Donald Pleasence’s remarkable real-life ‘Great Escape’ experience
Today, the legendary British actor Donald Pleasence is perhaps best remembered for his performance as psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis in John Carpenter’s 1978 classic Halloween and four of its sequels. However, earlier in his career, the Worksop-born actor took on memorable roles in the 1967 James Bond movie You Only Live Twice and John Sturges’ World War II classic, The Great Escape.
Released in 1963, The Great Escape was a star-studded classic based on the real-life story of a mass escape of Allied prisoners from the German POW camp, Stalag Luft III. Pleasence appeared in the movie as RAF Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe alongside Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson and James Coburn.
In the largely fictionalised story, Blythe befriends Garner’s character, Flight Lieutenant Bob Hendley. Early in the movie, Blythe begins to go blind as he suffers from progressive myopia, and Hendley kindly offers to guide him during the escape. The pair are among the lucky few to escape before the third tunnel’s discovery and manage to make it to a German airfield.
The two experienced pilots hijack a plane and set off for Switzerland but crash following an engine failure. As German troops close in on the wreckage, Blythe is tragically shot while Hendley is recaptured.
This scene was a fictionalised detail conceived by author Paul Brickhill for his 1950 book of the same name on which the film was based. However, similar events were, of course, common during the war, and Pleasence was among those to experience the real thing.
Although he had previously been a conscientious objector to the war, Pleasence joined the Royal Air Force in 1940. The real-life war hero served as an aircraft wireless operator for No. 166 Squadron in Bomber Command.
Pleasence embarked on nearly 60 raids over occupied Europe during his five years of service, one of which ended in disaster. According to the RAF Command Database, “On 31 August 1944, Lancaster III (NE 112) took off at 1320 from Kirmington for an attack on a V-2 site and crashed near St-Riquier (Somme) 9 km ENE from Abbeville France and on the main road to Doullens. Resultant of the crash, two of the crew perished, while two evaded and four were captured by the Germans. Flying Officer Donald Pleasence was captured and sequestered to German camp Stalag Luft I.”
While imprisoned at Stalag Luft I, Pleasence acquainted some of his fellow prisoners, some of whom were among the most cunning escape artists of World War II. Pleasence rubbed shoulders with RAF soldiers Warrant Officer John ‘The Mole’ Fancy and Lieutenant Commander Jimmy ‘Big X’ Buckley. Both were involved in the escape from Stalag Luft III, on which The Great Escape was based. These real-life heroes were depicted in the movie by Angus Lennie and Richard Attenborough, respectively.
Stalag Luft I was abandoned by the retreating German forces in May 1945 and was liberated within a few days. In 1946, following the end of World War II, Pleasence was discharged from the RAF and returned to his acting aspirations.
Approximately 15 years later, Pleasence found himself on the set of The Great Escape. According to IMDb, while shooting the movie in Bavaria, Pleasence offered some advice to Sturges and was politely asked to keep his opinions to himself. However, when another cast member informed the American director of Pleasence’s real-life experiences, he apologised and sought the Halloween actor’s counsel from then on.
Watch Donald Pleasence’s aeroplane crash scene from The Great Escape below.