10 Movies You Didn't Know Were Based On Real-Life People
5. Dog Day Afternoon
The story of Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon is nearly beat-for-beat the story of John Wojtowicz, Sal Naturile, Robert Westenberg and Elizabeth Eden.
Back in 1972, Wojtowicz, Naturile and Westenberg attempted to rob a Chase Manhattan bank for what they believed would be a $200,000 score. Upon realising that the majority of the money had been removed by armored truck earlier that day, instead the trio stole $29,000 when they arrived at the Gravesend, Brooklyn bank.
The police were soon on the scene, with Westenberg managing to make his escape. Trapped in the bank, Wojtowicz and Naturile took hostages and began to bargain with the law, demanding transportation to JFK International Airport, burgers and Coca-Cola, and the hospital release of Elizabeth Eden (who at that point was still known as Ernie Aron).
This would all come to an end 14 hours later, Naturile would end up dead, Wojtowicz was arrested, and the reasoning given for the heist was to pay for sexual reassignment surgery for Eden.
In 1975's Dog Day Afternoon, the story largely stayed the same, just some of the names were changed - Al Pacino as Sonny Wortzik (John Wojtowicz), Jon Cazale as Sal Naturile, Gary Springer as Stevie (Robert Westenberg) and Chris Sarandon as Leon Shermer (Ernie Aron/Elizabeth Eden). Oh, and the demand for burgers was replaced by a demand for pizza.