Trailer
Plot summary
Part of George Adamson's job as senior game warden in northern Kenya is dealing with animals that threaten people, livestock or crops. He kills a man-eating lion and its lioness, then realizes the lioness had been defending three cubs. He brings the orphaned cubs home, and he and his wife Joy raise them. When the cubs grow too big, the two larger ones go to a zoo in Rotterdam, while the smallest, Elsa, stays with the couple, who have grown attached to her. After Elsa is blamed for an elephant stampede in a nearby village, George's boss John Kendall orders that she be trained to survive in the wild or sent to a zoo. Joy wants to try returning her to freedom rather than see her caged.
Cast
- Peter Lukoyeas Nuru
- Omar Chambatias Makkede
- Bill Goddenas Sam
- Robert S. Youngas James
- Bryan Epsomas Baker
- Geoffrey Bestas Watson
- Robert Cheethamas Ken
- Surya Patelas Doctor
Show all 13 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Born Free (1966)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- During filming, a lion named Boy once knocked Virginia McKenna flat and broke her ankle, while another lion named Girl bit her on the shoulder.
- The screenplay was credited to "Gerald L.C. Copley," a pseudonym for the blacklisted Hollywood writer Lester Cole, who adapted Joy Adamson's 1960 book.
- The making of the film was a life-changing experience for Virginia McKenna and her husband Bill Travers, who became animal rights activists and were instrumental in creating the Born Free Foundation.
- One of the film's lions had previously served as a live mascot for the Scots Guards, who had to leave him behind in Kenya when the regiment departed.
