Stricken With Cancer, McQueen Died of Heart Attack

Steve McQueen, the actor who went from a one-line part in a Yiddish play to become one of Hollywood’s biggest box office attractions, died Friday in a Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, hospital. He was 50 years old.

McQueen, who was suffering from a rare, normally fatal form of lung cancer, was in the Mexican hospital for surgery on a massive tumor when he was stricken with a heart attack, the actor’s publicist said in Los Angeles.

McQueen in recent months underwent an unconventional and controversial cancer treatment program in a Baja California hospital.