He may have had frequent close calls with death throughout his career on screen, but he came close to it for real in 1969. McQueen had been invited to visit the home of Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate for dinner on August 8th, the same night that the property was broken into by members of the Manson family. Five occupants - Tate included - were murdered, but McQueen was not present. Due to a chance encounter with a mystery woman, he had cancelled his visit just prior to the event. He later found out that he was actually at the top of Manson's so-called "Death List", and would have been targeted had he been at the house in the Hollywood Hills. After learning of this, McQueen immediately began carrying a concealed weapon at all times. And as will be revealed later, he would have no second thoughts about pulling a gun when needed.
