It's Mr McQueen, not Steve

The source for this story was Christopher Sandford's biography of McQueen, which takes its information loosely from Neile Adams's book (McQueen's first wife). Sandford's book is tabloid garbage, just a cut above Dawrin Porter's book, not because it says bad things about McQueen but because it is factually erroneous in many cases and also makes many unverifiable claims (such as McQueen and Paul Newman having sex, McQueen and James Dean combing each other's hair, among many others).

It is well documented that McQueen's behavior was at his worst during "Le Mans". I read in a few places that when meeting Lee Katzin, McQueen was not friendly, spent much of his time locked up in his trailer, and did not agree with Katzin's ideas on what direction to take the film in. But I've never read anywhere the version of events that article described.

Barbara McQueen said recently that as time goes by, people take more and more liberties when writing about McQueen, and the tales get taller every time they're repeated. Also, Chad McQueen has talked about his frustration with stories about his father being exaggerated.

What happens with articles like the one you linked is that the second half of the story is left out. After production, McQueen and Katzin shook hands and parted as non-enemies, but that doesn't tie into the currently popular narrative of McQueen being an out-of-control maniac - according to the author of that article, all you need to know is that McQueen grabbed Katzin by the tie and said "Mr. McQueen".



"Life is a scam" - Steve McQueen

Katzin probably caught McQueen at a very bad time when his pet project was unraveling. He was sent by the studio to fix his mess and McQueen took it as a personal insult. Maybe that was why there was so much animosity between the two from the get go.

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