Armenia was reconstructed on Roman terms. In 164, a new capital, Kaine Polis ('New City'), replaced Artaxata. A new king was installed: a Roman senator of consular rank and Arsacid descent, Gaius Julius Sohaemus. He may not even have been crowned in Armenia; the ceremony may have taken place in Antioch, or even Ephesus. Sohaemus was hailed on the imperial coinage of 164 under the legend : Lucius sat on a throne with his staff while Sohaemus stood before him, saluting the emperor.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: In 163, the Parthians intervened in Osroene, a Roman client in upper Mesopotamia centred on Edessa, and installed their own king on its throne. In response, Roman forces were moved downstream, to cross the Euphrates at a more southerly point. Before the end of 163, however, Roman forces had moved north to occupy Dausara and Nicephorium on the northern, Parthian bank. Soon after the conquest of the north bank of the Euphrates, other Roman forces moved on Osroene from Armenia, taking Anthemusia, a town southwest of Edessa.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: In 165, Roman forces moved on Mesopotamia. Edessa was re-occupied, and Mannus, the king deposed by the Parthians, was re-installed. The Parthians retreated to Nisibis, but this too was besieged and captured. The Parthian army dispersed in the Tigris. A second force, under Avidius Cassius and the III Gallica, moved down the Euphrates, and fought a major battle at Dura.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: By the end of the year, Cassius's army had reached the twin metropolises of Mesopotamia: Seleucia on the right bank of the Tigris and Ctesiphon on the left. Ctesiphon was taken and its royal palace set to flame. The citizens of Seleucia, still largely Greek (the city had been commissioned and settled as a capital of the Seleucid Empire, one of Alexander the Great's successor kingdoms), opened its gates to the invaders. The city was sacked nonetheless, leaving a black mark on Lucius's reputation. Excuses were sought, or invented: the official version had it that the Seleucids broke faith first.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Cassius's army, although suffering from a shortage of supplies and the effects of a plague contracted in Seleucia, made it back to Roman territory safely. Lucius took the title Parthicus Maximus, and he and Marcus were hailed as "imperatores" again, earning the title 'imp. III'. Cassius's army returned to the field in 166, crossing over the Tigris into Media. Lucius took the title 'Medicus', and the emperors were again hailed as "imperatores", becoming 'imp. IV' in imperial titulature. Marcus took the Parthicus Maximus now, after another tactful delay. On 12 October of that year, Marcus proclaimed two of his sons, Annius and Commodus, as his heirs.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: During the early 160s, Fronto's son-in-law Victorinus was stationed as a legate in Germany. He was there with his wife and children (another child had stayed with Fronto and his wife in Rome). The condition on the northern frontier looked grave. A frontier post had been destroyed, and it looked like all the peoples of central and northern Europe were in turmoil. There was corruption among the officers: Victorinus had to ask for the resignation of a legionary legate who was taking bribes.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Experienced governors had been replaced by friends and relatives of the imperial family. Lucius Dasumius Tullius Tuscus, a distant relative of Hadrian, was in Upper Pannonia, succeeding the experienced Marcus Nonius Macrinus. Lower Pannonia was under the obscure Tiberius Haterius Saturnius. Marcus Servilius Fabianus Maximus was shuffled from Lower Moesia to Upper Moesia when Marcus Iallius Bassus had joined Lucius in Antioch. Lower Moesia was filled by Pontius Laelianus's son. The Dacias were still divided in three, governed by a praetorian senator and two procurators. The peace could not hold long; Lower Pannonia did not even have a legion.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Starting in the 160s, Germanic tribes, and other nomadic people launched raids along the northern border, particularly into Gaul and across the Danube. This new impetus westwards was probably due to attacks from tribes further east. A first invasion by the Chatti in the province of Germania Superior was repulsed in 162.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Far more dangerous was the invasion of 166, when the Marcomanni of Bohemia, clients of the Roman Empire since AD 19, crossed the Danube together with the Lombards and other Germanic tribes. Soon thereafter, the Iranian Sarmatian Iazyges attacked between the Danube and the Theiss rivers.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: The Costoboci, coming from the Carpathian area, invaded Moesia, Macedonia, and Greece. After a long struggle, Marcus managed to push back the invaders. Numerous members of Germanic tribes settled in frontier regions like Dacia, Pannonia, Germany, and Italy itself. This was not a new thing, but this time the numbers of settlers required the creation of two new frontier provinces on the left shore of the Danube, Sarmatia and Marcomannia, including today's Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. Some Germanic tribes who settled in Ravenna revolted and managed to seize possession of the city. For this reason, Marcus decided not only against bringing more barbarians into Italy, but even banished those who had previously been brought there.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Like many emperors, Marcus spent most of his time addressing matters of law such as petitions and hearing disputes, but unlike many of his predecessors, he was already proficient in imperial administration when he assumed power. He took great care in the theory and practice of legislation. Professional jurists called him "an emperor most skilled in the law" and "a most prudent and conscientiously just emperor". He showed marked interest in three areas of the law: the manumission of slaves, the guardianship of orphans and minors, and the choice of city councillors ("decuriones").


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Marcus showed a great deal of respect to the Roman Senate and routinely asked them for permission to spend money even though he did not need to do so as the absolute ruler of the Empire. In one speech, Marcus himself reminded the Senate that the imperial palace where he lived was not truly his possession but theirs. In 168, he revalued the denarius, increasing the silver purity from 79% to 82% – the actual silver weight increasing from . However, two years later he reverted to the previous values because of the military crises facing the empire.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: A possible contact with Han China occurred in 166 when a Roman traveller visited the Han court, claiming to be an ambassador representing a certain Andun (Chinese: 安 敦), ruler of Daqin, who can be identified either with Marcus or his predecessor Antoninus. In addition to Republican-era Roman glasswares found at Guangzhou along the South China Sea, Roman golden medallions made during the reign of Antoninus and perhaps even Marcus have been found at Óc Eo, Vietnam, then part of the Kingdom of Funan near the Chinese province of Jiaozhi (in northern Vietnam). This may have been the port city of Kattigara, described by Ptolemy (c. 150) as being visited by a Greek sailor named Alexander and lying beyond the Golden Chersonese (i.e. Malay Peninsula). Roman coins from the reigns of Tiberius to Aurelian have been found in Xi'an, China (site of the Han capital Chang'an), although the far greater amount of Roman coins in India suggests the Roman maritime trade for purchasing Chinese silk was centred there, not in China or even the overland Silk Road running through Persia.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: The Antonine Plague started in Mesopotamia in 165 or 166 at the end of Lucius's campaign against the Parthians. It may have continued into the reign of Commodus. Galen, who was in Rome when the plague spread to the city in 166, mentioned that "fever, diarrhoea, and inflammation of the pharynx, along with dry or pustular eruptions of the skin after nine days" were among the symptoms. It is believed that the plague was smallpox. In the view of historian Rafe de Crespigny, the plagues afflicting the Eastern Han empire of China during the reigns of Emperor Huan of Han (r. 146–168) and Emperor Ling of Han (r. 168–189), which struck in 151, 161, 171, 173, 179, 182, and 185, were perhaps connected to the plague in Rome. Raoul McLaughlin writes that the travel of Roman subjects to the Han Chinese court in 166 may have started a new era of Roman–Far East trade. However, it was also a "harbinger of something much more ominous". According to McLaughlin, the disease caused "irreparable" damage to the Roman maritime trade in the Indian Ocean as proven by the archaeological record spanning from Egypt to India, as well as significantly decreased Roman commercial activity in Southeast Asia.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Marcus Aurelius died at the age of 58 on 17 March 180 of unknown causes in his military quarters either in the city of Vindobona (province of Pannonia Superior, today Vienna) or near of Sirmium (province of Pannonia Inferior, modern Sremska Mitrovica). He was immediately deified and his ashes were returned to Rome, where they rested in Hadrian's mausoleum (modern Castel Sant'Angelo) until the Visigoth sack of the city in 410. His campaigns against Germans and Sarmatians were also commemorated by a column and a temple built in Rome. Some scholars consider his death to be the end of the "Pax Romana".


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Marcus was succeeded by his son Commodus, whom he had named Caesar in 166 and with whom he had jointly ruled since 177. Biological sons of the emperor, if there were any, were considered heirs; however, it was only the second time that a "non-adoptive" son had succeeded his father, the only other having been a century earlier when Vespasian was succeeded by his son Titus. Historians have criticized the succession to Commodus, citing Commodus's erratic behaviour and lack of political and military acumen. At the end of his history of Marcus's reign, Cassius Dio wrote an encomium to the emperor, and described the transition to Commodus in his own lifetime with sorrow:


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: [Marcus] did not meet with the good fortune that he deserved, for he was not strong in body and was involved in a multitude of troubles throughout practically his entire reign. But for my part, I admire him all the more for this very reason, that amid unusual and extraordinary difficulties he both survived himself and preserved the empire. Just one thing prevented him from being completely happy, namely, that after rearing and educating his son in the best possible way he was vastly disappointed in him. This matter must be our next topic; for our history now descends from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust, as affairs did for the Romans of that day.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Dio adds that from Marcus's first days as counsellor to Antoninus to his final days as emperor of Rome, "he remained the same [person] and did not change in the least."


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: The youth turned out to be very erratic, or at least so anti-traditional that disaster was inevitable. But whether or not Marcus ought to have known this to be so, the rejections of his son's claims in favour of someone else would almost certainly have involved one of the civil wars which were to proliferate so disastrously around future successions.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: In the first two centuries of the Christian era, it was local Roman officials who were largely responsible for the persecution of Christians. In the second century, the emperors treated Christianity as a local problem to be dealt with by their subordinates. The number and severity of persecutions of Christians in various locations of the empire seemingly increased during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The extent to which the emperor himself directed, encouraged, or was aware of these persecutions is unclear and much debated by historians. The early Christian apologist Justin Martyr, includes within his First Apology (written between AD 140 and 150) a letter from Marcus Aurelius to the Roman Senate (prior to his reign) describing a battlefield incident in which Marcus believed Christian prayer had saved his army from thirst when "water poured from heaven" after which, "immediately we recognized the presence of God." Marcus goes on to request the Senate desist from earlier courses of Christian persecution by Rome. However, this letter was one of three from Roman emperors included by Martyr, two of which (including the Aurelius letter) are regarded as spurious.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Marcus and his cousin-wife Faustina had at least 14 children during their 30-year marriage, including two sets of twins. One son and four daughters outlived their father. Their children included:


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: While on campaign between 170 and 180, Marcus wrote his "Meditations" in Greek as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. The original title of this work, if it had one, is unknown. 'Meditations' – as well as other titles including 'To Himself' – were adopted later. He had a logical mind, and his notes were representative of Stoic philosophy and spirituality. "Meditations" is still revered as a literary monument to a government of service and duty. George Long's English translation of "Meditations" was included in Volume 2 of the "Harvard Classics". According to Hays, the book was a favourite of Christina of Sweden, Frederick the Great, John Stuart Mill, Matthew Arnold, and Goethe, and is admired by modern figures such as Wen Jiabao and Bill Clinton. It has been considered by many commentators to be one of the greatest works of philosophy.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: It is not known how widely Marcus's writings were circulated after his death. There are stray references in the ancient literature to the popularity of his precepts, and Julian the Apostate was well aware of his reputation as a philosopher, though he does not specifically mention "Meditations". It survived in the scholarly traditions of the Eastern Church, and the first surviving quotes of the book, as well as the first known reference of it by name ('Marcus's writings to himself') are from Arethas of Caesarea in the 10th century and in the Byzantine Suda (perhaps inserted by Arethas himself). It was first published in 1558 in Zurich by Wilhelm Xylander (né Holzmann), from a manuscript reportedly lost shortly afterwards. The oldest surviving complete manuscript copy is in the Vatican library and dates to the 14th century.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: The Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome is the only Roman equestrian statue which has survived into the modern period. This may be due to it being wrongly identified during the Middle Ages as a depiction of the Christian emperor Constantine the Great, and spared the destruction which statues of pagan figures suffered.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Crafted of bronze in circa 175, it stands and is now located in the Capitoline Museums of Rome. The emperor's hand is outstretched in an act of clemency offered to a bested enemy, while his weary facial expression due to the stress of leading Rome into nearly constant battles perhaps represents a break with the classical tradition of sculpture.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Marcus's victory column, established in Rome either in his last few years of life or after his reign and completed in 193, was built to commemorate his victory over the Sarmatians and Germanic tribes in 176. A spiral of carved reliefs wraps around the column, showing scenes from his military campaigns. A statue of Marcus had stood atop the column but disappeared during the Middle Ages. It was replaced with a statue of Saint Paul in 1589 by Pope Sixtus V. The column of Marcus and the column of Trajan are often compared by scholars given how they are both Doric in style, had a pedestal at the base, had sculpted friezes depicting their respective military victories, and a statue on top.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Marcus acquired the reputation of a philosopher king within his lifetime, and the title would remain after his death; both Dio and the biographer call him "the philosopher". Christians such as Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, and Eusebius also gave him the title. The latter went so far as to call him "more philanthropic and philosophic" than Antoninus and Hadrian, and set him against the persecuting emperors Domitian and Nero to make the contrast bolder.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: The historian Herodian wrote:Alone of the emperors, he gave proof of his learning not by mere words or knowledge of philosophical doctrines but by his blameless character and temperate way of life.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: Iain King explains that Marcus's legacy was tragic: [The emperor's] Stoic philosophy – which is about self-restraint, duty, and respect for others – was so abjectly abandoned by the imperial line he anointed on his death.


title: Marcus Aurelius

text: All citations to the "Historia Augusta" are to individual biographies, and are marked with a "HA". Citations to the works of Fronto are cross-referenced to C.R. Haines's Loeb edition.


title: Steve McQueen

text: Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. He was nicknamed the "King of Cool" and used the alias Harvey Mushman in motor races.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in "The Sand Pebbles" (1966). His other popular films include "Love With the Proper Stranger" (1963), "The Cincinnati Kid" (1965), "Nevada Smith" (1966), "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968), "Bullitt" (1968), "Le Mans" (1971), "The Getaway" (1972), and "Papillon" (1973). In addition, he starred in the all-star ensemble films "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), "The Great Escape" (1963), and "The Towering Inferno" (1974).


title: Steve McQueen

text: In 1974, McQueen became the highest-paid movie star in the world, although he did not act in film for another four years. He was combative with directors and producers, but his popularity placed him in high demand and enabled him to command the largest salaries.


title: Steve McQueen

text: Terrence Stephen McQueen was born to a single mother on March 24, 1930, at St. Francis Hospital in Beech Grove, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis. McQueen, of Scottish descent, was raised a Roman Catholic. His parents never married. McQueen's father, William McQueen, a stunt pilot for a barnstorming flying circus, left his mother, Julia Ann (a.k.a. Julianne) Crawford, six months after meeting her. Several biographers have stated that his mother Julia Ann was an alcoholic. Unable to cope with caring for a small child, she left the boy with her parents (Victor and Lillian) in Slater, Missouri, in 1933. As the Great Depression worsened, McQueen and his grandparents moved in with Lillian's brother Claude and his family at their farm in Slater. McQueen later said that he had good memories of living on the farm, noting that his great-uncle Claude "was a very good man, very strong, very fair. I learned a lot from him."


title: Steve McQueen

text: Claude gave McQueen a red tricycle on his fourth birthday, a gift that McQueen subsequently credited with sparking his early interest in car racing. McQueen's mother married and when the boy was eight, she brought him from the farm to live with her and her new husband in Indianapolis. His great-uncle Claude gave McQueen a special gift at his departure. "The day I left the farm,” he recalled, "Uncle Claude gave me a personal going-away present—a gold pocket watch, with an inscription inside the case." The inscription read "To Steve – who has been a son to me."


title: Steve McQueen

text: Dyslexic and partially deaf due to a childhood ear infection, McQueen did not adjust well to school or his new life. His stepfather beat him to such an extent that at the age of nine he left home to live on the streets. He later recalled, "When a kid doesn't have any love when he's small, he begins to wonder if he's good enough. My mother didn't love me, and I didn't have a father. I thought, 'Well, I must not be very good.'" Soon he was running with a street gang and committing acts of petty crime. Unable to control his behavior, his mother sent him back to her grandparents and great-uncle in Slater.


title: Steve McQueen

text: When McQueen was 12, Julia wrote to her uncle Claude, asking that her son be returned to her again to live in Los Angeles, California, where she lived with her second husband. By McQueen's own account, he and his new stepfather "locked horns immediately.” McQueen recalls him being "a prime son of a bitch" who was not averse to using his fists on McQueen and his mother. As McQueen began to rebel again, he was sent back to live with Claude for a final time. At age 14, he left Claude's farm without saying goodbye and joined a circus for a short time. He drifted back to his mother and stepfather in Los Angeles—resuming his life as a gang member and petty criminal. McQueen was caught stealing hubcaps by the police and handed over to his stepfather, who beat him severely. He threw the youth down a flight of stairs. McQueen looked up at his stepfather and said, "You lay your stinking hands on me again and I swear, I'll kill you."


title: Steve McQueen

text: After this incident, McQueen's stepfather persuaded his mother to sign a court order stating that McQueen was incorrigible, remanding him to the California Junior Boys Republic in Chino. Here, McQueen began to change and mature. He was not popular with the other boys at first:


title: Steve McQueen

text: "Say the boys had a chance once a month to load into a bus and go into town to see a movie. And they lost out because one guy in the bungalow didn't get his work done right. Well, you can pretty well guess they're gonna have something to say about that. I paid my dues with the other fellows quite a few times. I got my lumps, no doubt about it. The other guys in the bungalow had ways of paying you back for interfering with their well-being."


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen gradually became a role model and was elected to the Boys Council, a group who set the rules and regulations governing the boys' lives. He left the Boys Republic at age 16. When he later became famous as an actor, he regularly returned to talk to resident boys and retained a lifelong association with the center.


title: Steve McQueen

text: At age 16, McQueen returned to live with his mother, who had moved to Greenwich Village in New York City. There he met two sailors from the Merchant Marine and decided to sign on to a ship bound for the Dominican Republic. Once there, he abandoned his new post, eventually being employed in a brothel. Later McQueen made his way to Texas and drifted from job to job, including selling pens at a traveling carnival, and working as a lumberjack in Canada. He was arrested for vagrancy in the Deep South and served a 30-day assignment on a chain gang.


title: Steve McQueen

text: In 1947, after receiving permission from his mother (since he was not yet 18 years old), McQueen enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He was sent to Parris Island for boot camp. He was promoted to private first class and assigned to an armored unit. He initially struggled with conforming to the discipline of the service, and was demoted to private seven times. He took an unauthorized absence, going UA by failing to return after a weekend pass expired. He was caught by the shore patrol while staying with a girlfriend (Barbara Ross) for two weeks. After resisting arrest, he was sentenced to 41 days in the brig.


title: Steve McQueen

text: After this, McQueen resolved to focus his energies on self-improvement and embraced the Marines' discipline. He saved the lives of five other Marines during an Arctic exercise, pulling them from a tank before it broke through ice into the sea. He was assigned to the honor guard responsible for guarding the presidential yacht of US President Harry S Truman. McQueen served until 1950, when he was honorably discharged. He later said he had enjoyed his time in the Marines. He remembered this period with the Marines as a formative time in his life, saying, "The Marines made a man out of me. I learned how to get along with others, and I had a platform to jump off of."


title: Steve McQueen

text: In 1952, with financial assistance under the G.I. Bill, McQueen began studying acting in New York at Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse and at HB Studio under Uta Hagen. He reportedly delivered his first dialogue on a theatre stage in a 1952 play produced by Yiddish theatre star Molly Picon. McQueen's character spoke one brief line: ""Alts iz farloyrn"." (""All is lost.""). During this time, he also studied acting with Stella Adler, in whose class he met Gia Scala.


title: Steve McQueen

text: Long enamored of cars and motorcycles, McQueen began to earn money by competing in weekend motorcycle races at Long Island City Raceway. He purchased the first two of many motorcycles, a Harley-Davidson and a Triumph. He soon became an excellent racer, winning about $100 each weekend (). He appeared as a musical judge in an episode of ABC's "Jukebox Jury", which aired in the 1953–1954 season.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen had minor roles in stage productions, including "Peg o' My Heart", "The Member of the Wedding", and "Two Fingers of Pride". He made his Broadway debut in 1955 in the play "A Hatful of Rain", starring Ben Gazzara.


title: Steve McQueen

text: In late 1955 at the age of 25, McQueen left New York and headed for Los Angeles. He moved into a house on Vestal Avenue in the Echo Park area, and sought acting jobs in Hollywood.


title: Steve McQueen

text: When McQueen appeared in a two-part "Westinghouse Studio One" television presentation entitled "The Defenders", Hollywood manager Hilly Elkins took note of him and decided that B-movies would be a good place for the young actor to make his mark. McQueen's first role was a bit part in "Somebody Up There Likes Me" (1956), directed by Robert Wise and starring Paul Newman. McQueen was subsequently hired for the films "Never Love a Stranger"; "The Blob" (his first leading role, science fiction); and "The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery" (1959).


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen's first breakout role came on television. He appeared on Dale Robertson's NBC western series "Tales of Wells Fargo" as Bill Longley. Elkins, then McQueen's manager, successfully lobbied Vincent M. Fennelly, producer of the western series "Trackdown", to have McQueen read for the part of bounty hunter Josh Randall. He first appeared in Season 1 Episode 21 of "Trackdown" in 1958. He appeared as Randall in that episode, cast opposite series lead Robert Culp, a former New York motorcycle racing buddy. McQueen appeared again on "Trackdown" in Episode 31 of the first season, in which he played twin brothers, one of whom was an outlaw sought by Culp's character, Hoby Gilman.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen next filmed a pilot episode for what became the series titled "", which aired on CBS in September 1958. This became his breakout role.


title: Steve McQueen

text: In interviews associated with the DVD release of "Wanted", Robert Culp of "Trackdown" claims credit for bringing McQueen to Hollywood and landing him the part of Randall. He said he taught McQueen the "art of the fast-draw." He said that by the second day of filming, McQueen beat him at it. McQueen became a household name as a result of this series. Randall's special holster held a sawed-off .44–40 Winchester rifle nicknamed the "Mare's Leg" instead of the six-gun carried by the typical Western character, although the cartridges in the gunbelt were dummy .45–70, chosen because they "looked tougher." Coupled with the generally negative image of the bounty hunter, noted in the three-part DVD special on the background of the series, this added to the antihero image infused with mystery and detachment that made this show stand out from the typical TV Western. The 94 episodes that ran from 1958 until early 1961 kept McQueen steadily employed, and he became a fixture at the renowned Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, where much of the outdoor action for "Wanted: Dead or Alive" was shot.


title: Steve McQueen

text: At 29, McQueen got a significant break when Frank Sinatra removed Sammy Davis Jr. from the film "Never So Few" after Davis supposedly made some mildly negative remarks about Sinatra in a radio interview, and Davis's role went to McQueen. Sinatra saw something special in McQueen and ensured that the young actor got plenty of closeups in a role that earned McQueen favorable reviews. McQueen's character, Bill Ringa, was never more comfortable than when driving at high speed—in this case in a jeep—or handling a switchblade or a tommy gun.


title: Steve McQueen

text: After "Never So Few", the film's director John Sturges cast McQueen in his next movie, promising to "give him the camera". "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), in which he played Vin Tanner and co-starred with Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson, Horst Buchholz, and James Coburn, became McQueen's first major hit and led to his withdrawal from "Wanted: Dead or Alive". McQueen's focused portrayal of the taciturn second lead catapulted his career. His added touches in many of the shots (such as shaking a shotgun round before loading it, repeatedly checking his gun while in the background of a shot, and wiping his hat rim) annoyed costar Brynner, who protested that McQueen was trying to steal scenes (in his autobiography, Eli Wallach reports struggling to conceal his amusement while watching the filming of the funeral-procession scene where Brynner's and McQueen's characters first meet: Brynner was furious at McQueen's shotgun-round-shake, which effectively diverted the viewer's attention to McQueen. Brynner refused to draw his gun in the same scene with McQueen, not wanting his character outdrawn.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen played the top-billed lead role in the next big Sturges film, 1963's "The Great Escape", Hollywood's fictional depiction of the true story of a historic mass escape from a World War II POW camp, Stalag Luft III. Insurance concerns prevented McQueen from performing the film's notable motorcycle leap, which was done by his friend and fellow cycle enthusiast Bud Ekins, who resembled McQueen from a distance. When Johnny Carson later tried to congratulate McQueen for the jump during a broadcast of "The Tonight Show", McQueen said, "It wasn't me. That was Bud Ekins." This film established McQueen's box-office clout and secured his status as a superstar.


title: Steve McQueen

text: Also in 1963, McQueen starred in "Love with the Proper Stranger" with Natalie Wood. He later appeared as the titular "Nevada Smith", a character from Harold Robbins's novel "The Carpetbaggers" portrayed by Alan Ladd two years earlier in a movie version of that novel. "Nevada Smith" was an enormously successful Western action adventure prequel that also featured Karl Malden and Suzanne Pleshette. After starring in 1965's "The Cincinnati Kid" as a poker player, McQueen earned his only Academy Award nomination in 1966 for his role as an engine-room sailor in "The Sand Pebbles", in which he starred opposite Candice Bergen and Richard Attenborough, whom he had previously worked with in "The Great Escape".


title: Steve McQueen

text: He followed his Oscar nomination with 1968's "Bullitt", one of his best-known films, and his personal favorite, which co-starred Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn, and Don Gordon. It featured an unprecedented (and endlessly imitated) car chase through San Francisco. Although McQueen did the driving that appeared in closeup, this was about 10% of what is seen in the film's car chase. The rest of the driving by McQueen's character was done by stunt drivers Bud Ekins and Loren Janes. The antagonist's black was driven by veteran stunt driver Bill Hickman; McQueen, his stunt drivers and Hickman spent several days before the scene was shot practicing high-speed, close-quarters driving. "Bullitt" went so far over budget that Warner Brothers cancelled the contract on the rest of his films, seven in all.


title: Steve McQueen

text: When "Bullitt" became a huge box-office success, Warner Brothers tried to woo him back, but he refused, and his next film was made with an independent studio and released by United Artists. For this film, McQueen went for a change of image, playing a debonair role as a wealthy executive in "The Thomas Crown Affair" with Faye Dunaway in 1968. The following year, he made the southern period piece "The Reivers".


title: Steve McQueen

text: In 1971, McQueen starred in the poorly received auto-racing drama "Le Mans", followed by "Junior Bonner" in 1972, a story of an aging rodeo rider. He worked for director Sam Peckinpah again with the leading role in "The Getaway", where he met future wife Ali MacGraw. He followed this with a physically demanding role as a Devil's Island prisoner in 1973's "Papillon", featuring Dustin Hoffman as his character's tragic sidekick.


title: Steve McQueen

text: In 1973, The Rolling Stones referred to McQueen in the song "Star Star" from the album "Goats Head Soup" for which an amused McQueen reportedly gave personal permission. The lines were "Star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star / Yes you are, yes you are, yes you are / Yeah, Ali MacGraw got mad with you / For givin' head to Steve McQueen".


title: Steve McQueen

text: By the time of "The Getaway", McQueen was the world's highest-paid actor, but after 1974's "The Towering Inferno", co-starring with his long-time professional rival Paul Newman and reuniting him with Dunaway, became a tremendous box-office success, McQueen all but disappeared from the public eye, to focus on motorcycle racing and traveling around the country in a motor home and on his vintage Indian motorcycles. He did not return to acting until 1978 with "An Enemy of the People", playing against type as a bearded, bespectacled 19th-century doctor in this adaptation of a Henrik Ibsen play. The film was never properly released theatrically, but has appeared occasionally on PBS.


title: Steve McQueen

text: His last two films were loosely based on true stories: "Tom Horn", a Western adventure about a former Army scout-turned professional gunman who worked for the big cattle ranchers hunting down rustlers, and later hanged for murder in the shooting death of a sheepherder, and "The Hunter", an urban action movie about a modern-day bounty hunter, both released in 1980.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen was offered the lead male role in "Breakfast at Tiffany's", but was unable to accept due to his "Wanted: Dead or Alive" contract (the role went to George Peppard). He turned down parts in "Ocean's 11", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (his attorneys and agents could not agree with Paul Newman's attorneys and agents on top billing), "The Driver", "Apocalypse Now", "California Split", "Dirty Harry", "A Bridge Too Far", "The French Connection" (he did not want to do another cop film), "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Sorcerer".


title: Steve McQueen

text: According to director John Frankenheimer and actor James Garner in bonus interviews for the DVD of the film "Grand Prix", McQueen was Frankenheimer's first choice for the lead role of American Formula One race car driver Pete Aron. Frankenheimer was unable to meet with McQueen to offer him the role, so he sent Edward Lewis, his business partner and the producer of "Grand Prix". McQueen and Lewis instantly clashed, the meeting was a disaster, and the role went to Garner.


title: Steve McQueen

text: Oh, McQueen. Crazy McQueen. McQueen and I get along pretty good, McQueen looked to me kind of like an older brother and he didn't want to have much with me, till he got into trouble, then he'd call and, you know, he knew, I could tell him just what I thought. A lot of people wouldn't do that. And then we had a falling out. It wasn't a falling out, as i did Grand Prix. Steve was originally slated to do that movie, but he couldn't get along with Frank Frankenheimer. So that lasted about 30 minutes, and I was in and Steve was out. And Steve went over to do Sand Pebbles, which went about year longer than they wanted to go. Big production spent a lot of money and stayed in China too long there, in Taiwan. So, when I got the part in Grand Prix, I called him. In Taiwan. And I started: "Steve, I want to tell you, before somebody else, that I'm going to do Grand Prix." Well, there was about a 20 dollars' silence there (laugh), on the telephone. He didn't know, what to say, and finally said "Oh, that's great, that's great, I'm glad to hear that.", because he planned to do Le Mans, which was another title at the time. But we were about to release, before he even got to that film. But he said: "Great, great, well, I'm glad to hear it; that's good. You know, if anybody's gonna do it, I'm glad, you're going to do it.


title: Steve McQueen

text: He didn't talk to me for about year and half, and we were next-door neighbors (laugh). So, it got to him a little bit, finally by his son. Chad took him to go see Grand Prix. And from that time on, we were talking again. But Steve was a wild kid. He didn't know where he wanted to be or what he wanted to do.


title: Steve McQueen

text: Director Steven Spielberg said McQueen was his first choice for the character of Roy Neary in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". According to Spielberg, in a documentary on the "Close Encounters" DVD, Spielberg met him at a bar, where McQueen drank beer after beer. Before leaving, McQueen told Spielberg that he could not accept the role because he was unable to cry on cue. Spielberg offered to take the crying scene out of the story, but McQueen demurred, saying that it was the best scene in the script. The role eventually went to Richard Dreyfuss.


title: Steve McQueen

text: William Friedkin wanted to cast McQueen as the lead in the action/thriller film "Sorcerer" (1977). "Sorcerer" was to be filmed primarily on location in the Dominican Republic, but McQueen did not want to be separated from Ali MacGraw for the duration of the shoot. McQueen then asked Friedkin to let MacGraw act as a producer, so she could be present during principal photography. Friedkin would not agree to this condition, and cast Roy Scheider instead of McQueen. Friedkin later remarked that not casting McQueen hurt the film's performance at the box office.


title: Steve McQueen

text: Spy novelist Jeremy Duns revealed that McQueen was considered for the lead role in a film adaptation of "The Diamond Smugglers", written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming; McQueen would play John Blaize, a secret agent gone undercover to infiltrate a diamond-smuggling ring in South Africa. There were complications with the project which was eventually shelved, although a 1964 screenplay does exist.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen and Barbra Streisand were tentatively cast in "The Gauntlet", but the two could not get along, and both withdrew from the project. The lead roles were filled by Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen expressed interest in the Rambo character in "First Blood" when David Morrell's novel appeared in 1972, but the producers rejected him because of his age. He was offered the title role in "The Bodyguard" (to star Diana Ross) when it was proposed in 1976, but the film did not reach production until years after McQueen's death (which eventually starred Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston in 1992). "Quigley Down Under" was in development as early as 1974, with McQueen in consideration for the lead, but by the time production began in 1980, McQueen was ill and the project was scrapped until a decade later, when Tom Selleck starred. McQueen was offered the lead in "Raise the Titanic", but felt that the script was flat. He was under contract to Irwin Allen after appearing in "The Towering Inferno" and offered a part in a sequel in 1980, which he turned down. The film was scrapped and Newman was brought in by Allen to make "When Time Ran Out", which was a box office bomb. McQueen died shortly after passing on "The Towering Inferno 2".


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen was an avid motorcycle and race car enthusiast. When he had the opportunity to drive in a movie, he performed many of his own stunts, including some of the car chases in "Bullitt" and the motorcycle chase in "The Great Escape". Although the jump over the fence in "The Great Escape" was done by Bud Ekins for insurance purposes, McQueen did have considerable screen time riding his 650 cc Triumph TR6 Trophy motorcycle. It was difficult to find riders as skilled as McQueen. At one point, using editing, McQueen is seen in a German uniform chasing himself on another bike. Around half of the driving in "Bullitt" was performed by Loren Janes.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen and John Sturges planned to make "Day of the Champion", a movie about Formula One racing, but McQueen was busy with the delayed "The Sand Pebbles". They had a contract with the German Nürburgring, and after John Frankenheimer shot scenes there for "Grand Prix", the reels were turned over to Sturges. Frankenheimer was ahead in schedule, and the McQueen-Sturges project was called off.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen considered being a professional race car driver. He had a one-off outing in the British Touring Car Championship in 1961, driving a BMC Mini at Brands Hatch, finishing third. 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 earlier) won with a Porsche 908/02 in the three-litre class and missed winning overall by 21.1 seconds to Mario Andretti/Ignazio Giunti/Nino Vaccarella in a five-litre Ferrari 512S. This 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 the film backers threatened to pull their support if he did. Faced with the choice of driving for 24 hours in the race or driving for the entire summer making the film, McQueen opted for the latter.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen competed in off-road motorcycle racing, frequently running a BSA Hornet and using alias Harvey Mushman. He was also set to co-drive in a Triumph 2500 PI for the British Leyland team in the 1970 London-Mexico rally, but had to turn it down due to movie commitments. His first off-road motorcycle was a Triumph 500 cc, purchased from Ekins. McQueen raced in many top off-road races on the West Coast, including the Baja 1000, the Mint 400, and the Elsinore Grand Prix.


title: Steve McQueen

text: In 1964, McQueen and Ekins were part of a four-rider (plus one reserve) first-ever official US team-entry into the Silver Vase category of the International Six Days Trial, an Enduro-type off-road motorcycling event held that year in Erfurt, East Germany. The "A" team arrived in England in late August to collect their mix of 649 cc and 490 cc twins from the Triumph factory before modifying them for off-road use. Initially let down with transport arrangements by a long-established English motorcycle dealer, Triumph dealer H&L Motors stepped-in to provide a suitable vehicle. On arrival in Germany, the team, with their English temporary manager, were surprised to find a Vase "B" team, comprising expat Americans living in Europe, had entered themselves privately to ride European-sourced machinery.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen's ISDT competition number was 278, which was based on the trials starting order. Both teams crashed repeatedly. McQueen retired due to irreparable crash damage, and Ekins withdrew with a broken leg, both on day three (Wednesday). Only one member of the "B" team finished the six-day event. UK monthly magazine "Motorcycle Sport" commented: "Riding Triumph twins...[the team] rode everywhere with great dash, if not in admirable style, falling off frequently and obviously out for six days' sport without too many worries about who was going to win (they knew it would not be them)".


title: Steve McQueen

text: He was inducted in the Off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1978. In 1971, McQueen's Solar Productions funded the classic motorcycle documentary "On Any Sunday," in which McQueen is featured, along with racing legends Mert Lawwill and Malcolm Smith. The same year, he also appeared on the cover of "Sports Illustrated" magazine riding a Husqvarna dirt bike.


title: Steve McQueen

text: In a segment filmed for "The Ed Sullivan Show," McQueen drove Sullivan around a desert area in a dune buggy at high speed. Afterward, Sullivan said, "That was a 'helluva' ride!"


title: Steve McQueen

text: By testimony of McQueen's son, Chad, Steve owned around 100 classic motorcycles, as well as around 100 exotics and vintage cars, including:


title: Steve McQueen

text: In spite of numerous attempts, McQueen was never able to purchase the Ford Mustang GT 390 he drove in "Bullitt", which featured a modified drivetrain that suited McQueen's driving style. One of the two Mustangs used in the film was badly damaged, judged beyond repair, and believed to have been scrapped until it surfaced in Mexico in 2017, while the other one, which McQueen attempted to purchase in 1977, is hidden from the public eye. At the 2018 North American International Auto Show the GT 390 was displayed, in its current non-restored condition, with the 2019 Ford Mustang "Bullitt".


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen also flew and owned, among other aircraft, a 1945 Stearman, tail number N3188, (his student number in reform school), a 1946 Piper J-3 Cub, and an award-winning 1931 Pitcairn PA-8 biplane, flown in the US Mail Service by famed World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker. They were hangared at Santa Paula Airport an hour northwest of Hollywood, where he lived his final days.


title: Steve McQueen

text: On November 2, 1956, he married Filipino actress and dancer Neile Adams, with whom he had a daughter, Terry Leslie (June 5, 1959 – March 19, 1998), and a son, Chad (born December 28, 1960). McQueen and Adams divorced in 1972. In her autobiography, "My Husband, My Friend", Adams stated that she had an abortion in 1971, when their marriage was on the rocks. One of McQueen's four grandchildren is actor Steven R. McQueen (who is best known for playing Jeremy Gilbert in "The Vampire Diaries" and Jimmy Borelli in "Chicago Fire").


title: Steve McQueen

text: Mamie Van Doren claimed to have had an affair with McQueen and tried hallucinogens with him around 1959. Actress-model Lauren Hutton also said that she had an affair with McQueen in the early 1960s. In 1971–1972, while separated from Adams, McQueen had a relationship with "Junior Bonner" co-star Barbara Leigh, which included her pregnancy and an abortion.


title: Steve McQueen

text: In Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1973, McQueen married actress Ali MacGraw, his co-star in "The Getaway", but this marriage ended in a divorce in 1978. MacGraw suffered a miscarriage during their marriage. Some friends later claimed that MacGraw was the one true love of McQueen's life: "He was madly in love with her until the day he died."


title: Steve McQueen

text: In 1973, McQueen was one of the pallbearers at Bruce Lee's funeral along with James Coburn, Bruce's brother Robert Lee, Peter Chin, Dan Inosanto, and Taky Kimura.


title: Steve McQueen

text: After discovering a mutual interest in racing, McQueen and "Great Escape" co-star James Garner became good friends and lived near each other. McQueen recalled:


title: Steve McQueen

text: I could see that Jim was neat around his place. Flowers trimmed, no papers in the yard... grass always cut. So to piss him off, I'd start lobbing empty beer cans down the hill into his driveway. He'd have his drive all spick 'n' span when he left the house, then get home to find all these empty cans. Took him a long time to figure out it was me.


title: Steve McQueen

text: On January 16, 1980, less than a year before his death, McQueen married model Barbara Minty. Barbara Minty, in her book "Steve McQueen: The Last Mile", wrote of McQueen becoming an Evangelical Christian toward the end of his life. This was due in part to the influences of his flying instructor, Sammy Mason, Mason's son Pete, and Barbara herself. McQueen attended his local church, Ventura Missionary Church, and was visited by evangelist Billy Graham shortly before his death.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen followed a daily two-hour exercise regimen, involving weightlifting and, at one point, running , seven days a week. McQueen learned the martial art Tang Soo Do from ninth-degree black belt Pat E. Johnson.


title: Steve McQueen

text: According to photographer William Claxton, McQueen smoked marijuana almost every day; biographer Marc Eliot stated that McQueen used a large amount of cocaine in the early 1970s. He was also a heavy cigarette smoker. McQueen sometimes drank to excess; he was arrested for driving while intoxicated in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1972.


title: Steve McQueen

text: Two months after Charles Manson incited the murder of five people, including McQueen's friends Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring, the media reported police had found a hit list with McQueen's name on it. According to his first wife, McQueen began carrying a handgun at all times in public, including at Sebring's funeral.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen had an unusual reputation for demanding free items in bulk from studios when agreeing to do a film, such as electric razors, jeans, and other items. It was later discovered McQueen donated these things to the Boys Republic reformatory school, where he had spent time during his teen years. McQueen made occasional visits to the school to spend time with the students, often to play pool and speak about his experiences.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen supported Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 United States presidential election and Richard Nixon in the 1968 United States presidential election.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen developed a persistent cough in 1978. He gave up cigarettes and underwent antibiotic treatments without improvement. His shortness of breath grew more pronounced, and on December 22, 1979, after filming "The Hunter", a biopsy revealed pleural mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure for which there is no known cure.


title: Steve McQueen

text: A few months later, McQueen gave a medical interview in which he blamed his condition on asbestos exposure. McQueen believed that asbestos used in movie sound stage insulation and race-drivers protective suits and helmets could have been involved but he thought it more likely that his illness was a direct result of massive exposure while removing asbestos lagging (insulation) from pipes aboard a troop ship while he served in the Marines.


title: Steve McQueen

text: By February 1980, evidence of widespread metastasis was found. He tried to keep the condition a secret but on March 11, 1980, the "National Enquirer" disclosed that he had "terminal cancer". In July 1980, McQueen traveled to Rosarito Beach, Mexico, for unconventional treatment after U.S. doctors told him they could do nothing to prolong his life. Controversy arose over the trip because McQueen sought treatment from William Donald Kelley, who was promoting a variation of the Gerson therapy that used coffee enemas, frequent washing with shampoos, daily injections of fluid containing live cells from cattle and sheep, massages, and laetrile, a reputed anti-cancer drug available in Mexico, but long known to be both toxic and ineffective at treating cancer. McQueen paid for Kelley's treatments by himself in cash payments which were said to have been upwards of $40,000 per month ($ today) during his three-month stay in Mexico. Kelley's dental license, his only medically related license (until revoked in 1976) had been for orthodontics, a field of dentistry, not medicine. Kelley's methods caused a sensation in the traditional and tabloid press when it became known that McQueen was a patient.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen returned to the U.S. in early October. Despite metastasis of the cancer throughout McQueen's body, Kelley publicly announced that McQueen would be completely cured and return to normal life. McQueen's condition soon worsened and huge tumors developed in his abdomen.


title: Steve McQueen

text: In late October 1980, McQueen flew to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico to have an abdominal tumor on his liver (weighing around 5 lbs) removed, despite warnings from his U.S. doctors that the tumor was inoperable and his heart could not withstand the surgery. Using the name "Samuel Sheppard," McQueen checked into a small Juárez clinic where the doctors and staff were unaware of his actual identity.


title: Steve McQueen

text: On November 7, 1980, McQueen died of a heart attack at 3:45 a.m. at a Juárez hospital, 12 hours after surgery to remove or reduce numerous metastatic tumors in his neck and abdomen. He was 50 years old. According to the "El Paso Times", McQueen died in his sleep.


title: Steve McQueen

text: Leonard DeWitt of the Ventura Missionary Church presided over McQueen's memorial service. McQueen was cremated, and his ashes were spread in the Pacific Ocean.


title: Steve McQueen

text: In 2007, 27 years after his death, "Forbes" said McQueen remained a popular star and still the "king of cool" and was one of the highest-earning dead celebrities. A rights-management agency head credited Branded Entertainment Network (called Corbis at the time) with maximizing the profitability of his estate by limiting the licensing of McQueen's image, avoiding the commercial saturation of other dead celebrities' estates. As of 2007, McQueen's estate entered the top 10 of highest-earning dead celebrities.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers in April 2007 in a ceremony at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.


title: Steve McQueen

text: In November 1999, McQueen was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame. He was credited with contributions including financing the film "On Any Sunday", supporting a team of off-road riders, and enhancing the public image of motorcycling overall.


title: Steve McQueen

text: A film based on unfinished storyboards and notes developed by McQueen before his death was slated for production by McG's production company Wonderland Sound and Vision. "Yucatán" is described as an "epic adventure heist" film, scheduled for release in 2013 but still unreleased in February 2016. Team Downey, the production company of Robert Downey, Jr. and his wife Susan Downey, expressed an interest in developing "Yucatán" for the screen.


title: Steve McQueen

text: The Beech Grove, Indiana, Public Library formally dedicated the Steve McQueen Birthplace Collection on March 16, 2010, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of McQueen's birth on March 24, 1930.


title: Steve McQueen

text: In 2012, McQueen was posthumously honored with the Warren Zevon Tribute Award by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO).


title: Steve McQueen

text: "", a 2015 documentary, examines the actor's quest to create and star in the 1971 auto-racing film "Le Mans". His son Chad McQueen and former wife Neile Adams are among those interviewed.


title: Steve McQueen

text: On September 28, 2017, there was a selected showing in some theaters of his life story and spiritual quest, "Steve McQueen – American Icon". There was an encore presentation on October 10, 2017. The film received mostly positive reviews. Kenneth R. Morefield of Christianity Today said it "offers a timeless reminder that even those among us living the most celebrated lives often long for the peace and sense of purpose that only God can provide". Michael Foust of Wordslingers called it "one of the most powerful and inspiring documentaries I've ever seen."


title: Steve McQueen

text: In the 2019 Quentin Tarantino film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", McQueen is portrayed by Damian Lewis. He also appears as a character in Tarantino's novel of the same name.


title: Steve McQueen

text: The Academy Film Archive houses the Steve McQueen-Neile Adams Collection, which consists of personal prints and home movies. The archive has preserved several of McQueen's home movies.


title: Steve McQueen

text: In 1998, director Paul Street created a commercial for the Ford Puma. Footage was shot in modern-day San Francisco, set to the theme music from "Bullitt". Archive footage of McQueen was used to digitally superimpose him driving and exiting the car in settings reminiscent of the film. The Puma shares the same number plate of the classic fastback Mustang used in "Bullitt", and as he parks in the garage (next to the Mustang), he pauses and looks meaningfully at a motorcycle tucked in the corner, similar to that used in "The Great Escape".


title: Steve McQueen

text: In 2005, Ford used his likeness again, in a commercial for the 2005 Mustang. In the commercial, a farmer builds a winding racetrack, which he circles in the 2005 Mustang. Out of the cornfield comes McQueen. The farmer tosses his keys to McQueen, who drives off in the new Mustang. McQueen's likeness was created using a body double (Dan Holsten) and digital editing. Ford secured the rights to McQueen's likeness from the actor's estate licensing agent for an undisclosed sum.


title: Steve McQueen

text: At the Detroit Auto Show in January 2018, Ford unveiled the new 2019 Mustang Bullitt. The company called on McQueen's granddaughter, actress Molly McQueen, to make the announcement. After a brief rundown of the tribute car's particulars, a short film was shown in which Molly was introduced to the actual Bullitt Mustang, a 1968 Mustang Fastback with a 390 cubic-inch engine and a four-speed manual gearbox. That car has been in possession of the same family since 1974 and hidden away from the public until then, when it was driven out from under the press stand and up the center aisle of Ford's booth to much fanfare.


title: Steve McQueen

text: One of his motorcycles, a 1937 Crocker, sold for a world-record price of $276,500 at the same auction. McQueen's 1963 metallic-brown Ferrari 250 GT Lusso Berlinetta sold for US$2.31 million at auction on August 16, 2007. Except for three motorcycles sold with other memorabilia in 2006, most of McQueen's collection of 130 motorcycles was sold four years after his death. The 1970 Porsche 911S purchased while making the film "Le Mans" and appearing in the opening sequence was sold at auction in August 2011 for $1.375 million. From 1995 to 2011, McQueen's red 1957 fuel-injected Chevrolet convertible was displayed at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles in a special Cars of Steve McQueen exhibit. It is now in the collection of actress Ruth Buzzi and her husband Kent Perkins. McQueen's British racing green 1956 Jaguar XKSS is located in the Petersen Automotive Museum and is in drivable condition, having been driven by Jay Leno in an episode of "Jay Leno's Garage". In August 2019, Mecum Auctions announced it would auction the Bullitt Mustang Hero Car at its Kissimmee auction, held January 2–12, 2020. The car sold without reserve for $3.4 million ($3.74 million after commissions and fees).


title: Steve McQueen

text: The Rolex Explorer II, Reference 1655, known as Rolex Steve McQueen in the horology collectors' world, the Rolex Submariner, Reference 5512, which McQueen was often photographed wearing in private moments, sold for $234,000 at auction on June 11, 2009, a world-record price for the type.


title: Steve McQueen

text: McQueen was a sponsored ambassador for Heuer watches. In the 1971 film "Le Mans", he famously wore a blue-faced Monaco Ref. 1133, which led to its cult status among watch collectors, purchasing six watches of the same model for the shoot of the film. On December 12, 2020, one of the last six models sold and one of two held in private hands was sold for a record US$2.208 million at a Phillips auction in New York City, becoming the most expensive Heuer watch sold at auction. Tag Heuer continues to promote its Monaco range with McQueen's image.


title: Steve McQueen

text: In June 2018, Phillips announced McQueen's Rolex Submariner to hit the auction block in September that year. However, there was controversy whether or not the watch was his personal watch worn by McQueen himself or if the watch was bought, engraved, then gifted. Phillips later removed the watch from the auction block.


title: Steve McQueen

text: The blue-tinted sunglasses (Persol 714) worn by McQueen in the 1968 movie "The Thomas Crown Affair" sold at a Bonhams & Butterfields auction in Los Angeles for $70,200 in 2006.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Jada Koren Pinkett Smith (; née Pinkett; born September 18, 1971) is an American actress and talk show host. She is co-host of the Facebook Watch talk show "Red Table Talk", for which she has received a Daytime Emmy Award. "Time" named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2021.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Pinkett Smith landed her big break on the sitcom "A Different World" in 1991. She went on to star in films such as "Menace II Society" (1993), "The Nutty Professor" (1996)"," "Set It Off" (1996), and "Scream 2" (1997) before her prominent contributions to "The Matrix Reloaded" (2003), "The Matrix Revolutions" (2003) and the animated "Madagascar" films. She returned to television with starring roles on "Hawthorne" (2009–2011) and "Gotham" (2014–2017). Her other acting roles include "Magic Mike XXL" (2015), "Bad Moms" (2016), "Girls Trip" (2017), and "The Matrix Resurrections" (2021).


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In 2002, Pinkett Smith launched a music career as the lead singer and songwriter for the heavy metal band Wicked Wisdom. In 2004, she published a children's book, "Girls Hold Up This World", which landed at number two on "The New York Times" Best Seller list. Along with her husband Will Smith, she has a production company and has producing credits in films, documentaries, and television series. In 2010, she earned a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Musical as a producer for the Broadway musical "Fela!".


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Jada Koren Pinkett was named after her mother's favorite soap opera actress, Jada Rowland. She is of Jamaican and Bajan descent on her mother's side and African-American descent on her father's side. Her parents are Adrienne Banfield-Norris, the head nurse of a Baltimore inner-city clinic, and Robsol Pinkett Jr., who ran a construction company. Banfield-Norris became pregnant in high school; the couple married but divorced after several months. Pinkett was raised by her mother and grandmother, Marion Martin Banfield, a Jamaican-born social worker. "My grandmother was a doer who wanted to create a better community and add beauty to the world," she said. Banfield noticed her granddaughter's passion for the performing arts and enrolled her in piano, tap dance, and ballet lessons.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Pinkett attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, where she met and became close friends with her classmate, rapper Tupac Shakur. When Pinkett met Shakur, she was a drug dealer. Her mother had been a heroin addict. She majored in dance and theatre and graduated in 1989. After graduation, she spent a year at the North Carolina School of the Arts.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Pinkett began her acting career in 1990, when she starred in an episode of "True Colors". She received guest roles in television shows such as "Doogie Howser, M.D." (1991) and "21 Jump Street" (1991), and earned a role on comedian Bill Cosby's NBC television sitcom "A Different World" in 1991, as college freshman Lena James.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In 1993, Pinkett appeared in her first film, "Menace II Society". She was cast as Ronnie, a single mother, due to a recommendation from her friend Tupac Shakur, who was set to appear in the film before he was fired. Pinkett considered dropping out of the film after Shakur's departure but he convinced her to keep the role.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In 1994, Pinkett acted with Keenen Ivory Wayans in the action and comedy film "A Low Down Dirty Shame". She described her character, Peaches, as "raw" with "major attitude", and her acting garnered positive reviews. "The New York Times" wrote, "Ms. Pinkett, whose performance is as sassy and sizzling as a Salt-N-Pepa recording, walks away with the movie." In 1994, she also starred as a title character in Doug McHenry's romantic drama "Jason's Lyric", opposite Allen Payne. In his positive review of the film, Roger Ebert wrote, "[Payne] has powerful chemistry with the enigmatic, teasing, tender character played by Pinkett; they really seem to like one another, which is not a feeling you always pick up in screen romances." That year, she also had a role in the romantic comedy-drama "The Inkwell."


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In 1995, Pinkett played a convict on work release in the horror film "Demon Knight". According to Larenz Tate, Pinkett was set to appear in the film "Dead Presidents" (1995), but she turned down the role of Delilah due to her loyalty to Shakur. The Hughes brothers directed the film and they had fired Shakur from "Menace II Society".


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Pinkett also began directing music videos in 1995. She directed the music video "I'm Going Down" by girl group Y? N-Vee. She also directed the music video "How Many Times" by Gerald Levert and appeared in the video. "It was reported that Pinkett would direct the music video for Shakur's song "Can U Get Away" but another single was released instead. Pinkett came up with the concept for his "California Love" music video which she had intended to direct, but she removed herself from the project. In 1996, Pinkett directed the music video "Keep On, Keepin' On" by MC Lyte Feat. Xscape.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Pinkett starred with actor and comedian Eddie Murphy in the 1996 remake of "The Nutty Professor", portraying the love interest of a kindhearted university professor who is morbidly obese. The film was a commercial success, earning $25 million in its first weekend in North America and eventually $274 million worldwide. She also had a lead role in "Set It Off" (1996), a crime drama about four women who rob banks to escape from poverty, opposite Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise. Her acting in the film was noted in the "San Francisco Chronicle", which wrote that she was "the one to watch". Budgeted at $9 million, "Set It Off" made $41 million globally.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In 1997, Pinkett had a cameo role in "Scream 2" as a college student who is brutally murdered in front of hundreds of filmgoers. The film made more than $100 million at the North American box office. In 1998, she played a news reporter in the thriller "Return to Paradise", with Joaquin Phoenix and Vince Vaughn, and took on the title role of an extroverted woman, alongside Tommy Davidson, in the comedy "Woo". While favorably reviewing her performance in "Woo", Derek Armstrong of "AllMovie" wrote that the script was "formulaic" and "not much of a vehicle for its impish starlet". She next starred in Spike Lee's film "Bamboozled" (2000) as a personal assistant to the main character, played by Damon Wayans. Although the film met with mediocre reviews, it won the National Board of Review's Freedom of Expression Award.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In 2001, Pinkett Smith portrayed a loud-mouthed wife in the moderately successful comedy "Kingdom Come", with LL Cool J, Vivica A. Fox, Anthony Anderson, Toni Braxton, and Whoopi Goldberg. In the biographical sports drama "Ali" (2001), she played Sonji Roi, the first wife of boxer Muhammad Ali, opposite Will Smith. While she loved the final product, she initially did not think she was the right person for the role: "I felt like because we were a couple off screen, for people to see us together on the screen in a movie like this, would take people out of the movie, that people would see Will and Jada there—they wouldn't see Ali and Sonji".


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Perhaps her best-known role to date is the part of human rebel Niobe in the films "The Matrix Reloaded" (2003) and "The Matrix Revolutions" (2003), sequels to 1999's "The Matrix", and the related video game "Enter The Matrix" (2003). The character was written specifically with Pinkett Smith in mind. Directly after she filmed her scenes for "Ali", Pinkett Smith flew to Australia to work on the "Matrix" sequels. The sequels earned over $91 million and $48 million during their North American opening weekends, respectively.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In the neonoir thriller "Collateral" (2004), alongside Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise, Pinkett Smith played a U.S. Justice Department prosecutor and the target of a contract killer. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $217.8 million worldwide. She voiced Gloria, a strong, confident, but sweet hippopotamus, in the computer animated film "Madagascar" (2005). Tom McGrath, one of the film's directors, said they found all these traits in her voice when they listened to her. Despite a mixed response from critics, the film was a commercial success, earning $532 million worldwide, and becoming one of the biggest hits of 2005. In 2007, she played the wife of an affluent dentist in the drama "Reign Over Me", with Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Liv Tyler, and Donald Sutherland. "Entertainment Weekly" called the film a "strange, black-and-blue therapeutic drama equally mottled with likable good intentions and agitating clumsiness", and found Pinkett Smith "graceful" in it.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In 2008, Pinkett Smith took on the role of a lesbian author in the all-female comedy "The Women", opposite Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, and Eva Mendes. Though a commercial success, "The Women" was panned by critics, with Pinkett Smith earning a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for her performance. Her directorial debut was the drama "The Human Contract" (also 2008); she also wrote, and starred as the sister of a successful but unhappy businessman, with Paz Vega and Idris Elba. It debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2008. The success of "Madagascar" led Pinkett Smith to return to the role of Gloria in the 2008 sequel "", which earned US$603 million at the international box office.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Pinkett Smith was an executive producer and starred as a Chief Nursing Officer in the TNT medical drama "Hawthorne", which premiered on June 16, 2009. "USA Today" remarked: "Pinkett Smith's "Hawthorne" is tired in every sense of the word, and she's not the only one. Every character and event falls under the category of painfully predictable". "Hawthorne" ended on August 16, 2011, after three seasons. In 2010, she earned a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Musical as a producer for the Broadway musical "Fela!". While she reprised the voice role of Gloria in "" (2012), which made over US$746 million, she also voiced the character in the NBC Christmas special "Merry Madagascar" (2009) and the direct-to-DVD film "Madly Madagascar" (2013).


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Beginning in 2014, Pinkett Smith starred in the first season of the FOX crime drama "Gotham", as Gotham City gangster Fish Mooney. She returned, recurrently, in the second and third seasons of the series. In 2015, she starred in the comedy "Magic Mike XXL", as the manager of a star stripper club, opposite Channing Tatum and Joe Manganiello. The film made US$122.5 million worldwide. She starred with Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Christina Applegate in the comedy "Bad Moms" (2016), as the sidekick of a domineering parent-teacher association head. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the cast and humor, though did not feel it could "take full advantage of its assets". The film, nevertheless, earned more than US$183.9 million.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Pinkett Smith next took on the role of a nurse and uptight mom in the comedy "Girls Trip" (2017), alongside Regina Hall, Queen Latifah and Tiffany Haddish. The film was chosen by "Time" magazine as one of its top ten films of 2017, and grossed US$140 million worldwide, including over US$100 million domestically, the first comedy of 2017 to do so. In July 2017, Pinkett Smith appeared at the Essence Festival where, on the Empowerment Stage, she appeared to talk alongside Queen Latifah. Pinkett Smith spoke highly of the cast reflecting their characters in real life, stating that they are all women who love other women and work to empower each other, a feature that she notes as rare in Hollywood.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Beginning in May 2018, Pinkett Smith along with her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norri and her daughter Williow Smith have hosted the Facebook Watch talk show "Red Table Talk", which focuses on a wide range of topics. In a positive review, "USA Today"s Maeve McDermott praised the series for its "insightful guests, no-holds-barred topics and Smith's magnetic hosting presence". In 2021, "Time" magazine named Pinkett Smith and her co-hosts to its list of the 100 most influential people in the world; they were chosen by comedian Tiffany Haddish. In 2021, Red Table Talk won an Daytime Emmy Award in the outstanding informative talk show category.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Under the name Jada Koren, Pinkett Smith formed the metal band Wicked Wisdom in 2002. The band consists of Pinkett Smith performing lead vocals, Pocket Honore (guitar, vocals), Cameron "Wirm" Graves (guitar, keyboard, vocals), and Rio (bass, vocals). The band is managed by James Lassiter and Miguel Melendez of Overbrook Entertainment, a company co-founded by Pinkett Smith's husband Will Smith.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: The band's self-titled debut album was released on February 21, 2006, by Pinkett Smith's production company 100% Womon and Suburban Noize Records. Will Smith served as the project's executive producer. The album made it to "Billboard"'s Top Heatseekers chart, and peaked at number 44 during the week of March 11, 2006. AllMusic reviewer Alex Henderson said of the album, "[Pinkett Smith] shows herself to be an expressive, commanding singer" and that "[Wicked Wisdom] shows considerable promise". The band promoted the album in 2006, touring with heavy metal band Sevendust.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Wicked Wisdom landed a slot on Britney Spears' Onyx Hotel Tour in 2004, one of the year's highest-profile tours. The band opened for Spears for eight dates in April and May 2004, during the European leg of the tour.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In 2005, Sharon Osbourne saw Wicked Wisdom perform at a small nightclub in Los Angeles. She said: "I was blown away. When you see and hear Jada with her band it's apparent that she has nothing but love and respect for this genre of music". In May 2005, organizers announced Wicked Wisdom would perform on the second stage of 2005's Ozzfest. Aware of questions about the band's addition to Ozzfest, Pinkett Smith said, "I'm not here asking for any favors. You've got to show and prove. And not every audience is going to go for it." Wicked Wisdom's guitarist Pocket Honore said while early dates of the tour were rocky, "once word got out that we weren't a joke, people started coming out and by the sixth or seventh gig we were on fire". Pinkett Smith agreed, saying, "After seven dates within the Ozzfest tour, the whole attitude of it started to turn around once the word of mouth started getting out."


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: After opening her music company 100% Women Productions, Pinkett Smith created her own fashion label, Maja, in 1994. The clothing line features women's T-shirts and dresses embellished with the slogan "Sister Power", sold primarily through small catalogs.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In 2003, Pinkett Smith and Smith helped to create the television series "All of Us", which aired on UPN/The CW. Pinkett Smith published her first children's book, "Girls Hold Up This World", in 2004. "I wrote the book for Willow and for her friends and for all the little girls in the world who need affirmation about being female in this pretty much masculine world. I really tried to capture different sides of femininity. I want girls in the world to feel powerful, to know they have the power to change the world in any way they wish."


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In 2005, Pinkett Smith became one of many celebrities to invest a combined total of US$10 million in Carol's Daughter, a line of beauty products created by Lisa Price. She became a spokesman for the beauty line, and said, "To be a part of another African American woman's dream was just priceless to me."


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Together with Will, Pinkett Smith has created the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland, a charity that focuses on youth in urban inner cities and family support. Her aunt, Karen Banfield Evans, is the foundation's executive director. The charity was awarded the David Angell Humanitarian Award by The American Screenwriters Association (ASA) in 2006. The Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation has provided grants to non-profit organizations such as YouthBuild, and Pinkett Smith has made personal donations to organizations such as Capital K-9s.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: After meeting Tom Cruise during the filming of "Collateral" (2004), Pinkett Smith and Will Smith donated $20,000 to the Hollywood Education and Literacy Program (HELP), Scientology's basis for homeschooling.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In 2006, Pinkett Smith donated $1 million to her high school alma mater, the Baltimore School for the Arts, and dedicated the new theater to her classmate and close friend Tupac Shakur.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: When Pinkett Smith's aunt, Karen Banfield Evans, was diagnosed with lupus, the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation, in association with the Lupus Foundation of America and Maybelline, held the first annual "Butterflies Over Hollywood" event on September 29, 2007, at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. The event raised funds for LFA public and professional educational programs. The Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation was presented with an award in 2007 at the 4th Annual Lupus Foundation of America Awards.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In 2012, on behalf of PETA, Pinkett Smith wrote a letter to Baltimore's mayor, asking that the visiting Ringling Brothers Circus "comply with Baltimore's absolute prohibition of the use of devices such as bullhooks" and not harm the elephants. In 2013, she appeared in a video clip for Gucci's "Chime for Change" campaign that aims to raise funds and awareness of women's issues globally.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In the early 1990s, Pinkett Smith dated former basketball player Grant Hill while he attended Duke University.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Pinkett Smith had a close friendship with rapper Tupac Shakur which was formed when they were both attending the Baltimore School for the Arts. She appeared in his music videos "Keep Ya Head Up" (1993) and "Temptations" (1995). She also came up with the concept for his "California Love" (1995) music video and had intended to direct it, but she removed herself from the project. In 1995, she contributed $100,000 towards Shakur's bail as he awaited an appeal on his sexual abuse conviction. Pinkett Smith stated in the 2003 documentary "" that he was "one of my best friends. He was like a brother. It was beyond friendship for us. The type of relationship we had, you only get that once in a lifetime."


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In 2018, Pinkett Smith said that she had been diagnosed with the autoimmune disease alopecia areata. Despite having many medical tests, she said she has not been able to find the cause of her alopecia, and that she suspects it might be stress. She shared a video on her Instagram account in December 2021 showing herself with a shaved head, saying; "Now at this point, I can only laugh" (...) "Mama's gonna have to take it down to the scalp so nobody thinks she got brain surgery or something. Me and this alopecia are going to be friends... period!".


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: Pinkett Smith has remained close to her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris, and said, "A mother and daughter's relationship is usually the most honest, and we are so close." She also added: "[My mother] understood what I wanted and never stood in my way." She participated as the maid of honor in Banfield-Norris's 1998 wedding to Paul Jones, a telecommunications executive.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: She met Will Smith in 1994 on the set of Smith's television show "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", when she auditioned for the role of his character's girlfriend, Lisa Wilkes. She was considered too short and the role went to actress Nia Long. Will and Jada later began dating after he separated from Sheree Fletcher. Prior to this, Will had developed an attraction to Jada, but did not act on it. Jada eventually moved from her hometown of Baltimore to California to be with him. On December 31, 1997, while Jada was three months pregnant, about 100 guests attended their wedding at The Cloisters, near her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. Regarding her marriage, Jada said that they are "private people" and told one interviewer, "I will throw my career away before I let it break up our marriage. I made it clear to Will. I'd throw it away completely". The couple produce films through their joint production company, Overbrook Entertainment and Westbrook Inc.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: They have two children, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith (born 1998), and Willow Camille Reign Smith (born 2000). She is also the stepmother of Trey Smith, her husband's son from a previous marriage. Will commented in 2008 on their parenting styles: "We're not strict but we definitely believe it's a very important component for rearing children. It creates safety for them. They understand that they need guidance." The family resides in a home, on , in Malibu. In May 2014, Moisés Arias, who was 20 at the time, was photographed shirtless in a bed with then-13-year-old Willow Smith. The photo triggered an investigation into the family by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In April 2013, Pinkett Smith caused many to believe she and her husband were in an open marriage after stating in an interview: "I've always told Will, 'You can do whatever you want as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror and be okay'. Because at the end of the day, Will is his own man. I'm here as his partner, but he is his own man". However, she denied such, clarifying her statements on Facebook, writing: "Open marriage? The statement I made in regard to, 'Will can do whatever he wants', has illuminated the need to discuss the relationship between trust and love and how they co-exist".


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: In June 2020, singer and rapper August Alsina—a friend of Pinkett Smith's son Jaden—said that he and Pinkett Smith had been involved in an adulterous affair in 2016, when he was 23 years old and she was 44. He also claimed that the affair happened with Will Smith's permission. A spokesman for Pinkett Smith denied the claims, saying they were "absolutely not true". On July 10, during an episode of "Red Table Talk" featuring her husband, Pinkett Smith confirmed an "entanglement" with Alsina during their separation, although not with his permission. Pinkett Smith said that Alsina misconstrued it as permission because she and her husband were "separated amicably". She eventually got back with her husband after breaking off the relationship with Alsina and stated she has not spoken to him since.


title: Jada Pinkett Smith

text: After Pinkett Smith's use of the word "entanglement" went viral on the Internet, Alsina released a collaboration titled "Entanglements" with rapper Rick Ross on July 19, 2020, singing lines such as "the definition of entanglement is when you get tangled in the sheets" and "you left your man just to fuck with me and break his heart". In 2021, Will Smith stated that Pinkett Smith "never believed in conventional marriage" and that both of them have had sexual relationships outside of their marriage.


title: Bhutan

text: Bhutan (; ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous country, Bhutan is known as "Druk Yul," or "Land of the Thunder Dragon". Nepal and Bangladesh are located near Bhutan but do not share a land border. The country has a population of over 727,145 and territory of and ranks 133rd in terms of land area and 160th in population. Bhutan is a Constitutional Democratic Monarchy with King as head of state and Prime Minister as head of government. Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism is the state religion and the Je Khenpo is the head of state religion.


title: Bhutan

text: The subalpine Himalayan mountains in the north rise from the country's lush subtropical plains in the south. In the Bhutanese Himalayas, there are peaks higher than above sea level. Gangkhar Puensum is Bhutan's highest peak and is the highest unclimbed mountain in the world. The wildlife of Bhutan is notable for its diversity, including the Himalayan takin. The capital and largest city is Thimphu.


title: Bhutan

text: Bhutan and neighbouring Tibet experienced the spread of Buddhism which originated in the Indian subcontinent during the lifetime of Gautama Buddha. In the first millennium, the Vajrayana school of Buddhism spread to Bhutan from the southern Pala Empire of Bengal. During the 16th century, Ngawang Namgyal unified the valleys of Bhutan into a single state. Namgyal defeated three Tibetan invasions, subjugated rival religious schools, codified the "Tsa Yig" legal system, and established a government of theocratic and civil administrators. Namgyal became the first Zhabdrung Rinpoche and his successors acted as the spiritual leaders of Bhutan like the Dalai Lama in Tibet. During the 17th century, Bhutan controlled large parts of northeast India, Sikkim and Nepal; it also wielded significant influence in Cooch Behar State. Bhutan ceded the Bengal Duars to British India during the Bhutan War in the 19th century. The House of Wangchuck emerged as the monarchy and pursued closer ties with the British in the subcontinent. In 1910, a treaty guaranteed British advice in foreign policy in exchange for internal autonomy in Bhutan. The arrangement continued under a new treaty with India in 1949 (signed at Darjeeling) in which both countries recognised each other's sovereignty. Bhutan joined the United Nations in 1971. It has since expanded relations with 55 countries. While dependent on the Indian military, Bhutan maintains its own military units.


title: Bhutan

text: The 2008 Constitution establishes a parliamentary government with an elected National Assembly and a National Council. Bhutan is a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). In 2020, Bhutan ranked third in South Asia after Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the Human Development Index. Bhutan is also a member of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, the Non-Aligned Movement, BIMSTEC, the IMF, the World Bank, UNESCO and the World Health Organization (WHO). Bhutan ranked first in SAARC in economic freedom, ease of doing business, peace and lack of corruption in 2016. Bhutan has one of the largest water reserves for hydropower in the world. Melting glaciers caused by climate change are a growing concern in Bhutan.


title: Bhutan

text: Stone tools, weapons, elephants, and remnants of large stone structures provide evidence that Bhutan was inhabited as early as 2000 BC, although there are no existing records from that time. Historians have theorised that the state of "Lhomon" (literally, "southern darkness"), or "Monyul" ("Dark Land", a reference to the Monpa, an ethnic group in Bhutan & Arunachal Pradesh) may have existed between 500 BC and AD 600. The names "Lhomon Tsendenjong" (Sandalwood Country), and "Lhomon Khashi", or Southern Mon (country of four approaches), have been found in ancient Bhutanese and Tibetan chronicles.


title: Bhutan

text: Buddhism was first introduced to Bhutan in the 7th century AD. The Tibetan king Songtsän Gampo (reigned 627–649), a Buddhist convert, extended the Tibetan Empire into Sikkim and Bhutan. He ordered the construction of two Buddhist temples, Bumthang in central Bhutan and at Kyichu (near Paro) in the Paro Valley. Buddhism was propagated in earnest in 746 under King Sindhu Rāja ("also" Künjom; Sendha Gyab; Chakhar Gyalpo), an exiled Indian king who had established a government in Bumthang at Chakhar Gutho Palace.


title: Bhutan

text: Much of early Bhutanese history is unclear because most of the records were destroyed when fire ravaged the ancient capital, Punakha, in 1827. By the 10th century, Bhutan's political development was heavily influenced by its religious history. Various subsects of Buddhism emerged that were patronised by the various Mongol warlords.


title: Bhutan

text: Bhutan may have been influenced by the Yuan dynasty with which it shares various cultural and religious similarities.


title: Bhutan

text: After the decline of the Yuan dynasty in the 14th century, these subsects vied with each other for supremacy in the political and religious landscape, eventually leading to the ascendancy of the Drukpa Lineage by the 16th century.


title: Bhutan

text: Locally, Bhutan has been known by many names. The earliest Western record of Bhutan, the 1627 "Relação" of the Portuguese Jesuits Estêvão Cacella and João Cabral, records its name variously as "Cambirasi" (among the Koch Biharis), "Potente", and "Mon" (an endonym for southern Tibet). Until the early 17th century, Bhutan existed as a patchwork of minor warring fiefdoms, when the area was unified by the Tibetan lama and military leader Ngawang Namgyal, who had fled religious persecution in Tibet. To defend the country against intermittent Tibetan forays, Namgyal built a network of impregnable "dzongs" or fortresses, and promulgated the Tsa Yig, a code of law that helped to bring local lords under centralised control. Many such "dzong" still exist and are active centres of religion and district administration. Portuguese Jesuits Estêvão Cacella and João Cabral were the first recorded Europeans to visit Bhutan in 1627, on their way to Tibet. They met Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, presented him with firearms, gunpowder and a telescope, and offered him their services in the war against Tibet, but the Zhabdrung declined the offer. After a stay of nearly eight months Cacella wrote a long letter from the Chagri Monastery reporting on his travels. This is a rare extant report of the Zhabdrung.


title: Bhutan

text: When Ngawang Namgyal died in 1651, his passing was kept secret for 54 years. After a period of consolidation, Bhutan lapsed into internal conflict. In 1711, Bhutan went to war against the Raja of the kingdom of Koch Bihar in the south. During the chaos that followed, the Tibetans unsuccessfully attacked Bhutan in 1714.


title: Bhutan

text: In the 18th century, the Bhutanese invaded and occupied the kingdom of Koch Bihar. In 1772, the Maharaja of Koch Bihar appealed to the British East India Company which assisted by ousting the Bhutanese and later attacking Bhutan itself in 1774. A peace treaty was signed in which Bhutan agreed to retreat to its pre-1730 borders. However, the peace was tenuous, and border skirmishes with the British were to continue for the next hundred years. The skirmishes eventually led to the Duar War (1864–65), a confrontation for control of the Bengal Duars. After Bhutan lost the war, the Treaty of Sinchula was signed between British India and Bhutan. As part of the war reparations, the Duars were ceded to the United Kingdom in exchange for a rent of . The treaty ended all hostilities between British India and Bhutan.


title: Bhutan

text: During the 1870s, power struggles between the rival valleys of Paro and Tongsa led to civil war in Bhutan, eventually leading to the ascendancy of Ugyen Wangchuck, the "penlop" (governor) of Trongsa. From his power base in central Bhutan, Ugyen Wangchuck defeated his political enemies and united the country following several civil wars and rebellions during 1882–85.


title: Bhutan

text: In 1907, an epochal year for the country, Ugyen Wangchuck was unanimously chosen as the hereditary king of the country by the Lhengye Tshog of leading Buddhist monks, government officials, and heads of important families, with the firm petition made by "Gongzim" Ugyen Dorji. John Claude White, British Political Agent in Bhutan, took photographs of the ceremony. The British government promptly recognized the new monarchy, and in 1910, Bhutan signed the Treaty of Punakha, a subsidiary alliance which gave the British control of Bhutan's foreign affairs and meant that Bhutan was treated as an Indian princely state. This had little real effect, given Bhutan's historical reticence, and also did not appear to affect Bhutan's traditional relations with Tibet. After the new Union of India gained independence from the United Kingdom on 15 August 1947, Bhutan became one of the first countries to recognise India's independence. On 8 August 1949, a treaty similar to that of 1910, in which Britain had gained power over Bhutan's foreign relations, was signed with the newly independent India.


title: Bhutan

text: In 1953, King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck established the country's legislature—a 130-member National Assembly—to promote a more democratic form of governance. In 1965, he set up a Royal Advisory Council, and in 1968 he formed a Cabinet. In 1971, Bhutan was admitted to the United Nations, having held observer status for three years. In July 1972, Jigme Singye Wangchuck ascended to the throne at the age of sixteen after the death of his father, Dorji Wangchuck.


title: Bhutan

text: Bhutan's sixth Five-Year Plan (1987–92) included a policy of 'one nation, one people' and introduced a code of traditional Drukpa dress and etiquette called "Driglam Namzhag". The dress element of this code required all citizens to wear the "gho" (a knee-length robe for men) and the "kira" (an ankle-length dress for women). A central plank of the Bhutanese government's policy since the late 1960s has been to modernise the use of Dzongkha language. This began with abandoning the use of Hindi, a language that was adopted to help start formal secular education in the country, in 1964. As a result, at the beginning of the school year in March 1990 the teaching of Nepali language (which share similarities with Hindi) spoken by ethnic Lhotshampas in southern Bhutan was discontinued and all Nepali curricular materials discontinued from Bhutanese schools.


title: Bhutan

text: In 1988, Bhutan conducted a census in southern Bhutan to guard against illegal immigration, a constant threat in the south where borders with India are porous. Each family was required to present census workers with a tax receipt from the year 1958—no earlier, no later—or with a certificate of origin, which had to be obtained from one's place of birth, to prove that they were indeed Bhutanese citizens. Previously issued citizenship cards were no longer accepted as proof of citizenship. Alarmed by these measures, many began to protest for civil and cultural rights and demanded a total change to be brought to the political system that existed since 1907. As protests and related violence swept across southern Bhutan, the government in turn increased its resistance. People present at protests were labeled "anti-national terrorists". After the demonstrations, the Bhutanese army and police began the task of identifying participants and supporters engaged in the violence against the state and people. They were arrested and held for months without trial. Soon the Bhutanese government arbitrarily reported that its census operations had detected the presence in southern Bhutan of over 100,000 "illegal immigrants" although this number is often debated. The census operations, thus, were used as a tool for the identification, eviction and banishment of dissidents who were involved in the uprising against the state. Military and other security forces were deployed for forceful deportations of between 80,000 and 100,000 Lhotshampas and were accused of using widespread violence, torture, rape and killing. The evicted Lhotshampas became refugees in camps in southern Nepal. Since 2008, many Western countries, such as Canada, Norway, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, have allowed resettlement of the majority of the Lhotshampa refugees.


title: Bhutan

text: Bhutan's political system has recently changed from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. King Jigme Singye Wangchuck transferred most of his administrative powers to the Council of Cabinet Ministers and allowed for impeachment of the King by a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly.


title: Bhutan

text: In 1999, the government lifted a ban on television and internet, making Bhutan one of the last countries to introduce television. In his speech, the King said that television was a critical step to the modernisation of Bhutan as well as a major contributor to the country's gross national happiness, but warned that the "misuse" of this new technology could erode traditional Bhutanese values.


title: Bhutan

text: A new constitution was presented in early 2005. In December 2005, Wangchuck announced that he would abdicate the throne in his son's favour in 2008. On 9 December 2006, he announced that he would be abdicating immediately. This was followed by the first national parliamentary elections in December 2007 and March 2008.


title: Bhutan

text: In July 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bhutan became the first world-leading nation in its role of vaccinating 470,000 out of 770,000 people with a two-dose shot of AstraZeneca vaccines.