William Franklin Holden was an American actor and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film Stalag 17 (1953) and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for the television miniseries The Blue Knight (1973). Holden starred in some of Hollywood's most popular and critically acclaimed films, including Sunset Boulevard (1950), Sabrina (1954), Picnic (1955), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The Wild Bunch (1969) and Network (1976). He was named one of the "Top 10 Stars of the Year" six times, and appeared as 25th on the American Film Institute's list of 25 greatest male stars of Classical Hollywood cinema.
San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County.
Caryl Whittier Chessman was a convicted robber, kidnapper and serial rapist who was sentenced to death for a series of crimes committed in January 1948 in the Los Angeles area. Chessman was charged with 17 counts and convicted under a loosely interpreted "Little Lindbergh law" – later repealed, but not retroactively – that defined kidnapping as a capital offense under certain circumstances. His case attracted worldwide attention, and helped propel the movement to end the use of capital punishment in the state of California.
Edward Heward Bunker was an American author of crime fiction, a screenwriter, convicted felon and an actor. He wrote numerous books, some of which have been adapted into films. He wrote the scripts for—and acted in—Straight Time (1978), Runaway Train (1985) and Animal Factory (2000). He also played a minor role in Reservoir Dogs (1992).
Wright Marion Morris was an American novelist, photographer, and essayist. He is known for his portrayals of the people and artifacts of the Great Plains in words and pictures, as well as for experimenting with narrative forms.
James A. Westerfield was an American character actor of stage, film, and television.
Kathryn Crosby is a retired American actress and singer who performed in films under the stage names Kathryn Grant and Kathryn Grandstaff.
William Campbell was an American actor who appeared in supporting roles in major film productions, and also starred in several low-budget B-movies and horror films.
Bartley Louis Braverman is an American former actor, best known for playing Binzer on the ABC primetime series Vega$ (1978–1981). Braverman has also guest starred on many television shows.
Joseph Turkel was an American character actor who starred in film and television during the Golden Age Era in the 1950s and 1960s. He is known for his roles in Stanley Kubrick's films The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), and The Shining (1980), and as Dr. Eldon Tyrell in Blade Runner (1982). He also had roles in three of Bert I. Gordon's films.
Riot in Cell Block 11 is a 1954 American film noir crime film directed by Don Siegel and starring Neville Brand, Emile Meyer, Frank Faylen, Leo Gordon and Robert Osterloh. Director Quentin Tarantino called it "the best prison film ever made."
Kerwin Mathews was an American actor best known for playing the titular heroes in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960) and Jack the Giant Killer (1962).
Alcatraz Island has appeared many times in popular culture. Its appeal in film derives from its picturesque setting, natural beauty, isolation, and its history as a U.S. penitentiary – from which, officially, no prisoner ever successfully escaped.
John Paul Livadary was a sound designer.
Robert Wright Campbell, often credited as R. Wright Campbell or Robert Campbell, was an American screenwriter, author and occasional actor. He was the brother of actor William Campbell and brother in law of Judith Campbell Exner. He wrote ten television series, including Maverick and Marcus Welby, M.D..
Cell 2455, Death Row: A Condemned Man's Own Story is a 1954 memoir that is the first of four books written on death row by convicted robber, rapist and kidnapper Caryl Chessman. Sentenced to death in 1948 under California's Little Lindbergh Law, Chessman became internationally famous for waging a legal battle to stay alive and fight his conviction and death sentence through voluminous appeals. Chessman became a cause célèbre for the movement to ban capital punishment. Before he was executed in 1960, he was the longest-lived death row inmate in modern history.
Robert B. Williams was an American character actor from the 1940s through the 1970s. During his 37-year career, he appeared in over 150 feature films, as well as numerous film shorts, television films, and television shows. He did not break into the film business until he was in his 30s.
Jack DeWitt (1900–1981) was an American screenwriter.
Henry Batista (1914-2002) was an American film and television editor active from the 1930s through the 1970s.
