Steve McQueen

Hollywood's most famous biker was regularly celebrated not just for his ride in The Great Escape (both the escaping Hilts and the pursuing Germans were aboard not a Wehrmacht BMW but a TR5 Triumph prepared by Bud Akins), but simply because he was a damn good racer . – so well that he and a group of his comrades were allowed to become the first team to represent the United States at the 1964 International Six-Day Tournament (ISDT) in East Germany. What is less known is that along the way the team visited the Triumph factory in Meriden to pick up their bikes, which is why his famous machine went missing. 278, has a British number plate.

Clint Eastwood

He's probably more like Norton: he fell in love with the Norton Ranger, which he bought for sightseeing in London while filming Where Eagles Dare in 1968, not to mention the Commando S (scrambler version) he used during filming film "Kelly's Heroes" in Yugoslavia. in 1969. He later also kept the letter S in his home in Carmel, California, as shown in "Superstar Profile" filmed in 1978. However, in films he was most often seen riding Triumphs, especially the 650 TR6, during the famous bike chase. scene in Central Park. , New York, for Coogan's Bluff.

Bob Dylan

Longtime bike nut who bought his first Harley 45 when he was a teenager. In 1964, after moving from Greenwich Village to Woodstock, he bought a Triumph T100 Daytona 500, which became his primary mode of transportation. That all changed on July 29, 1966, when an accident that is still shrouded in mystery left him with broken vertebrae, forcing the cancellation of an upcoming tour and causing Dylan to become something of a recluse. In his memoir, Chronicles, he wrote: “I’d been in a motorcycle accident and I'd been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race. " It is unknown whether he ever traveled again.

Paul Newman

He was probably as much of a petrolhead as McQueen, although probably more focused on cars and car racing in particular, a passion ignited when he starred in the Indianapolis epic "Winning" in 1969, which went on hiatus with his Newman/Haas Indycar racing team from 1983 to 2011. . But while little is known, Newman is known to have a passion for bicycles, and especially Triumphs. Hitchcock had to miss rehearsals for Torn Curtain, for example, in 1965, as recorded in one of his biographies, after a bicycle accident required him to have a skin graft on his left arm...

James Dean

The Rebel Without a Cause star and teen star is best known for his fatal crash in a Porsche 550 Spyder, which he nicknamed "Little Bastard" What is less known is that he also loved bicycles. He received his first one, CZ 125, when he was 15 years old. Then, after dropping out of college to pursue acting, he traded it in for a two-seater Royal Enfield 500. One day, while in Indiana during a break from a concert in New York, he decided to drive back to the Big Apple ( about 600 miles away). When Enfield broke down on the road, he quickly traded it to Indiana. He later bought this Triumph TR5 Trophy, the last motorcycle he rode before his death.

Lee Marvin

Marlon Brando may be the most famous "biker star" of the cult film "The Wild One", but the real biker was actually his co-star Lee Marvin, who played rival "Chino". Marvin was a lifelong two-wheeler who met the equally passionate Keenan Wynn (pictured left, they starred together in Point Blank in 1969) in Los Angeles and regularly raced dirt bikes together. In 1951, Wynne was even a guest tester (BMW R51/2) for the American motorcycle magazine Cycle.

Anthony Quinn (and Ann-Margret)

You'd think that film star Anthony Quinn, pictured here driving a Triumph 500 Daytona, would have been a bigger biker than his passenger Ann-Margret. In fact, it was the other way around. Filmed during the filming of "RPM" in 1969, the film, like many others, took some elements of biker and hippie culture from the hugely successful film Easy Rider, so Quinn's character "Paco" drives a Triumph and takes his girlfriend with him "Rhoda" (Ann-Margret) in the back seat. In real life, however, it was Margret who was the bike nut, riding two-wheelers all her life and starring on a Guzzi V7 in the 1968 film A Prophet.

Richard Gere

It's well known that heartthrob Gere drove a 1978 Bonneville T140E in An Officer and a Gentleman. In fact, the motorcycle was one of the stars of the film. The Paramount producers struck a deal with Meriden (by then on its last legs) in which two bikes were supplied by Seattle dealer Dewey's Cycle Shop. In return, Triumph was allowed to display bicycles in the foyers of cinemas. What's less known is that Gere also drove a T120 Bonneville in the 1993 film Mister Jones (pictured), which can't be a coincidence...

Warren Beatty

Urban legend has it that while in college, Beatty one day rode his motorcycle to a European history class, performed a rendition of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and then drove off, never to be seen again. This cannot be justified. What we are sure of, however, is that the 1970s Lothario rod is most definitely the custom-painted 500cc Triumph Tiger 100 from the 1975 romantic comedy Shampoo, in which HE stars alongside Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn. Although I have to admit that he doesn't really like it...

Marlon Brando

Considered one of the greatest actors of all time, Marlon Brando starred in the 1953 film "The Wild One", in which he played Johnny Strabler, leader of the Black Rebels motorcycle club.

he cult film was rated X in the UK and was banned for 14 years. He researched motorcycle gang violence and created the legend of Triumph's Thunderbird 6T. Despite the film's negative portrayal of motorcycles and Triumph's initial objections to the use of their bike, the film resonated with American youth and was instrumental in establishing the British brand as the epitome of cool.

Even today, the image of Brando and the Thunderbird remains unchanged: a few years ago, Triumph even released a replica "Brando" leather jacket.

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