Marshall Terrill

Author, Biographer, Journalist, Editor and Public relations consultant.

By Ed Donovan

 Marshall Terrill was born on December 17, 1963 in Texarkana, Texas.  His father Mike Terrill is a Retired Colonel, USAF. His mother Carolyn was a homemaker at the time of his birth. He has three siblings, Michael, Mark and Mischael.

Marshall considers himself an Air Force brat having moved so often. As a kid Marshall says, “I was a smart ass kid obsessed with sports mainly football and basketball. When it came to music I was hooked on classic rock with the Beatles, Stones, Eagles and Led Zeppelin. My other interest was the movies that included Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson and Paul Newman.

He attended school in Hayfield Elementary in Alexandria, Virginia. According to Marshall he says, “My childhood was almost idyllic. Sort of Leave it to Beaver meets That Seventies Show. I grew up in a great suburb where everyone knew each other and forged some lifelong friendships.

Terrill says it was during this time period when he first became aware of Steve McQueen. “I was around ten. My father would always stop what he was doing when he saw McQueen on television and we’d watch him together, or he’d take me to his movies. I must have seen Papillion and The Towering Inferno at least five times in the movie theater, and I remember seeing first run showings of Tom Horn and The Hunter. When I became a teenager, my interests expanded to girls, music and sports, and definitely in that order.”

Marshall says, “I played Texas football in high school, which was and probably still is a religion there.  In hindsight, it was quite ridiculous the amount of time we gave to the sport – we had practice before and after school and Fridays were half-days because of a pep rally. We even had Saturday practices after the games!  Remember the movie Friday Night Lights? Well, I lived that life for two years and it wasn’t much fun. When you live in that sort of environment, you think of nobody but yourself and football is your god.  However because my dad was in the military and we moved around a lot, sports gave me instant credibility. Now I can look back and go, “Oh yes, that’s why I chose to go that route.” “As I grew older, I stopped watching football and professional sports altogether. Why would I want to waste three-to-four hours of my time on a game that means nothing when I can read a book, take a bike ride, or watch a movie with my wife?  By the way, I'm a horrible singer, dancer and actor...but I can watch a movie and tell you who is a great actor and someday who will be a star. I remember seeing Mel Gibson in Mad Max;   Micky Rourke in Body Heat;  Tommy Lee Jones in The Executioner’s Song; Kevin Costner in Silverado; Dylan McDermott in The Neon Empire and Kevin Spacey in Wiseguy; Josh Brolin in  Nightwatch and thinking they were all going to be stars someday. Look for Chris Evans to break wide open after Captain America.      

After High School Marshall moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and got a job in the mail room for businessman Charles Keating. He also attended Scottsdale Community College part time. It was  there where he developed a great love for reading and cinema. He was also in the first year of his marriage when all hell broke loose and Keating was sent to prison as a result of a savings and loan scandal. Marshall found himself out of work and because of the stress his wife left him and he was at a crossroad in his life. Now what does he do? Timely, his father called him from Washington, D.C. and said, “Well, you just lost your job and your wife left you. What’s your next trick going to be?”

What Marshall said took both of them surprise. “Actually, I had a trick up my sleeve, and it was something I had contemplated for a long time but never had the guts/time/know how to do. I want to move back to Washington D.C. and write a book on the life of Steve McQueen.  The Library of Congress was not far from my parents’ home, which is where I conducted a majority of my research.  My dad said, 'Why on earth would you want to do a thing like that?  I could barely get you to read in high school.'  I told him that I had always wanted to write a book on Steve McQueen and that something had compelled me to do this.  He thought for a moment and said, 'Well, you might as well do it while you’re young because if you fail, you can recover.'  So that was it.  I moved back into my parents’ home at the age of 24 and stayed there until I was 28.  I had read other books on McQueen and felt they focused on the bad-boy behavior and they had only covered parts of his life, but largely ignoring his acting. 

“Once my dad agreed to let me move back in the house at age 26, I discovered an untapped talent for research.  The writing took more time to develop.  When I started, I didn't know what a transitional sentence was or if a period came before or after a quote mark.  But the one thing I had going for me was desire, and if you have that fueling whatever you do, you can accomplish anything.  So three and a half years after I started my research, my first book, Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel was published in December 1993.  It became an instant best-seller and eventually went through five printings.  I was reborn.”  

The biography led to other books, which led to other opportunities.  Marshall eventually became a journalist and after 10 years in that field, he is now a Information Specialist with Arizona State University. 

Three of his books (Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel; Sergeant Presley; and Elvis: Still Taking Care of Business are in some form of development to be made into a feature film.  Marshall says, “I believe the film industry is a completely different animal than the publishing world.  I have a different take on things, and it may be because I've been a longtime student of Hollywood.  I'm sure there are good people in the industry, but I just want to get paid for my book and let Hollywood do their thing.  The reality of the situation is, once they buy the rights to the book, it's theirs to do whatever it is they want to do and I really have no power or say in the matter.

Marshall says his writing often takes strange twists and turns. “I wrote a book with boxer Ken Norton that I thought would take maybe a year at most.  However, before I met him, he was in a life-threatening car accident and his memory was completely wiped out. So instead of him telling me his story, I went to the library and researched his entire life, which took almost four years.  As I began to outline his life, I had to repeat back to him his life story, which triggered his memory.  It was a very strange experience, but luckily we pulled it off.

Another interesting experience that took me much longer was the seven years I spent Maravich (a biography of basketball legend “Pistol” Pete Maravich co-authored with Wayne Federman) but two of those years were committed to transcribing 300 interviews.  That is a very tedious process.  On top of that I spent another few years culling other information that included newspaper and magazine articles, official documents, memorabilia and interviews with people who knew the subject.  When you’re done with the research, you have to assemble all of that information together to tell the story.  It’s a Herculean effort.  Then there’s the post-production process: editing, trying to find an agent/publisher and finally, promotion.  You can write the greatest book in the world but if no one knows about it, you’ve simply wasted your times.  Those are all skills learned along the way that aren’t taught but are self-learned.  You either sink or swim.”

On writing a book Marshall says, “It’s all dedication, which is 90 percent of the battle.  People always ask me, 'What’s the secret of getting published?' I tell them there’s no real secret to writing a book – you get on the computer and you write.  I mainly see two big problems, people give up way too easily.  Are they willing to put in the time that is required to finish the task?  Sometimes that task is a year; other times it is seven years...When I wrote the first book, I worked 8 to 10 hours a day for three-and-a-half years straight.  You have to have that sort of dedication to get a book published or it’s just not going to happen. The other problem I see is a form of self-sabotage and it happens more often than not.  I’ve seen many writers start a book, write about half the manuscript, then drop that project and start another.  Or they’ll write a chapter and then go back and edit it to the point where they can’t go forward.  They think this is perfectly normal.  I don’t.  I say finish the first book to the point of perfection and then move onto the next project.  I’ve seen so many stalled careers because the writer can’t complete the first project.

“Set aside a time each day and write.  What worked best for me was to write an hour a day before/after work and four to five hours on Saturday and Sunday.  Someone who has kids is going to have a harder time, and that’s the harsh reality.  I don’t have kids and a very understanding wife, who made a lot of sacrifices so I could write my books.”

Marshall’s most recent project is his mammoth 624-page book Steve McQueen: The Life and Legend of a Hollywood Icon, a completely new bio on the superstar.  “I knew the 30^th anniversary of his death was coming up and I thought it would be nice to revisit the subject because no one knows McQueen like I do.  I've interviewed more than 300 people, studied his life for the past 20 years and did a book with his widow.  I also know a lot more about his earlier life now thanks to public records, so this book is more definitive than Portrait and is written by someone who has a better and more perspective on life.  It's the best work of my career.”

What is he working on now? He laughs, “Absolutely nothing and I'm enjoying my free time a lot.  I've done fifteen books in twenty years and unless a publisher feels like taking me out of retirement, I'll stay retired.  Writing books are frankly a pain in the ass and each project ends up becoming a labor of love. When you start calculating the hours of research, writing, time away from family and loved ones, the pay is really pennies on the dollar.  I gladly did that in my twenties and thirties, but now I'm 47 and you become wiser.  The question you end up asking yourself is why am I busting my ass to make someone else richer?  I'm not bitter but I'm simply stating a fact.  If you're not selling in the millions, and most books don't, then you'd better find another profession or a second job.  I've always had a second job while writing books.”

Today Marshall says, “I read, go mountain biking, play soccer with my dog, cook for my wife, travel, and enjoy time with my family and friends.  When I was writing, I spent 8 to 10 hours a day on the computer or devoted to research.  Being handcuffed to the keyboard is no way to live your life, and I am happier than ever.  I have no regrets.  So I guess you could say I'm retired from books. But I’ve also learned to never say never.”

Marshall Terrill can be reached at : Marshzoe@aol.com

Ed Donovan is a writer, SAG Actor and has over 50 years of radio, televison and film expereince.

Ed Donovan can be reached at: edono@bellsouth.net