Escape from Alcatraz (film)

Escape from Alcatraz is a 1979 American biographical prison drama film directed and produced by Don Siegel, that depicts the June 1962 prisoner escape from the federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island. The screenplay, written by Richard Tuggle, is based on the 1963 nonfiction book of the same name by J. Campbell Bruce, and stars Clint Eastwood as escape ringleader Frank Lee Morris, alongside Patrick McGoohan, Fred Ward, Jack Thibeau, and Larry Hankin, with Danny Glover appearing in his film debut.

Shot on location at Alcatraz, the film marks the fifth and final collaboration between Siegel and Eastwood, following Coogan's Bluff (1968), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), The Beguiled (1971), and Dirty Harry (1971). Released by Paramount Pictures on June 22, 1979, Escape from Alcatraz received critical acclaim from audiences and critics and was a financial success, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of 1979.