Fifty years after the height of Steve McQueen's career, his grandson, Steven R. McQueen is following in his footsteps. Like his famous grandfather, the younger McQueen is an actor, and you may have seen him around without realizing he had any relation to the beloved star, as he's already appeared in a number of hit shows. Read on to find out more about the McQueen family and the roles The Great Escape star's grandson has taken on.
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McQueen's father is Steve's son, Chad McQueen.
Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.comSteve had two children with his first wife, actor and dancer Neile Adams. The couple had a daughter, Terry Leslie McQueen, and a son, Chad McQueen, who is a former actor and race car driver. With his wife, Stacey Toten, Chad welcomed Steven Chadwick McQueen in 1988. The 33-year-old goes by Steven R. McQueen professionally. Steve passed away in 1980, eight years before McQueen was born.
McQueen is best known for a vampire series that was hugely popular with teens.
Timothy Hiatt/WireImage via Getty ImagesMost of McQueen's acting work has been for television. He is best known for starring as Jeremy Gilbert on the series The Vampire Diaries for its first six seasons. He then starred on two seasons of Chicago Fire as Jimmy Borrelli and appeared on the spinoff series Chicago P.D. The actor also had a recurring role on Everwood and appeared in the series Without a Trace, CSI: Miami, and Numb3rs, and in the 2010 movie Piranha 3D.
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He also focuses on charity work.
In addition to acting, McQueen is passionate about his work with Thirst Project. In fact, when he does post on Instagram, which is infrequently, his posts tend to be about the charity. Thirst Project was started by a group of students in 2008 and works towards ending the global water crisis and providing those who need it with clean water. McQueen asked fans to sponsor his walk to support the organization in 2019, and more recently shared photos of a trip he took to Eswatini to help bring access to clean water.
Sharing a name with his grandfather motivates him.
John Sciulli/Getty Images for Thirst ProjectIn a 2011 interview with the New Zealand Herald, McQueen explained that watching his grandfather's movies and those of other film greats got him into acting when he was a teenager. "Seeing him in those films was inspiring but so, too, was watching other actors, like Marlon Brando and James Dean, in a whole bunch of other films," McQueen said. "That's what made me want to try acting. From there, my passion for it slowly unfolded. I went to a couple of classes and I grew to love it."
McQueen also said that having a similar name to his grandfather (Steve McQueen was born Terrence Stephen McQueen) is as motivating as it is intimidating. "There's definitely a level of pressure because of it, but it's the name I was born with so I figured I may as well stick with it," he said. "Anyway, I'm quite a competitive person, so it pushes me to not only live up to any expectations, but to climb out of the shadow and cut a path of my own."
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