June 20, 1963 - Opening today is “The Great Escape,” a war adventure film starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough, and featuring James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, David McCallum, and others. The film is based on Paul Brickhill’s 1950 nonfiction book of the same name, a firsthand account of the mass escape by British Commonwealth prisoners from the German POW camp Stalag Luft III in the Nazi Germany province of Lower Silesia. “The Great Escape” was made by The Mirisch Company, released by United Artists, and produced and directed by John Sturges. Mr. Sturges previously directed Mr. McQueen in “Never So Few” and “The Magnificent Seven.”
