📍Slater, MO 65349, USA
1933 – 1943“I was born in Beech Grove, Indiana, in March 1930. My father, a stunt pilot, left before I was born, and my mother, Julia, wasn't able to look after me, so in 1933 she left me with her parents in Slater, a small railroad and farming town in central Missouri. When the Depression hit them hard, we moved in with my grandmother's brother, Claude Thomson, on his farm outside town. Uncle Claude was a very good, strong, fair man, and I learned a lot from him. Those years on the farm were the best of my childhood. I did chores, worked in the fields, and ran free with the animals. On my fourth birthday Uncle Claude gave me a red tricycle, and I raced it everywhere; that was the start of my love of speed. I was dyslexic and partly deaf from an ear infection, so school was hard, but on the farm none of that mattered. When I was eight, my mother sent for me to live with her and her new husband in Indianapolis. When I left, Uncle Claude gave me a gold pocket watch inscribed, To Steve, who has been a son to me. Life with my mother and stepfathers was rough, and I ran wild in the streets, getting into trouble. At fourteen I was sent to the California Junior Boys Republic in Chino, a school for troubled boys, where I learned to take responsibility, and I went back there as a mentor all my life. After the Marines, I studied acting in New York, and films like The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape and Bullitt made me the King of Cool. Slater still celebrates me every year.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today