
In the spring of 1963, Steve McQueen opened up the doors of his Palm Springs home to Life magazine photographer John Dominis.

Three weeks and more than 40 rolls of film later, Dominis had an unrivalled insight into the award-winning actor’s life, having spent time with his family, camped with his friends, and raced his cars around Hollywood.

He captured some intimate and now-iconic images – only a handful of which were ever published – and here is a selection that was not featured in the magazine at the time.

Intimate: Steve McQueen and his first wife, Neile Adams, dancing to jazz in their living room. 'They were always necking,' says Dominis

In love: McQueen and Neile Adams, who had been married for seven years at the time, cuddling by the pool at their Palm Springs home Shooting: McQueen and his wife, Neile Adams, firing pistols in the Palm Springs desert

Hand-in-hand: Steve McQueen and his wife, Neile Adams, walking through the desert. The spark between them was still alive, according to Dominis

From early morning until late at night, the photographer, now 90, trailed McQueen, who was already popular having recently starred in the Magnificent Seven.

But Dominis said he had to make sure he was not too intrusive. 'Movie stars, they weren't used to giving up a lot of time,' he told Time magazine. 'But I sort of relaxed in the beginning and didn't bother them every time they turned around, and they began to get used to me being there. If they were doing something, they would definitely just not notice me anymore.'

Dominis did not see McQueen, who was aged 33 at the time, after the shoot but continued to follow his movies and cherished the three weeks he had spent with him. 'We weren't real friends, but we were friendly. They liked me, and they had a silver mug made: "To John Dominis, for work beyond the call of duty." And I've still got it.'

Snapshot: McQueen and Adams hugging in their kitchen, left, and McQueen smoking, right. The actor did not give up smoking until he became sick in the 1970s



Comfortable: McQueen working out in between filming, left, and stripping off, right. 'We're sitting around the swimming pool up on the deck and Steve goes away and he comes back without any clothes on,' recalls Dominis

Joys: McQueen, who was a jazz lover, listening to records, left, and enjoying a drink after a two-day dirt bike race across the Mojave Desert, right



'He was very open and playful,' he added. 'He liked camping, he liked rugged things, he liked firing a gun.'



Dominis recalled that McQueen and his first wife, Neile Adams, who had been married for seven years, were very tactile and playful with each other. 'They were always necking,' he said. 'They chase each other around,' he wrote in notes he filed for his editors in 1963 , 'as though it were going out of style.'

McQueen told Life at the time: 'With strangers, I can't breathe... But I dig my old lady.'

Dominis said he was 'surprised' that McQueen and Adams got divorced because the spark between them was very much alive. McQueen, who died of a heart attack aged 50, went on to marry his The Getaway co-star Ali McGraw in 1973 and model Barbara Minty in 1980.

At ease: Steve McQueen talking on the phone in his living room

Focused: McQueen aims a pistol in his living room, practising his aim before heading out for a shooting session in the desert

Fit: Steve McQueen working out in the Paramount Studio gym and taking a break from shooting the movie Love With the Proper Stranger opposite Natalie Wood