Steve McQueen was awarded this Golden Globe at the 1970 ceremony for World Film Favorite during 1969. He was also nominated that year for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor in the Musical/Comedy genre for his 1969 film The Reivers, but the award instead went to Peter O'Toole for Goodbye, Mr. Chips. This was McQueen's second and last Golden Globe award that McQueen won - the first was awarded three years previously in the same category at the 1967 ceremony.

This category for "World Film Favorite" has since been discontinued. It was actually termed the "Henrietta Award" and was in use from 1950 - 1979. The origins of the "Henrietta" are that, in 1950, the Hollywood Foreign Correspondents Association split into two different groups - the original group continued to present the Golden Globe awards, whilst the new Foreign Press Association of Hollywood created it's own award - the "Henrietta", named after the group's president, Henry Gris. In 1955 the two groups were reunited as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), and the Golden Globe awards prevailed over the lesser-known Henriettas, with the Henrietta continuing to be awarded in this category until 1979.