What Steve McQueen's Bruce Lee Movie Role Would Have Been

screenrant.com:

Steve McQueen could have played a major role in a Bruce Lee movie. With roles in box office hits like  The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, and the critically-acclaimed The Sand Pebbles, McQueen was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars during the 1960s and 1970s. With his acting resume, he certainly would have been a major addition to any of Lee’s kung fu films.

Lee and McQueen had a storied friendship and rivalry that dates back to the mid-1960s when only the latter was considered a big star. During this time, Lee wasn’t a famous actor yet but he was developing a name for himself as a kung fu instructor. Several big names in Hollywood like James Coburn, Roman Polanski, and James Garner were paying Lee for kung fu lessons. Among the many celebrities personally trained in martial arts by Lee was Steve McQueen. McQueen learned kung fu from Lee for a period of a few years. After Lee died in 1973, McQueen was one of a handful actors to serve as pallbearers at his funeral.

Related: Why Big Boss' First Director Thought Bruce Lee's Kung Fu Was Terrible

Bruce Lee and Steve McQueen’s film careers never intersected, but a chance for them to work together did come in the late 1960s in the form of The Silent Flute. The unmade movie, which was a passion project of Lee’s, was going to be a philosophical kung fu story centered around Cord, a martial artist on a quest to find a highly sought-after book that would help him unlock true enlightenment. Lee’s plan was for Cord to be played by Steve McQueen, while Lee himself would play multiple characters who would serve as Cord’s kung fu mentors.

While the plan for The Silent Flute would have provided Lee with significant screen-time, McQueen would have been the star of the movie. That