The Cast
Like many of its counterparts from sixties cinema (such as The Longest Day), the Great Escape featured what can be truly described as an all-star cast, incorporating both American heavyweights such as Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn and James Garner (the first three of whom also featured in director John Sturges The Magnificent Seven) and British thespians such as Richard Attenborough, James Donald, David McCallum and Donald Pleasance (the latter of whom had actually served as an airman during the war and spent a year in German captivity after being shot down). The actors predominantly play British and American characters, though Coburns Sedgwick is ostensibly Australian and Bronsons Danny is a Polish airman serving in a British company. This was something of a deviation from reality, as the real-life escape involved men of a whole host of different Allied nationalities (two of the three successful escapees from the seventy six were Norwegian and the other was Dutch, for instance), but no Americans, as all American airmen in the camp were moved to a new specialist facility during the escapes initial planning stages. Without American stars like McQueen and Garner, however, the film may have struggled to attract funding or an audience, as star power was an extremely important selling point for films of the time. Many of the cast (including Attenborough and Garner) remain alive today and continue to work in film and television on occasion, most notably McCallum, who portrays Dr. Donald Ducky Mallard on the hit show NCIS.