1956

Marries Neile Adams.

1956

The 5 ft 9 McQueen plays a bit part in Somebody Up There Likes Me. Salary: $19 per day.

1958

Plays a lead in The Blob. Salary: $3,000.

1959

Daughter Terry McQueen born on the 5th June in Los Angeles. Appears in Never So Few, after Sammy Davis Jr dropped out of the project due to a feud with Frank Sinatra.

1960

Son Chad McQueen born on the 28th December in Los Angeles. Plays one of the hired gunfighters in The Magnificent Seven. Salary: $100,000.

1961

Appears in The Honeymoon Machine. Salary: $100,000.

1962

Appears in Hell Is for Heroes and The War Lover. Salary for former film: $150,000

1963

Stars as the daring P.O.W. who attempts to flee his Nazi captors on a motorcycle in The Great Escape. McQueen does many of his own stunts on the film. Salary: $400,000. Also stars in Soldier in the Rain and Love With the Proper Stranger.

1965

Stars in Baby The Rain Must Fall and The Cincinnati Kid.

1966

Stars in Nevada Smith and The Sand Pebbles. Salary for Nevada Smith: $500,000. Salary for The Sand Pebbles: $250,000. Oscar nomnation for The Sand Pebbles.

1968

Stars in The Thomas Crown Affair and Bullitt. Salary for The Thomas Crown Affair: $700,000. Salary for Bullitt: $1,000,000. Bullitt becomes one of his most successful films with the car chase through San Francisco.

1969

Stars in The Reivers. Salary: $700,000. Also is pencilled in to star with Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Leaves the project due to a disagreement over the billing. The rivalry with Newman goes back to the days when they appeared in Somebody Up There Likes Me.

1971

Participates on On Any Sunday, Bruce Brown's documentary on his favorite hobby, motorcycling. Stars in Le Mans.

1972

Stars in Junior Bonner and The Getaway, which co-stars Ali MacGraw. Salary for Junior Bonner: $500,000. Salary for The Getaway: $300,000. Divorces Neile Adams.

1973

Pallbearer at the funeral of actor Bruce Lee. Marries Ali MacGraw. Stars in Papillon. Salary: $2,300,000.

1974

Stars in The Towering Inferno and gets top billing over Paul Newman. Salary: $1,500,000 + 7.5% of gross.

1977

Stars in Ibsen's An Enemy of the People.

1978

Divorces Ali MacGraw.

1979

Issued a Private Pilots license by the FAA. Diagnosed with mesothelioma lung cancer on December 22.

1980

Stars in the Western Tom Horn and a contemporary bounty hunter story, The Hunter. Salary for The Hunter: $3,000,000. Marries Barbara Minty in January. His cancer, mesothelioma, is related to asbestos exposure. He was possibly exposed to the harmful insulating material during his stint in the Marines. Goes to a health clinic in Mexico to undergo a controversial "apricot pit" therapy banned in the United States. Dies at 3:45 am on the 7th November 1980 in Juárez, Mexico, less than 24 hours after undergoing a successful surgery to remove the canerous tumors in his right lung. Ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

1997

Is ranked #30 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.

1998

Daughter Terri McQueen dies of respiratory failure shortly after a liver transplant on the 19th March.