Steve McQueen’s Most Regretted Role: The Blob Dilemma
Steve McQueen’s early career included a film he would rather forget. Despite its box office success, he always resented his part in The Blob, a decision that haunted him for years.
Before Steve McQueen became synonymous with effortless cool and Hollywood stardom, he was, like many actors, simply trying to get by. Early in his career, he had little say over the projects he accepted, often taking roles out of necessity rather than choice. It wasn’t until he had firmly established himself that he could steer his own path, but one particular project from his formative years continued to cast a long shadow over his legacy.
From Television to the Silver Screen
McQueen’s journey to fame was far from instantaneous. He possessed the talent and determination required to thrive in a notoriously unforgiving industry, yet it took time for his breakthrough to materialise. His stint as the lead in the television series Wanted Dead or Alive between 1958 and 1961 helped raise his profile, but the leap from television to cinema was a significant challenge in those days. Fortunately, his appearance in The Magnificent Seven—released before his television run concluded—offered a glimpse of his potential as a leading man in film. By then, he had already appeared in several features, but this role marked a turning point.
Throughout the 1960s, McQueen’s career gathered momentum. He secured his place among the elite with performances in The Great Escape, an Academy Award nomination for The Sand Pebbles, and memorable turns in The Thomas Crown Affair and Bullitt. By the time he found himself in a well-publicised rivalry with Paul Newman during The Towering Inferno, McQueen had become the highest-paid actor in the business.
The Film He Couldn’t Escape
Despite his many achievements, one particular title from his past continued to trouble him. In 1958, McQueen took his first leading role in The Blob, a low-budget science fiction film about a gelatinous alien terrorising a small American town. The film, though modest in its ambitions, became a surprise box office hit and is now regarded as a cult classic of its genre. Yet, for McQueen, it was a source of lasting embarrassment.
He had misgivings from the outset.
“It was shit!”
he once told Michael Munn. His then-wife, Neile Adams, encouraged him to accept the part, reasoning,
“No one’ll see it. No one’ll know you were in it.”
McQueen reluctantly agreed, convinced the film would pass unnoticed. As it turned out, he could not have been more mistaken.
“Man, everyone saw it,”
he later lamented.
Missed Opportunities and Lingering Regret
Adding insult to injury, McQueen had been offered a share of the film’s profits—10 percent, to be precise—but declined, opting instead for a flat fee of $3,000. The film, produced on a shoestring budget of $110,000, went on to gross over $4 million. Had he accepted the profit share, he would have earned a considerable sum. His decision, based on the assumption that the film would flop, proved costly.
Even as his career soared, McQueen’s opinion of The Blob never softened. In one of his final interviews before his death in 1980, he was asked about the film. His response was terse:
“I don’t want to talk about that movie.”