I saw, for my very first time ever, the movie “I Remember Mama”. There was an older kid playing the part of Nils or Nels. His eyes, and they way he spoke, I said to myself ‘Omigod, that’s a very young Steve McQueen’
Well, the credits and IMDB list him as Steve Brown. IMDB shows that this Steve Brown made 2 other movies. And that’s it, no other biography or anything. If it would have been McQueen, he would have been about 18 when this film was made IIRC. This would have been before the start of his acknowledged film career.
So, anyone think it could even be remotely possible that the Steve Brown of “I Remember Mama” was actually a very young Steve McQueen?
Here is a photo which includes Steve Brown.
Here is Steve McQueen.
I don’t think they’re the same person, but it’s interesting that so little of Brown’s life seems to be known, and that his three known film appearances were in 1948, 1950, and 1968.
What was he doing during that long gap in his résumé?
That '69 credit might not be his. imdb.com has mixed up credits before and, considering that Steve Brown isn’t a rare name and the last credit is for a British film, it may be another mix-up.
Given that his real name wasn’t Steve Brown it sounds unlikely. Based on the Wikipedia biography, “I Remember Mama” wasn’t just before McQueen started his film career, it’s way before he started acting. He joined the Marines in 1947, went to the Actors’ Studio in 1952, debuted on Broadway in 1955 and got into film in 1956. It seems implausible to me that none of McQueen’s biographers would have known about these early roles, and some quick googling of both names didn’t bring up anything of note.
The pressbook distributed to exhibitors for I Remember Mama probably has some biographical information about Steve Brown. The Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles is one place that would have a copy. Eve could tell us New York libraries and archives that might have a pressbook.
I don’t find Steve Brown in the Internet Broadway Database, so I don’t think he was a carry-over from the 1944 Broadway version of the play I Remember Mama. But guess who was in that role for two years — young Marlon Brando!
I personally don’t think Steve Brown resembles Steve McQueen, at least based on that still photo.
What really made me think it could be was the voice. I don’t even remember the exact line now, but it was delivered not too long after “Mama” sneaks into the hospital.
All I really have to go on with this crazy idea is:
All I know of McQueen is that he sometimes did what he wanted to do, for reasons of his own.
Steve Brown would seem to be a “common” name.
“I Remember Mama”, was well received (I guess), one would think an actor from that movie might have a shot at making more than 2 more movies in a career.
That Voice.
Could there have been a time when McQueen did an acting job when he didn’t want anyone to know that he was doing so? I know, I know, a long shot. But there is really just something in the voice of that kid that shouts Steve McQueen to me.
Oh, and the fact that he was supposed to be in the Marines in 1947, I think, is actually more in my favor than agin it. If its 1947 and you are doing a movie when you are supposed to be in the Marines…you take a (clever?) psuedonym.
Not only is there the well known case of a certain politician who may or may not have been performing his military service duties, yet still getting paid… but in the early '80s I drove a friend of mine to base so he could turn himself in from being UA (aka AWOL). Friend had been living and working in his hometown, using his own name for about a year. When we get to base, military records have him in 3 different locations, including active duty in the mid-pacific. Long winded way of pointing out that just because one’s service record says they were -xyz- , doesn’t mean for absolute certainty that they were indeed -xyz-.
Yes, if you want to hide the fact that your’re AWOL from the Marines, the smart thing to do would be to get a featured role in a major Hollwood movie. One with a production period of four and a half months (26 May to mid-October 1947), and one which requires you to be in about every other scene.
In the 1930 U.S. census, there are 29 males named Steve(n) or Stephen Brown who were born in the period 1926-1930, and about 17 of those were white.
