Terrence was a troublemaker. As a teenager in the 1940s, he joined a gang and habitually stole hubcaps from vehicles which he then sold to people who were missing hubcaps. As a result of his troubled youth, his parents sent him to the California Junior Boys Republic in Chini Hills, California, a school for troubled boys.

In 1946, he joined the United States Merchant Marines and joined the United States Marine Corps the following year. Terrence was assigned to the 2nd Tank Battalion, where he was trained to be a tank mechanic. That should have straightened Terrence out, but he had trouble with authority. Terrence was in a constant cycle of promotion and demotion. He started as a private, would get promoted to private first class, then would thumb his nose at authority and get demoted back to private.

On one occasion, he abandoned his fellow soldiers and spent two weeks with his girlfriend. For that infraction, he was demoted and spent 41 days in the brig. Terrence recalled, “I was busted back down to private about seven times. The only way I could have been made corporal was if all the other privates in the Marines dropped dead.”

Following his stint in the brig, Terrence changed his attitude toward the Marines. He began to excel as a soldier and was put in command of his own tank despite his being a lowly private first class.

During a training exercise, Terrence’s tank crew was among several sent to the Labrador Sea in the Arctic for an amphibious training exercise. While en route, the transport ship from which they we preparing to disembark struck a sandbar with such force that it sent several tanks and their crews overboard.

Without hesitation, Terrence dove into the icy water and saved five Marines from a sinking tank. His superiors regarded him as a hero, but Terrence considered himself anything but a hero because numerous other Marines drowned. He was unable to save them all.

Despite his poor service record, Terrence’s heroic act led to his being assigned to the honor guard aboard the USS Williamsburg, the presidential yacht for President Harry Truman. He served on the presidential yacht for the remainder of his time in the Marines and was honorably discharged in 1950.

Terrence considered his options in life after the Marines. In 1952, he used the G.I. Bill to pay for acting lessons at the Herbert Berghof Studio. In that same year, he appeared as Freddie in a TV movie called “Family Affair.” In 1953, he had a small uncredited part in his first film, “Girl on the Run.” In 1955, he made his Broadway debut in “A Hatful of Rain.”

From 1952 until 1960, Terrence appeared in numerous Broadway plays, over a dozen TV productions, and half a dozen films. During the 1960s and 1970s, Terrence became wildly popular for his roles in films such as “The Towering Inferno,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “Bullitt,” and “The Great Escape.”

Although the Marines considered him a hero, Terrence became known around the world as an anti-hero, the “King of Cool.” Terrence the troublemaker was Terrence Steven “Steve” McQueen.