Steve McQueen on bad faith breach

Actor Steve McQueen’s 1959 automobile accident in Boston was a put-up job designed to get him out of his contract for the Wanted: Dead or Alive television series, according to his agent, Hilly Elkins.

Elkins, interviewed as part of the promotional tour for the DVD release of Wanted: Dead or Alive, says that McQueen wanted out of his TV deal so he could film The Magnificent Seven.  It sheds a little light on Hollywood business practices:

I told Steve they wouldn’t let him out of his contract and give him this significant career opportunity.

He was with [his first wife] on holiday in Boston and I suggested to him that he have a little accident that will keep him from working.

He promptly took his rented Cadillac and ran it into the Bank of Boston and came out of it with whiplash, which everybody gets when you hit something hard.  Everyone thought it was a staged act but his neck was in a brace.

Not only did the Wanted Dead Or Alive people let him do the picture, but I also got them to double his salary.  Once we got through the arguments of releasing his contract, the neck brace came off and life went on.