At the height of Steve McQueen's fame in 1968, after a run of huge box-office successes - The Sand Pebble, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt - it was Robert Mitchum, his elder by 13 years and a star for more than twenty, who was voted the screen's 'godfather of cool' on America's university campuses.

LRB 14 January 2002 | PDF Download