49 Fun Facts About Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Who directed Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?

George Roy Hill directed Paul Newman as Butch, though Newman had first expected to play Sundance; the script's title was flipped to match the casting.

William Goldman, who wrote Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, later turned which of his own novels into a fantasy film?

The Princess Bride began as his 1973 novel, which pretends to be an abridgement of a fairy tale by an author he invented, 'S. Morgenstern'; he adapted it for the 1987 film himself.

What did one studio head tell William Goldman when rejecting the Butch Cassidy script?

'John Wayne don't run away' was his objection to heroes who flee to South America; by Goldman's telling, a few changed pages later every studio wanted the script.

Goldman said the outlaws' escape abroad disproved which F. Scott Fitzgerald claim about American lives?

They have no second acts, Fitzgerald wrote; Butch and Sundance ran to South America and, Goldman said, became bigger legends there than they had ever been in the West.

Which actor turned down the role of Sundance because he disliked riding horses?

McQueen backed out after disagreements with Newman, and Beatty passed because it felt too much like Bonnie and Clyde. Redford simply liked the script.

In which 1974 disaster film did Paul Newman and Steve McQueen finally team up?

The Towering Inferno finally paired them, years after McQueen left Butch Cassidy, reportedly over billing; this time he had the script padded until he and Newman had the same number of lines.

Who plays Etta Place opposite Butch and Sundance?

Katharine Ross had broken through in The Graduate two years earlier, and she came back to play Etta again in a 1976 television sequel.

In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, what is Etta Place's profession?

Schoolteacher is the film's choice: one account has the real Etta working in a Texas brothel, and her true identity has never been established.

What is Butch's gang called in the film?

The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang is the film's name for the outlaws history calls the Wild Bunch, a title reportedly dropped because a rival 1969 Western had already taken it.

How does Butch see off a rival for leadership of his gang?

A sneaky kick in a knife fight: Butch insists on settling the rules first, and when Harvey Logan snorts that a knife fight has none, kicks him in the groin.

Which railroad do Butch and Sundance rob twice, drawing the wrath of its boss E. H. Harriman?

Union Pacific boss E. H. Harriman pays for a special posse to hunt the pair down, and Butch grumbles that he would have stopped robbing the man for less if Harriman had simply paid him instead.

What goes wrong when Butch's gang robs the train a second time?

Butch uses too much dynamite and the whole car goes up, scattering the money; the real gang went too far as well, their dynamite wrecking a railroad car in the Wilcox hold-up of 1899.

How do Butch and Sundance finally shake the posse?

They jump off a cliff into a river, but only after Sundance confesses he can't swim and Butch roars with laughter: the fall, he says, will probably kill him anyway.

In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Etta agrees to follow the outlaws abroad but refuses to do what?

Watch them die: 'I'll do anything you ask of me except one thing,' she says, and she keeps her word, going home before the final shootout.

What are Butch and Sundance called once they start robbing banks south of the border?

Los Bandidos Yanquis, the Yankee Bandits, thrive until Butch spots a man in a white straw hat and fears the lawman who chased them out of the United States has caught up.

What honest job do Butch and Sundance briefly take after fleeing the United States?

Mining-company payroll guards is as straight as they ever go, and it lasts one trip: bandits kill their new boss on the first run and the pair have to fight their way out.

How are Butch and Sundance tracked down for the final shootout?

A boy recognizes a stolen animal's brand: the pair ride in leading a pack animal taken in their last robbery, and once the police are told, soldiers are called in as well.

How does Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid end?

On a freeze-frame of their last charge: the image fades to sepia while the gunfire carries on, so the film never shows the two men fall.

Who wrote 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head'?

Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote it for the film, and the director kept it in over objections that a pop song had no place in a Western; it went on to win the Best Song Oscar.

Who sang 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head' in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?

B. J. Thomas sang it while suffering from laryngitis, which is why his voice sounds huskier in the film than on the hit single he recorded once he had recovered.

What was Robert Redford's first objection to the hit song in Butch Cassidy?

There was no rain in the film, Redford objected, calling the song a dumb idea; he later admitted how wrong he had been once it became a giant hit.

Which film beat Butch Cassidy to the Best Picture Oscar?

Midnight Cowboy, the only X-rated film ever to win Best Picture, beat it; Butch Cassidy still left with more Oscars than any other film that night: four, for script, cinematography, score and song.

Which cinematographer, later honored for American Beauty, won his first Oscar for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?

Conrad Hall and the film's leading lady became a couple during the shoot and married that year; his third Oscar, for Road to Perdition, was awarded after his death in 2003.

What does Butch show off to Etta while 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head' plays?

A bicycle, sold in the film as the future: a stuntman was hired for the tricks, but the director disliked the results and Paul Newman rode them himself.

In which college town, where Paul Newman studied drama, did Butch Cassidy premiere?

New Haven, Connecticut, is home to Yale, where both Newman and the film's director had studied; the film opened there the night before it reached New York.

How did Butch and Sundance's film rank at the box office among 1969 releases?

It was the year's top grosser among 1969 releases over its full run, taking about $102 million in North America, even though the first reviews were mixed.

Which awards gave Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid nine prizes, including Best Film, Best Actor and Best Actress?

The BAFTAs gave it nine awards in 1971, Best Actor for Robert Redford among them, though Hollywood's own Academy had not nominated a single member of the cast.

Soon after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid came out, Robert Redford gave his character's name to what?

His Utah ski resort, bought as Timp Haven shortly before filming, became Sundance; the film institute and festival that made the name famous grew out of it years later.

Which 1973 film reunited Newman, Redford and their Butch Cassidy director?

The Sting cast the pair as Depression-era con men and outdid its predecessor at the Oscars, winning seven, Best Picture among them.

Which 1970s TV Western was inspired by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?

Alias Smith and Jones lost its star Pete Duel, who died midway through the run; the show's narrator, Roger Davis, stepped into the part and filming carried on.

Who played Butch and Sundance in the 1979 prequel Butch and Sundance: The Early Days?

Richard Lester directed and Goldman executive-produced; Jeff Corey was the only actor to appear in both films.

Which two actors were lined up in 2022 for Amazon's Butch and Sundance series?

Regé-Jean Page and Glen Powell were set to play Butch and Sundance in a series reportedly set in an alternate America; Amazon skipped the pilot stage and ordered it straight to series.

What was Butch Cassidy's real name?

Robert LeRoy Parker borrowed his outlaw surname from Mike Cassidy, the rustler who taught him to ride, rope and shoot when he was a teenage ranch hand.

How is Butch Cassidy usually said to have got the nickname 'Butch'?

From a stint working for a butcher in Rock Springs, runs the usual account; a rival story credits a friend who called his rifle 'Butch' and teased him about his aim.

In which Colorado town did Butch Cassidy pull his first bank robbery, in 1889?

Telluride's San Miguel Valley Bank was robbed in June 1889 by a gang that included the McCarty brothers; Cassidy got away, and was soon doing ranch work around Dubois, on the upper Wind River.

What was the Sundance Kid's real name?

Harry Alonzo Longabaugh was no born Westerner: he grew up in Pennsylvania and left home at 15 to work as a ranch wrangler out west.

What inspired the Sundance Kid's nickname?

A Wyoming town where he was jailed for theft: he served 18 months in Sundance for stealing a horse, saddle and gun, and is said to have taken the name while behind bars.

Whose pursuit drove the real Butch and Sundance to leave the United States in 1901?

The Pinkertons kept at it even then: the agency traced the fugitives to their hideaway in South America, and a tip that detectives were coming made them sell up and move on.

Which relative of Butch Cassidy insisted he had survived and come home?

His youngest sister, Lula Betenson, maintained that the shootout story was wrong and that her brother came back to the United States and lived quietly into the 1930s.

The surname of the Sundance Kid's companion, Etta Place, matches the maiden name of which of his relatives?

His mother was born Annie Place, and his companion signed herself 'Mrs. Ethel Place', so nobody knows what she was really called.

Which question do Butch and Sundance keep asking about the posse on their trail?

'Who are those guys?' is asked again and again as the riders track them over bare rock and through the night by torchlight, never once losing the trail.

Which star did the studio court for Sundance, alongside Marlon Brando, before giving in to Robert Redford?

Warren Beatty and Brando were the studio's idea of a Sundance; Redford, then far less famous, got the part because Paul Newman and the director backed him until the studio relented.

Before Bolivia, in which country did the real Butch, Sundance and Etta run a ranch for several years?

Argentina was home for about four years: they bought land near Cholila in Patagonia and raised cattle and horses, until word that detectives were closing in made them sell.

What does Butch admit he has never done, just before a gunfight?

Shot anyone: 'One hell of a time to tell me,' Sundance replies. The film's writer built the scene on the real Cassidy's reputation as an outlaw who avoided violence.

Where did the film's scenes set in Bolivia get shot?

Locations included Taxco, Cuernavaca and Estudios Churubusco in Mexico City.

Which national park was among Butch Cassidy's Utah filming locations?

Zion made the cut after Robert Redford, by his own account, heard talk of filming cheaply in Spain and took the director to see southwest Utah instead.

Which future star of Tombstone has a bit part as a card player in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?

Sam Elliott is 'Card Player #2' in the opening saloon scene, one of his first film roles; fifteen years later he married the film's leading lady.

Which element of Butch Cassidy did a Hollywood guild rank 11th on an all-time list?

Its screenplay came 11th on the Writers Guild of America's list of the 101 greatest, although it was the first original script its author, a novelist, had ever written.

In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which loyal young clerk refuses to open the express car for the gang?

Woodcock pays for his loyalty in the first hold-up, and at the second Butch is delighted to find him back at his post and still refusing to open up.