Who is Barbara Minty, and where is she now?
Barbara Minty was born in Seattle, Washington USA, on 11 June 1953 – her zodiac sign is Gemini and she holds American nationality. She is a former fashion model, but who is perhaps best known for having been the third and last wife of the famous American actor Steve McQueen, who died in 1980 at the age of 50 and left Barbara a widow.
Barbara has been staying away from the media’s attention since Steve’s death, and is today an artist (painter).
Childhood and education
Barbara was raised in Corvallis in Oregon an only child, by her father who was a factory worker and her mother who was a housewife.
She attended Corvallis High School at which she was physically very active, as she ran track and did gymnastics. During her senior year, Barbara was noticed by a modelling scout, and got to launch her modelling career. She matriculated from high school in 1971 and then focused on her career rather than pursuing a college degree.
Career as a model
As soon as she matriculated, Barbara started posing for numerous magazines and appearing on many cover pages, and it only took her a few years to become one of the highest-paid models in the US. She was signed with modelling agents Nina Blanchard and Eileen Ford, but she retired after her husband’s death.
Barbara is also a writer, having released her book “Steve McQueen – The Last Mile”, which follows the three years that she spent with Steve, covering their relationship, her modelling career as well as his death. Barbara is also an artist, and her works could have been seen in galleries all around the USA and Europe – she held art exhibits in London in England, Tokyo in Japan (Asia) and San Francisco in California, among numerous other places.
Love life and marriage with Steve
Barbara’s pictures could’ve been found in numerous magazines and advertisements, and she was noticed by Steve whose agent arranged a meeting with Barbara – they started dating not long after meeting in the late 1977. and after nearly three years of being together and not long before Steve died, the two married in a private ceremony attended by their closest friends and family.
Steve was married two times before meeting Barbara, and had dated several women. He was in a relationship with Gia Scala while attending Stella Adler’s school, before on 2 November 1956 marrying his first wife Neile Adams, a Filipino-American actress and singer. She gave birth to their daughter Terry Leslie on 5 June 1959 who died on 19 March 1988, and she also gave birth to their son Chad on 28 December 1960. Steve and Neile divorced quietly in 1972, and on 31 August 1973, Steve married American actress Ali MacGraw, and the marriage lasted for five years before they divorced in 1978.
Many other women have claimed to have been in a relationship with Steve, including Barbara Leigh who is a former actress, Lauren Hutton who was a model and an actress, and Mamie Van Doren who is an actress and a model.
Before meeting Steve, Barbara dated American photographer Mike Reinhardt from 1970 to 1974, and she also dated the American actor Warren Beatty for a month in 1977. She hasn’t talked about any other men she might have been with since Steve’s death, and has stayed away from the media’s attention. She believes that asbestos caused the cancer from which her husband died, which is why she is today a member of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. As of October 2020, she is single, was once married and doesn’t have children.
Hobbies and other interests
Barbara is interested in all kinds of arts including photography, sculpting and designing clothes – she has tried most of these including, plus writing poetry and short stories, but is best at painting.
She likes to travel, and her modelling career has taken her all around the world – few of her favorite cities among the ones she has visited are Shanghai in China, Venice in Italy and Paris in France.
She is a lover of animals, with cats being her favorites and has had many pet cats since the launch of her modelling career.
In her spare time, she likes to watch movies and TV series and a few of her favorite actors and actresses are Channing Tatum, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts, while a few of her favorite movies are “Dear John”, “The Four Feathers” and “The Runaway Bride” – her favorite TV series is “Friends”.
Age and height
Barbara’s age is 67. She has long brown hair and brown eyes, her height is 5ft 9ins (1.75m) and she weighs around 130lbs (60kgs). As of October 2020, her net worth has been estimated at over $15 million, while Steve’s net worth at the time of his death was estimated at over $30 million.
Who was Steve McQueen?
Terrence Stephen McQueen was born in Beech Grove, Indiana USA, on 24 March 1930 – his zodiac sign was Aries and he held American nationality. He was an actor known as ‘King of Cool’, who is perhaps even today known for his lead role in the epic war movie “The Sand Pebbles” in 1966 which also starred Richard Attenborough and Richard Crenna and which follows a USA Naval engineer who is part of a rescue mission in China in 1926. For his performance, Steve was nominated for an Academy Award.
He was raised in Beech Grove by his mother Julia Ann who was allegedly an alcoholic, and his father William McQueen who was a stunt pilot with a circus – after William left Julia for another woman, Julia left Steve with her parents Victor and Lillian in Slater in Missouri, as she no longer wanted to raise him. Steve enjoyed living on his grandparents’ farm, and later stated in an interview that his great-uncle Claude was a great man, and that he learned a plethora of useful things from him. His mother came to take him from the farm when he was eight, however, Steve didn’t like his new stepfather as he often beat him, and only a year later, Steve started living on the streets as he could no longer bear the beatings.
He was eventually found and sent to live at the farm again, but at the age of 12 he moved in with his mother and her third husband in Los Angeles, However, as he was being beaten again, Steve left home at the age of 14 and joined a circus. He returned home and began attending California Junior Boys Republic school, but quit two years later, and worked numerous jobs, in a brothel, as a roughneck, and as a carnival barker.
At the age of 17, he joined the US Marines, but during his career was demoted seven times – after an unauthorized absence, being caught and resisting arrest, he spent more than a month in a military prison. After finally changing his ways and becoming a responsible person, Steve saved five colleague Marines during a military drill, and was eventually honorably discharged in 1950.
BABY, THE RAIN MUST FALL granted McQueen an opportunity to show his vulnerable side, demonstrating a range of emotions with his character Henry Thomas. The film helped him show audiences he was more than an action star. Hear more about it >>> https://t.co/Ig2v6phiw8 #SteveMcQueen pic.twitter.com/Akz6Byh50w
— Speeding Bullitt (@SteveMcQueenPod) October 10, 2020
Steve began attending the Sanford Meisner’s Neighborhood Playhouse in 1952, and also became interested in motorcycles – he raced on the weekends and used the money to buy his two first motorcycles: a Triumph and a Harley Davidson. He appeared in his first Broadway play – “A Hatful of Rain” – in 1955, and went on to appear in the drama film “Somebody Up There Likes Me”, and the crime and gangster movie “Never Love a Stranger” – his first lead role was in the science fiction horror “The Blob”. Steve became famous all around the world after portraying Vin Tanner in the western movie “The Magnificent Seven”, and in 1963, he was cast to appear in another hit movie, “The Great Escape” for which he was paid more than any other actor in the world.
Steve appeared in many other critically acclaimed movies, while his two final roles before dying were in the western “Tom Horn” about a professional gunman working as a hired gun, and the action crime thriller “The Hunter” which follows the life of a bounty hunter, both in 1980.
Steve was also a race car driver, who at one point thought about leaving acting and becoming a professional racer – in 1970, he won the 12 Hours of Sebring race together with Peter Revson. He was also a pilot and the owner of a 1945 Stearman as well as of a 1931 Pitcairn Mailwing.
Steve was a philanthropist, who had always asked studious for free things which he would then donate to the Boys Republic Reformatory School.
Steve found out that he had cancer on 22 December 1979, but when it had progressed so much that it was inoperable. He died in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on 7 November 1980.