In honour of what would have been Steve McQueen’s 80th birthday, a roll of never-before-seen photos of Steve McQueen have been released yesterday which capture the ‘King of Cool’ back in the spring of ’63.

McQueen was on the brink of superstardom, riding on the success of his big-screen debut The Magnificent Seven and just months away from the release of The Great Escape, when LIFE sent photographer John Dominis to California to hang out with the actor and see what he could get.

The result? A series of “astonishingly intimate and iconic images, photos impossible to imagine in today’s restricted-access celebrity world”.

 

 To view the complete series see:  http://www.life.com/image/ugc1034962/in-gallery/41172/steve-mcqueen-20-never-seen-photos