--- title: Steve McQueen, Neile Adams: Portraits of a Couple in Love and in Lust description: Portraits of Steve McQueen and his then-wife, Neile Adams, sharing a couple of smoldering moments together in 1963. canonical: https://time.com/3878646/steve-mcqueen-and-neile-adams-life-photos-by-john-dominis-1963/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-01-09T20:21:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:08.108Z og:title: Steve McQueen, Neile Adams: Portraits of a Couple in Love and in Lust og:description: Portraits of Steve McQueen and his then-wife, Neile Adams, sharing a couple of smoldering moments together in 1963. og:url: https://time.com/3878646/steve-mcqueen-and-neile-adams-life-photos-by-john-dominis-1963/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d411633e08d31f1/69884ab1e53aba81154dd1b5/840467-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Steve McQueen and Neile Adams, 1963 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Steve McQueen, Neile Adams: Portraits of a Couple in Love and in Lust twitter:description: Portraits of Steve McQueen and his then-wife, Neile Adams, sharing a couple of smoldering moments together in 1963. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d411633e08d31f1/69884ab1e53aba81154dd1b5/840467-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Lust and Marriage: Sweet, Sexy Portraits of Steve McQueen and Neile Adams > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Neile Adams: My Life With Steve McQueen [Watch (HLS stream): Neile Adams: My Life With Steve McQueen](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/e6mXl6rx.m3u8) (4:27)  _Published 2014-02-10. Steve McQueen's ex-wife recalls the ups and downs of the tumultuous life she shared with the movie star and intensely private Hollywood rebel._ by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jan 9, 2014 8:21 PM UTC  Actor Steve McQueen & wife Nellie at home. Actor Steve McQueen & wife Nellie at home. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jan 9, 2014 8:21 PM UTC We live in an age filled with _way_ too much information about celebrities—much of it shared by celebs themselves: tweets, photos, press releases, you name it, blithely chronicling marriages, affairs, divorces, sex tapes, public spats and all the other sordid and exalted endeavors that flesh is heir to. And yet, despite this unending torrent of information, it’s somehow rare to see portraits of famous couples who not only genuinely like one another, but are comfortably, obviously _attracted_ to one another. Yes, of course, actors, actresses, musicians and reality TV mediocrities are more than happy to flaunt their sexuality. But their exhibitions often feel cartoonish or desperate, rising from a place of cold calculation rather than from good old-fashioned, grown-up lust. To quote Mark Twain (who was commenting on another subject entirely), the difference between faux, manufactured sexuality and the real deal is the difference “between the lightning-bug and the lightning.” Consider, then, these portraits (above and below) of Steve McQueen and his then-wife, the actor, singer and dancer Neile Adams, sharing some smoldering moments together in 1963\. Here are two adults—comfortable in their own skins and clearly at ease with one another’s bodies—captured in postures recognizable to anyone of a certain age lucky enough to have enjoyed an intense emotional and physical relationship or two with another human being. In other words, these two people are hot for each other. And that’s cool. Far from the studiously audacious antics of today’s stars, the casual, evident pleasure that McQueen and Adams take in one another in John Dominis’ photos comes across, paradoxically, as quite innocent. Steamy, yes. Carnal, absolutely. But innocent. Or at the very least, unfeigned. That Dominis was able to make such informal, revealing pictures—especially of an actor as guarded in his personal life as McQueen so often was—speaks volumes about the photographer’s talent; about the unprecedented access that LIFE magazine enjoyed during its heyday; and, finally, about the predictable, closely managed and utterly bogus “allure” of so many of today’s stars and pop-culture power couples. Through Dominis’ lens, we’re reminded of what sexual attraction feels like, and what it looks like. It’s unkempt. Raw. Real. --- _Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com_ --- \[In a video exclusive, McQueen’s ex-wife, Neile Adams, shares her memories of the ups and downs of their intense 16-year marriage\] ---  Steve McQueen and his wife, Neile, Palm Springs, 1963. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Steve McQueen and his wife, Neile, take a sulphur bath at Big Sur, 1963. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  ## Transcript My name is Neile Adams. I was married to Steve McQueen for almost 16 years actually. We were married 4 months after we met. I was such an innocent child. The attraction was instantaneous, and I think it was because we knew each other almost immediately. I was filming here in Los Angeles. He was in New York and the family going crazy without me as his mother said. So he said I'm coming out there to make an honest woman out of you. I had no idea what that meant. I remember asking Jimmy Wilson and my manager, so what does that mean? My manager said it means you're getting married tomorrow. Nobody's ever been able to take pictures of the two of us in both intimate moments like John Dominis. He was part of us at that moment in time. It's a very loving time, that whole period that John was there. It was at the height of the love that we had for each other. It was really-- It was quite perfect actually. I mean I didn't think about anything else except my life with him and my kids. This house was in the-- was in Palm Springs, was the first house we ever had in the desert. Steve loved the desert. But it was on the wrong side of the tracks, so all the wind and the sand would blow. So one day, Kirk Douglas came to visit and he looked around and we talked for a while, and as he left, he said, Steve, your fucking movie sucks, get another house. Steve was very big into guns and he loved guns, and he was teaching me how to shoot this stuff. He said let me see it how you shoot the guns because I hadn't shot at anything. He gave me a gun, and there was a lizard sitting on top of a piece of wood, and he said shoot that thing. So I did, I shot at it, and I got it clean right underneath it, so it looked like it was still sitting there. He says, well, I guess you're okay. Steve used to wake me up in the middle of the night. He would just say let's put on some clothes and we'll go motorcycle riding. He loved motorcycles. Those things were his balls. The only time he got into trouble with motorcycles was for doing racing, but never on the streets. Break and arm, he'd break a leg, but I think he broke every part of his body somewhere along the way. He had a perfect body. He was the first man I ever saw worked up. One of the things I did tell him was when you do a movie, just take your shirt off to change into another shirt. It was because I said you've got such a great body. It's ridiculous not to show it. See this medal, it said that to part is to die a little. It was a St. Christopher medal. That medal I gave him when I was with him in Las Vegas, he had that medal until he and I parted at the end and he tore off those and threw it someplace in France. We remained such close friends even after we divorced. We had a great relationship going. When it was very good, it was really really good. When it was very bad, it was very bad. We created a career together. We had children together. 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