The Big Picture
The 1993 film
The Fugitive
stars Harrison Ford as Dr. Kimble running from the law after being falsely accused of murdering his wife.
The movie maintains the TV series’ premise but adds a twist, connecting Mrs. Kimble’s death to a pharmaceutical cover-up.
Despite rumors, the movie isn’t directly inspired by real-life murder cases like Sam Sheppard’s, highlighting thematic differences.
After catapulting into movie stardom with iconic roles in Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford settled into a great run of adult-oriented leading man parts in the 1990s. This streak included Presumed Innocent, two films in the Jack Ryan franchise, Witness, and Air Force One, and one of Ford’s best movie-star turns fell within this time.
The Fugitive came out in 1993, and follows Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble, a man on the run after being wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife. Tommy Lee Jones portrays U.S. Marshall Sam Gerard, the lawman on his tail, and who would go on to appear in a spin-off sequel, U.S. Marshalls. The film is a great two-hander, part procedural thriller, part mystery, that puts two of Hollywood’s best grumpy men head to head. The Fugitive was one of Andrew Davis’ biggest successes as a filmmaker, and remains one of Ford’s most beloved star-vehicles, but the film also has a rich history with ties to an older TV adaptation, and even a real-life murder case.
The Fugitive
Dr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wife, must find the real killer while being the target of a nationwide manhunt led by a seasoned U.S. Marshal.
Release Date August 6, 1993
Director Andrew Davis
Runtime 130 minutes
Studio Warner Bros.
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Before Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones Faced Off in ‘The Fugitive,’ It Was a 1960s TV Series
Like Mission: Impossible, Miami Vice, and even The Fall Guy, The Fugitive takes its premise and main characters from an earlier TV series of the same name. The Fugitive series aired for four seasons from 1963 to 1967, and followed an identical setup involving Dr. Kimble on the run in an effort to evade police and find the real culprit of his wife’s murder, the elusive one-armed man. Kimble was portrayed by David Janssen, while Gerard was played by Barry Morse.
The show was well-liked at the time, and even won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Dramatic Series in 1966, but has not had much of a life with younger audiences in the post-2010s. Gen-Z audiences may not have been familiar with the series, but it spawned many remakes and spin-offs in other markets, in addition to the Ford-led film in 1993.
How Is ‘The Fugitive’ Movie Different From the TV Series?
The feature film maintains the same setup, but changes a few major details revolving around the reasons behind Mrs. Kimble’s death. In the series, it is depicted as a robbery, while the film reveals a larger conspiracy relating to a pharmaceutical cover-up, tying the resolution of the plot closely to Dr. Kimble’s line of work. Dr. Kimble is characterized similarly in both versions, being thorough and dedicated to uncovering his wife’s murderer and often putting himself at risk of legal trouble by helping others in medical crises.
The pharmaceutical industry ties made the movie more topical, and added extra layers to the conspiracy that could quickly fall into place over the course of a single movie, as opposed to stretching a story out for seasons. While both are acclaimed, the movie’s star-power, intense chase sequences, and thrilling conclusion are undeniable, and pushed the maximum potential from a great premise.
How Much of Harrison Ford’s ‘The Fugitive’ Is True?
Image via Warner Bros.
The series version of The Fugitive is an original premise created by Roy Huggins. However, the show has, for many years, been closely associated with a real-life murder case that occurred in the 1950s. In 1954, Sam Sheppard, an Ohio-based neurosurgeon, was convicted of murdering his wife, Marilyn Reese Sheppard. The case had a large presence in the media due to some of the unusual circumstances of Sheppard’s defense, and the hectic trial. While Sheppard spent a decade in prison, he eventually appealed and successfully overturned his conviction.
It has been reported and shared across the internet that Sam Sheppard’s case was the inspiration behind The Fugitive. After all, a doctor being accused, convicted, and ultimately cleared of his wife’s murder does sound similar to the basic premise of the series. But the connection is rather loose. It is only that broad framing that bares any similarity to The Fugitive. Huggins, in a 1993 interview with the LA Times, officially clarified that the series was not based on Sheppard’s case at all, and that any similarities were exaggerated, saying: “I suppose connecting Kimble to Sheppard makes a more sensational story.”
In the same LA Times piece, infamous defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, a key figure in the OJ Simpson trial, and the attorney who successfully argued for Sheppard’s defense in retrial, claimed that the series was undoubtedly inspired by his case. Despite any real evidence pointing to the fact, this claim has continued to associate the film with the case, against Huggins’ best attempts to dispel the rumor. It frustrates Huggins, who sees the reports as a blatant disregard of the truth surrounding both the case and the origins of the series he created.
The True Crime Story Tied to ‘The Fugitive’ Proves Truth Can Be Stranger Than Fiction
Huggins’ rejection of the rumor seems to hold water because The Fugitive bares little similarity to the Sheppard case outside the basic idea of a doctor being tried for his wife’s murder. Sheppard was not sentenced to death row, he never escaped prison after a bus crash, and the murder was never solved. However, Sheppard’s life, and the circumstances around this case, are bizarre enough to inspire their own movie without all the sensationalizing.
Sheppard’s recollection of his wife’s death is that he had fallen asleep in another room of their home, waking up due to the noisy struggle between her and the attacker. He claimed he entered the room to find a “white form” attacking his wife. The language he used to describe the attacker was cryptic and strange. Sheppard seemed hesitant to call the attacker a human, using words like “form” and “biped” when describing what he saw. He also claimed the figure was “bushy-haired.”
Related This Underappreciated Harrison Ford Thriller Is as Controversial as It Is Hitchcockian
No signs of Han Solo or Indiana Jones here.
Sheppard claimed that he chased the attacker out of his home, lunged at him, and then woke up disoriented, without his shirt, and a hazy memory of the entire event. The grisly scene of the crime and the state of Mrs. Sheppard disturbed the investigators. Authorities found no signs of breaking and entering the home, meaning the attacker was let into the home without a fight. Any rational understanding of the crime pointed to Dr. Sheppard. His unbelievable story wasn’t enough to stop him from being charged and convicted of the crime.
Was the True Crime Case Solved in Real Life?
Image via Warner Bros.
The trial became a media frenzy in the local area, with the press launching all-out attacks against Dr. Sheppard’s case. The judge was reported by the clerk to have made remarks about Sheppard’s obvious guilt, and the open-and-shut nature of the case. But years later, it was overturned largely because of the lack of compelling evidence and the notion that the media circus and sensationalizing of the trial prejudiced Sheppard’s defense.
It is a bizarre case with little clarity all these years later. Unfortunately, justice was ultimately never brought to Mrs. Sheppard. The only person ever charged with the crime was freed, and no one will seemingly ever know the truth about what happened. But Dr. Sheppard continued to be a strange figure in the public eye, taking on a career as a professional wrestler, where he fought under the name “Killer.” If you read all of this and think, “that doesn’t really sound like The Fugitive,” Roy Huggins would be thrilled to hear that, and it is true, because the reality of the Sheppard case is much stranger and darker than the TV series or the Ford-led film adaptation. While it would have been wild to see Harrison Ford take a turn in the wrestling ring in the last act of The Fugitive, the continued association between the film and the real-life story takes away from the gravity of what happened.
The death of Marilyn Reese Sheppard was a brutal, tragic event that unfortunately ended up overshadowed by a sensationalized approach to criminal justice reporting, and The Fugitive’s unintended association has perpetuated that sensationalizing for decades. It’s a strange case of art imitating life, but to a very limited degree, one that is not compelling when looked at closely. Maybe it speaks to our growing interest in the true crime genre, or a macabre need to mine cathartic entertainment out of the grim realities of real-life tragedies. Either way, The Fugitive is not the story of Marilyn Reese Sheppard’s death, and perhaps it is a disservice to both to continue tying them together.
The Fugitive is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.
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