I just watched the movie "The Birdman of Alcatraz" on TCM. I had never seen it before. Burt Lancaster played Robert Stroud, and it was released in 1962.
The commentary after the movie told us that the real Robert Stroud was not as nice as the character in the movie.
from the trivia page of TCM:
- Stroud was actually imprisoned in cell #42 located in the D Block. According to Frank Heaney, a former prison guard (1948-51), Stroud was anything but the sympathetic character as portrayed by Burt Lancaster. He was an extremely difficult and demented inmate who, though highly intelligent, was a villain and a psychopath.
- After the film's release, many letters were written pleading for Robert Stroud's release. Despite his sympathetic portrayal by Burt Lancaster, Stroud was a conniving and volatile sociopath who killed two people in prison (one a guard he stabbed in full view of the Leavenworth cafeteria), stabbed an orderly who snitched on his escape plan, wrote child pornography and (as an old man at a parole hearing) said that he "had a lot of people left to kill and I don't have much time to do it."
Even so, the movie was so interesting. Of course it stirred my interest is the history of his story. He was brilliant.
Read the entire post athttp://www.ibosocial.com/sallykwitt/pressrelease.aspx?prid=414368
Thank you!
Comments
Very interesting, thanks for sharing.
I'm with Albert your post is very interesting. It's funny when they make these movies, the actors portrayal is what people see and believe. People tend to forget about the person which they are portraying. Shared via Syndication Automation.
Interesting article/blog/press release. The picture in your press release of Robert Stroud really does look sinister! Best wishes for 2015!