Summary

• The Fugitive, both the TV series and movie, is believed to have been inspired by a real crime case, namely the Sam Sheppard murder case.
• Dr. Sam Sheppard, like the fictional character Dr. Richard Kimble, was wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and later acquitted after spending years in prison.
• While the creators deny using the Sheppard case as inspiration, they it that Les Misérables was the main influence for the plot of The Fugitive, with Kimble resembling Jean Valjean and Lt. Gerard playing a role similar to Inspector Javert.

one of the most-watched series finales of all time because it was one of the earliest shows that promised to answer a long-standing mystery in its final episode.

While Kimble is a fictional character and his adventures on the lam are all fictional stories cooked up by talented writers, The Fugitive is considered to be a sensationalized adaptation of a real case. The Fugitive premiered on ABC in 1963 and ran for 120 episodes. This led to the Oscar-winning movie remake starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. The true crime case that the series is thought to be based on took place in 1954, and was the subject of national media coverage, so the producers must have heard about it before making the show.

The Fugitive Might Be Based On The Sam Sheppard Murder Case

Though The Creators Have Denied It

In 1954, Dr. Sam Sheppard was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife, Marilyn Reese Sheppard, and sentenced to life in prison. Sheppard didn’t go on the run like Kimble, but he was innocent. He ended up getting the ruling overturned in 1966. In the case of Sheppard v. Maxwell, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the nationwide media coverage painting Sheppard as a villain had made due process impossible in his first trial. After spending 10 years in prison, Sheppard was finally acquitted at a second trial.

According to Cynthia L. Cooper’s book Mockery of Justice: The True Story of the Sheppard Murder Case, co-written with Sheppard’s son, the creators of The Fugitive have consistently denied using Sheppard’s story as the inspiration for the series. However, some felt the real story and the plot of the Fugitive TV show were too close to be a coincidence. They even have similar jobs: Sheppard was a neurosurgeon and Kimble was a pediatrician.

The Sheppard murder case has inspired other movies and true crime documentaries, like Guilty or Innocent: The Sam Sheppard Murder Case, a 1975 made-for-TV movie starring George Peppard, and the 2021 Hallmark movie Reunited and It Feels So Deadly.

The Fugitive also had two TV remakes, the 2000 series starring Tim Daly and the 2020 miniseries starring Boyd Holbrook.

Les Misérables Was The Main Inspiration For The Fugitive

Jean Valjean And Richard Kimble Are Very Similar

While the creators of The Fugitive refuse to acknowledge the real-life Sheppard case as an inspiration for the series, they have named Les Misérables as their main influence on the plot of the series. In Ed Robertson’s 1993 book The Fugitive Recaptured, producer Quinn Martin described The Fugitive as “a sort of modern rendition of the outline of Les Misérables.” Kimble is a modern-day Jean Valjean, on the run from the law and constantly moving from town to town to remain undetected. His relentless pursuer, Lt. Philip Gerard, is similar to Les Misérables’ Inspector Javert.

Other Movies You Didn't Realize Were Inspired By True Stories

Crime Musicals, Survival Stories, And Even Killer Shark Movies Have Drawn From Real Life

While many movies are widely known to be based on true stories, a film like The Fugitive is interesting because it is only inspired by true events. Instead of adapting the real story as it happened, The Fugitive is able to change the names of the characters and the circumstances to tell its own story untethered from the facts of the real case. Of course, The Fugitive is not the only movie to do this.

Another story of murder based on a true-crime story comes from the musical Chicago. While the movie is based on the famous musical, it also draws from the true story of a woman named Beulah Annan who murdered her lover, itting to doing it in a jealous rage, only to change her story to self-defense. Cast Away is another movie that tells an extraordinary story of an everyman thrust into a fight for survival. Cast Away draws inspiration from real-life survival stories, like that of William Broyles Jr. who deliberately isolated himself on a deserted island.

Another Tom Hanks movie is based on a stranger-than-fiction story. Hanks starred in Steven Spielberg's The Terminal as a man who, after his country ceases to exist, finds himself forced to live in an airport. It is based on the real story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, whom Spielberg paid to use his life rights before deciding to make it an original story loosely based on Nasseri's story (via The New York Times).

There are also certain movies that, while seemingly outlandish and unrealistic in their plots, are partially based in reality. The Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore rom-com 50 First Dates is partially based on the true story of Michelle Phelps, a woman who cannot form long-term memories and needs to be reminded every morning of her marriage to her husband (via Cosmopolitan). Even Steven Spielberg's killer shark movie Jaws is thought to have been inspired by the real-life shark attacks in New Jersey in 1916 (via Business Insider).

Source: Mockery of Justice: The True Story of the Sheppard Murder Case, The Fugitive Recaptured, The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Business Insider