Steve McQueen died of heart attack at 50 while battling mesothelioma
Steve McQueen died of a heart attack at age 50 in a hospital in Juarez, Mexico, on Nov. 7, 1980.
According to the New York Times obituary, McQueen had been battling mesothelioma and died after undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous tumor.
His third wife, Barbara Minty (who’s now 73), and two children, son Chad, 21, and daughter Terri, 20, were at the bedside, according to McQueen’s publicist Warren Cowan.
The Chicago Tribune obituary stated, “The body was being returned to California, where his first wife is making arrangements for a funeral.” But the New York Times obituary cited Cowan as stating no funeral was planned.
According to a New York Times article in November 2005 by Barron H. Lerner, McQueen “first developed a cough in 1978.” A year later, during which he made his last film, “The Hunter,” he was, according to Lerner, “having difficulty breathing,” and the diagnosis of mesothelioma was made in December 1979. Lerner writes that McQueen was treated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy while keeping his condition secret, but the National Enquirer on March 11, 1980, broke the news. Having run out of standard treatment options, Lerner writes, “McQueen secretly met with Dr. William D. Kelley, a dentist and orthodontist who had devised a controversial treatment regimen he claimed had cured his own pancreatic cancer,” and McQueen would travel to Mexico.
Many of Lerner’s details match those of other articles about McQueen found on the internet today. The sourcing, however, isn’t known, and Lerner’s details suggest McQueen and those employing him for at least a full year before his diagnosis failed to get any kind of comprehensive physical. Many people avoid going to the doctor. McQueen would certainly be concerned about leaks to the press no matter what his diagnosis. But he was an extremely highly paid actor whose participation must be insured.
The Chicago Tribune obituary stated that Dr. Cesar Santos Vargas operated on McQueen a day before his death for three hours and found “a very huge tumor in the right lung which was malignant and had spread to his left lung, neck, and down into the intestines.” The doctor said McQueen was in “extreme pain” and sought the operation because of the pain, and “the possibility of his surviving the operation was extremely poor,” and an embolism killed him hours later.
According to both the Chicago Tribune and New York Times obituaries, McQueen had been battling the mesothelioma with an unorthodox regimen of special diets, nutritional supplements, animal-cell injections and laetrile in Mexico. He was living at his ranch in Santa Paula, Calif., and checked in to the Juarez clinic for the last time “using the pseudonym Samuel Sheppard.”
On Sunday, Nov. 9, 1980, The New York Times published an Associated Press story raising questions about the experimental treatment McQueen received. Dr. Edward Zalta, president of the Los Angeles County Medical Association, said “the unconventional therapy could’ve contributed to his death.” Santos Vargas said it was clear that McQueen did not have long to live; he “looked more pregnant than a fully pregnant woman.” That article says McQueen’s treatment at Plaza Santa Maria Hospital, developed by “Dr. Donald William Kelley,” included laetrile, coffee enemas and a diet “largely of raw vegetables.” Kelley said the treatement “made the quality of his life excellent during the past four months.”
On its website, the National Cancer Institute states, “No controlled clinical trials of laetrile have been reported. Anecdotal reports and case reports have not shown laetrile to be an effective treatment for cancer.”
According to The Cleveland Clinic, “Asbestos exposure is the most common cause of mesothelioma,” but, “it can take decades for cancer to develop after asbestos exposure,” and, “people with mesothelioma don’t always have a history of asbestos exposure.” According to the Mayo Clinic, “Experts believe that being around asbestos causes many mesotheliomas. But not everyone with mesothelioma has been around asbestos. Exactly what causes the cancer may not be known.”
The Chicago Tribune obituary stated McQueen’s first wife, Neile Adams (who’s now 94), called the Mexican doctors who treated McQueen “charlatans and exploiters” and said that Minty was too young and naive to intervene.
The questionable treatment McQueen undertook overshadows the fact he is one of Hollywood’s most tragic figures. It is not a tragedy at the level of Sharon Tate. (McQueen did not attend that funeral but did attend the funeral of Jay Sebring with Roman Polanski.) (McQueen is portrayed in “Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood”; whether his estate was paid is unknown.) McQueen’s is a different kind of tragedy than Christopher Reeve. How McQueen became sick is not at all obvious. Humphrey Bogart died at 57 from esophageal cancer. He smoked and drank. Patrick Swayze, also a heavy smoker, died at 57 from pancreatic cancer. Lerner’s article says McQueen may have been exposed to asbestos “by wearing racing suits.” McQueen’s Wikipedia page, citing two books, says McQueen thought he might’ve been exposed while in the Marines but apparently also thought he could’ve been exposed by racing gear and/or insulation on movie sets. Football great turned actor Merlin Olsen also suffered from mesothelioma and died at 69. He sued NBC and a host of companies associated with asbestos. NBC was dropped from the lawsuit, and his family settled with the other companies after his death. Olsen’s law firm issued a statement saying its determination was that his cancer was caused by “significant cumulative lifetime exposure to many asbestos products.”
Paul Gleason, actor in “The Breakfast Club,” died of mesothelioma in 2006. He was 67. His family was represented by Olsen’s attorneys, who say Gleason’s cancer “was caused by working around asbestos-containing products at a construction job he held as a youth.” Gleason’s death resulted in a “confidential out-of-court settlement.” Another law firm’s site says Gleason died “just three weeks after his pleural mesothelioma diagnosis.”
There’s no indication McQueen’s estate sued anyone over his cancer.
McQueen’s death at 50 came when he was still among the highest-paid actors in the world and figured to have many films left. Admittedly, his heyday was likely over. His career had curiously downshifted after the 1974 megahit “The Towering Inferno.” One imagines what roles he might’ve been considered for in the 1980s and ’90s. “Blade Runner”? “Firefox”? “48 Hrs.”? “Platoon”? “Pulp Fiction”? Or would he have quietly retired? A UPI obituary published Saturday, Nov. 8, 1980, described McQueen as “a secretive, reclusive man who shunned the Hollywood social whirl” and had an “obsession for privacy.”
An Associated Press story published Monday, Nov. 10, 1980, quoted Cowan as saying “Cremation has taken place,” citing information from Minty.
An Associated Press story published Thursday, Nov. 13, 1980, said McQueen’s ashes were scattered by airplane over the Pacific Ocean. It cited “a family friend who declined to be identified.” It said “a small gathering” including family, stuntmen, “local residents” and pilots was held Nov. 9 at McQueen’s Santa Paula ranch. It said “eight open-cockpit biplanes flew in formation over the McQueen ranch.” Neile Adams and Ali MacGraw (who’s now 87), McQueen’s first two wives, visited during the event.
That actors in general are not mentioned in that account is curious. Though coveting privacy, there is no indication McQueen was estranged from Hollywood. But there are also no indications, from news accounts and from comments made after his death, that fellow Hollywood stars or moguls visited with him in his final months. The UPI obituary included these comments:
James Garner: “Steve’s death doesn’t come as a shock — but it does. He will be sorely missed. Steve didn’t want any of us to see him the past few months, but he knew we all loved him. We cared.”
Jacqueline Bisset: “Oh my God. I’m just terribly sad. I thought he was a beautiful, beautiful man. I’m so shocked.”
Charles Bronson: “I was shocked when I learned Steve was sick ... I haven’t had time to really let it sink in. I can’t believe it.”
Charlton Heston: “It was something we had some warning about and had come to expect. But he still died far too soon. He was one of our major film actors, and will be greatly missed. He made pictures with a kind of style you don’t see very often.”
Irwin Allen: “He was a marvelous human being, a great friend, and he was a professional. We were close friends. My God, will he be missed!”
Steve McQueen, one of the few dozen biggest movie stars of all time, received one Oscar nomination, for Best Actor for “The Sand Pebbles” (1966). He lost to Paul Scofield (“A Man for All Seasons”). Other nominees were Michael Caine (“Alfie”), Alan Arkin (“The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming”) and Richard Burton (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”).
There is no indication that President Jimmy Carter nor President-elect Ronald Reagan, who had just won the White House that week, issued a statement on McQueen’s death.
(October 2026)
