BOOK/MAGAZINE: Steve McQueen Was a Pilot Not Celebrity at Santa Paula Airport

The Great Escape superstar, who played chess to jazz while seducing Faye Dunaway, in real life spent his last year where he was treated as an average Joe. Friends recall his kindness and love of cheap beer. One day in 1979, the King of Cool decided to fly. Before anyone knew it, Steve McQueen was living with his girlfriend in a hangar at the Santa Paula Airport. During the day, he learned to pilot a World War II-era biplane. In the evening, the tough-guy superstar would crack open cold beers ...

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