10 Movies You Didn't Know Were Based On Real-Life People

5. Dog Day Afternoon

Uma Thurman Notting Hill
Warner Bros

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.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.