Trivia / Bullitt

• The Cast Showoff:
  • The famous chase scene was a chance for Steve McQueen (actor) to show off his driving skills stemming from his love of racing.
  • Bill Hickman was always the driver of the Charger. McQueen was the driver for about half of the Mustang's driving sequence, but it's never been doubted that Hickman was the Charger's driver.
• Creator's Favorite: Steve McQueen (actor) named Frank Bullitt as his favorite role.
• I Am Not Spock: Several years later, Robert Vaughn actively considered going into politics. To his dismay, he discovered that people couldn't take him seriously, either because he was largely known as Napoleon Solo in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. or found him untrustworthy as they remembered his performance as the oily politician Chalmers in this film.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Many were surprised that Steve McQueen (actor) signed on to play a cop, having had many run-ins with the police as a youth.
• Money, Dear Boy: In his autobiography, Robert Vaughn said he declined the role of Sen. Walter Chalmers because he didn't understand the script. Vaughn went on to say that he kept getting the script back with higher and higher salary offers to play the role. Finally, Vaughn said he got the script with a salary offer that was higher than anything he had been paid before, and while he STILL didn't understand the script, the offer was too good to pass up, and he accepted the role.
• No Stunt Double: Zigzagged. Steve McQueen (actor) did his own stunt driving, even putting his head near the window so you can see it's really him. That said, about ½ of the driving was by stunt drivers Loren Janes, Bud Ekins and Carey Loftin. If you can see McQueen's face in the rearview mirror or through the windshield, then that is him driving. If you can't, chances are it is one of the others.
• The Red Stapler: Several items of clothing worn by Steve McQueen (actor) received a boost in popularity thanks to the film: desert boots, a trench coat, a blue turtleneck sweater and, most famously, a brown tweed jacket with elbow patches.
• Romance on the Set: Several biographers have alleged that Steve McQueen (actor) and Jacqueline Bisset had an affair during filming. However, Bisset has vehemently denied this on numerous occasions over the years.
• Those Two Actors: A variation. In this film, Steve McQueen (actor) plays a high-ranking cop opposite Robert Vaughn, who plays a senator. They would later appear in The Towering Inferno. Vaughn again played a senator in that film, while McQueen plays the role of another high-ranking public servant, a battalion chief.
• Throw It In!:
  • In an early, dialogueless scene with Bullitt and Cathy at a Chinese restaurant, the extra playing the waiter nearly smacks Steve McQueen in the eye with a menu. McQueen visibly chuckles and jokes about it, so it was left in as a character moment for Bullitt.
  • Bullitt's reverse burnout during the chase scene actually wasn't in the script—Steve McQueen had mistakenly missed the turn. The footage was still kept, though.
• What Could Have Been: In the first draft, adapted from Robert L. Fish's novel Mute Witness, Det. Frank Bullitt was a Boston policeman who was described as "ate a lot of ice cream and never solved a case." The book had originally been bought with Spencer Tracy in mind; but with Tracy's death the property fell into the hands of Steve McQueen (actor) and producer Philip D'Antoni. D'Antoni added the chase and changed the location to San Francisco.

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