On this day in 1980, Steve McQueen dies at the age of 50 in New Mexico.
In the spring of 1963, Steve McQueen was on the brink of superstardom — LIFE sent photographer John Dominis to California to hang out with the 33-year-old actor and see what he could get. Three weeks and more than 40 rolls of film later, Dominis had captured some astonishingly intimate and iconic images, photos impossible to imagine in today’s restricted-access celebrity world.
Here, in this gallery, see unpublished photos from that shoot.
