Burt Lancaster received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and the film earned three other Oscar nominations. Fact vs. Fiction
Burt Lancaster (Robert Stroud), Karl Malden (Warden Harvey Shoemaker), and Thelma Ritter (Elizabeth Stroud). L'UOMO DI ALCATRAZ 1962
In reality, Stroud was only allowed to keep birds while he was at Leavenworth Prison. By the time he was transferred to Alcatraz in 1942, he was forbidden from keeping any pets. Burt Lancaster received an Academy Award nomination for
While the movie is a powerful "civil commitment" film that critiques the inhumane prison system of the time, it took significant creative liberties with the actual history of Robert Stroud. In reality, Stroud was only allowed to keep
The film portrays Stroud as a quiet, redeemed intellectual. Historical records and prison psychiatrists, however, often described the real Stroud as a dangerous and unrepentant sociopath with an I.Q. of 112.
