These pictures are from a pictorial in LIFE magazine circa 1963. One picture is taken in his apartment and the other with his wife in the desert.
Can anyone ID the handgun he has? It appears to be the same one in both pictures.

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h&r model 939 ultra sidekick.. its in the article with the pictures

The story behind Steve McQueen's revolver | The Gentleman's Journal

H&R Model 939 “Ultra Sidekick” 22 LR 9-shot revolver with a 6″ heavy barrel

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Not sure what it is. Almost looks like an early Dan Wesson. Of course, it could be a complete custom job. Between bullseye, silhouette and other competitions, smiths were coming up with some creative stuff to improve the weapons.

Edit: Never mind.

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Watch your topknot!

How cool do you have to be to wear sunglasses in your living room? Steve McQueen cool, that's how much! I always liked that guy and his movies. Tom Horn, The Great Escape, Papillon, Bullitt, Nevada Smith. The list goes on.....

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Crush...Kill...Destroy

Hammer back with finger in the trigger. McQueen didn’t seem to know much about gun safety.

I lost interest in the guns when I viewed the second picture.

Maybe he was gonna shoot something. Or someone.

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Watch your topknot!

Or maybe, as the article states, he took pains before the picture was taken to ensure that the gun was unloaded.

Looks like he's using the ole "teacup grip", slightly modified. Not sure what grip his wife was supposed to using, (once I got to looking at her grip) Some sort of a "girly grip",......... not that there's anything wrong with that of course. As long as your just shooting 22.

I come across the old TV show "Wanted Dead or Alive". He sure knew how to handle a firearm there. Love all of his movies, especially "Bullitt" & "The Great Escape".

Looks like an H & R to me.

No Dan Wessons in 1963. I like his wife's "shooting" position. It's a photo shoot, nothing more.
I read he fired the Mare's Leg with live ammunition, said it kicked like a mule, he couldn't hit anything with it.

Just a minor correction. McQueen didn’t have to be, cool. He just was.
I think my favorite is The Sand Pebbles.

That was pre-Glock trigger safety paranoia.

Geoff
Who wonders how the species survived!

Oh, there are guns in the 2nd picture? They didn't draw my attention.

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Looks like the young lady has a S/A 22.

Maybe a Peacemaker? Maybe a prop?

Speaking of props, she must have had some tough elbows. Makes mine hurt to look. (The Elbows)

The remainder shows a beautiful, but obviously inexperienced shooter.

Pic of Mcqueen with The Duke that I keep in my John Wayne folder.

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It's A Sight, Ain't It...

no more $125 H&R's... now

What difference does that make? I thought we always assume a gun is always loaded. And never put your finger on the trigger until ready to fire. And never point a gun at something you don’t intend to shoot.

It’s a cool picture. I wasn’t intending to stir up a hornet’s nest. Just pointing out his weapons handling skills apparently sucked. I don’t know much about McQueen. Seen a few of his movies. Honestly wasn’t all that impressed, but I know he’s got a “manly man” reputation. But he clearly didn’t know squat about handling a gun. Certainly not enough to teach his wife a few things. And what’s with the teacup grip?

dry firing watching Gunsmoke

I'm going with this until somebody proves otherwise . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Old Steve-O looks snot slingin’ drunk in that pic LOL

Like nobody has ever dry-fire practiced within their residence?

I guess y'all missed the can of Coors beer on the coffee table, right next to the ash tray. Alcohol, tobacco, and firearms...where's the chips?!

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Crush...Kill...Destroy

Looks like she went out of her way not to get her outfit dirty by contacting the desert sand.

Notice the Steve doesn't touch it either.

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Tony

The only ultra sidekick I see is in the second picture and she looks like a keeper!

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

I liked his movies OK, but he was a drunk, a drug abuser, and worst of all a wife-beater. No respect from me.

How else do you do dry-fire practice?

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CSM, U S Army(Ret) 1963-1990

That happens all the time when I dry fire. I like to think that I know some things about gun safety. But I usually don't wear sunglasses in the house.

He wasn’t much of a gun man either, or he would have a a decent .22 revolver.

Just pointing out he was a Marine. I think they might teach something about firearms handling but I’m not sure. .
I read about him. He didn't have a Ozzie & Harriet home life as a child.
Not excusing any bad behavior just sayin.

When I first saw the picture I thought it was perhaps a custom piece but the link Sgt911 posted leaves no doubt. Many of you likely knew from the picture alone. From septic tanks to nuclear reactors, the knowledge of the members of this fine forum is amazing.
Steve McQueen was certainly no angel but I think the way he lived his life came through in his movies. Maybe that’s just one Hoosier sticking up for another.
I will say that after seeing his last movie “Hunter”, I was moved to purchase a MA-1 sage green flight jacket like he wore. He carried a 1911 on screen but I found my model 39 fit that inside pocket just right.

Only thing I saw him was "The Towering Inferno" where he played the no-nonsense 100% professional fire chief.
Few of the Hollywood types associated with westerns, war and cop movies were gun guys.

Maybe he was watching the news on TV.

I bet it's real hard to make a western, where you don't point a gun at somebody because you're not willing to kill him, and you never put your finger in the trigger guard until you're willing to shoot somebody.


That's a photograph. It's posed.

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I always take precautions

Actually the difference is time. I was taught firearm safety six decades ago. All guns are loaded. Never point a gun at something you don’t intend to put a hole in. Those were the two hammered in to my head.

Back then, holsters did not cover a triggerguard. Many were taught to grip the handgun in the holster and put your finger on the trigger while making the draw.

Time changes the rules. Some people aren’t smart enough to not shoot themselves in the leg so holsters get garbaged up and the no finger on the trigger rule is born.

My point is, don’t judge old practices by new rules.

Kevin

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Unshared knowledge is wasted.

Note to self: don't post pics of myself dry firing.

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Made ya look.

You're allowing facts and logic to intrude.

You talk to a lot of managers, right?

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

That will always be a special movie for me...Saw it at a drive-in in Glens Falls, NY when I was 15. I still remember her name..you never forget your first. Guess I should really rent the movie again to see what happened. Something about a fire?

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

Making a movie is different. Prop masters, safety checks, blanks, insurance, all that. Can't make a movie gunfight without pulling the trigger. None of that happened in this picture.

He cocked the hammer and put his finger on the trigger. If this wasn't some movie star, who for some reason is given ultra manhood status, doing it, most here would comment on his poor handling.

Only thing I like about McQueen is the car chase scene in Bullit. Of course, a professional driver drove that car, not McQueen. Still, one of the best I have ever seen.

Also loved the Bullit chase sequence.
Steve was Mr. Cool, probably wore his Sunglasses in the shower.
Probably not a hard core gun guy.

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You need to understand the concept for Gun Safety has changed over time. Back in the 60's Gun Safety was all about making certain the gun was empty. It was even considered bad form to not check that a firearm was empty immediately after someone handed it to you, even if you had just watched that person check before handing it over. Those habitual checks gave people confidence that it was perfectly safe to handle their guns as they would if shooting. Somewhere about 1970 people became aware that some people will cheat from time to time and keeping your bugger hook in a safe location was also necessary. So don't flog Steve for doing what was considered safe at the time that picture was taken.

AMEN! The modern day safety folks need to quit applying today's "gun safety political correctness" to old photos and practices. Not to mention a free man can damn well what he pleases in his own house/property as long as he isn't harming others, like dry fire his pistol, including the king of cool. I mean, this is still a free country isn't it.

I’m not calling for his arrest. Sure, he can wave a gun around his house if he wants to. Elvis can shoot a tv if he wants to, also. You ok with that, too? Presilla seemed freaked about it.

Still, a known drunk and drug abuser, with more than likely a God complex, waves a gun around his house, while drinking alcohol. Don’t know why anybody would have a problem with that.

And I’m far from politically correct.

There is nothing unsafe about what he was doing in the picture.

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Elvis you say? Who else you got in the Pandora's box of safety knowledge to pull out and educate the crowd? LOL!

Just figured another drug and alcohol abusing entitled celebrity would be a good analogy. Should I use a person nobody has ever heard of?

Steve McQueen can do no wrong. He defeated the Blob.

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Member of the immune herd.

"I'm still here you bastages.." Love the movie Papillon. In my top 3 list. Steve lived life his way.

It was said the movie studio who "owned" him forbid him to participate in motorcycle and car events so he entered under the alias Harvey Mushman. Steve said it was to avoid publicity.

He fled the poverty he had grown up in, in Missouri and Indiana, at top speed.

At the age of 14 he was still living in a home for delinquent youths; as a 17-year-old, he enlisted in the Marines as a tank driver.
At the age of 22, he successfully auditioned for one of the coveted spots in Lee Strasberg’s famed Actors Studio in New York – the drama school par excellence in the 1950s.To make ends meet, McQueen worked as a dishwasher and truck driver, and topped up his budget by running races on his Harley-Davidson. The prize money was usually one hundred dollars – a sizable sum at the time.

McQueen scored his first starring role at the age of 27 in the science-fiction horror film The Blob. His pay: $3,000. It was the comparatively modest beginning of an unprecedented rise.

By the end of the 1950s, his income was sufficient to buy his first new car: a black Porsche 356 A Speedster. Like his fellow actor James Dean, McQueen felt drawn to the young brand out of Stuttgart. The Speedster and its 75 hp engine combined day-to-day usability with the qualities of a club racer.

Steve McQueen died at the young age of 50, from cancer in 1980.


Link to an interesting article about his racing career for anyone interested.. McQ: The Man Who Called Himself Harvey Mushman

So do I—I was 11 when I first saw the film and it made quite an impression. I have also used the line, “if your going to catch leprosy, it’s better to catch it from money” throughout this Covid mess by inserting “covid” for leprosy. I thought I was really funny until I caught it myself (Covid, not leprosy). A surprising number of people get the reference.

I also liked the 2017 remake.

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