Real people and the actors who played them

You don’t always need to change the course of history to see your life on the big (or small) screen. Here’s a roundup of 20 ordinary people whose lives were made into movies or television shows—and the actors who played them.

Erin Brockovich, a single mom turned environmental activist, had no legal education before she began investigating the Pacific Gas and Electric scandal responsible for contaminating the water in Hinkley, California.

For her portrayal of Erin Brockovich in the movie of the same name, directed by Steven Soderbergh in 2000, Julia Roberts won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role the following year.

Frank Serpico is the former New York cop who blew the whistle on corruption inside the NYPD in the 1960s, an act that almost cost him his life. In addition to the movie, a TV series about his life was broadcast in 1976 and 1977 on NBC.

Al Pacino won his first Golden Globe for his performance as an upright police officer in the movie Serpico (1973), directed by Sidney Lumet.

Better known as simply “the pianist,” Szpilman, a Polish musician and composer of Jewish descent, miraculously survived deportation to a concentration camp and the Warsaw ghetto during the Second World War.

Based on Szpilman’s autobiography, The Pianist (2002), directed by Roman Polanski, stars Adrien Brody as the musician.

While studying at Harvard, a young Mark Zuckerberg founded what would later become Facebook. He is still the CEO today.

In the movie The Social Network (2010), directed by David Fincher, Jesse Eisenberg plays the young computer scientist. The film won three Oscars and a Golden Globe for Best Picture of the Year – Drama.

Founder of the magazine Hustler, Larry Flynt is also an advocate of freedom of speech at any cost. He became a paraplegic following an attempted assassination in 1978.

Director Miloš Forman cast Woody Harrelson as the publisher in the movie The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996).

DJ Adrian Cronauer served as a radio presenter in Saigon in 1965 and 1966 during the Vietnam War. His signature early-morning greeting—“Good morning, Vietnam!”—became the name of the movie inspired by his life.

Robin Williams improvised most of the dialogue in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), which was directed by Barry Levinson. He the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for his portrayal of the lead character.

Winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in economics, Nash was an American mathematician and professor who specialized in game theory.

In Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind (2001), Russell Crowe portrays the tormented mathematician. The film won four Oscars, including for Best Director and Best Picture.

Danish writer Karen Blixen recorded her years in Kenya in her autobiography, Out of Africa. She also wrote the book that the script for the movie Babette’s Feast (1987) is based on.

In the fictionalized version of Out of Africa (1985), Meryl Streep plays Karen Blixen in Nairobi before she became a writer. Sydney Pollack won the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture.

Katherine Johnson, a mathematician for NASA from 1953 to 1986, helped develop the calculations for Project Apollo’s Lunar Lander. In 1939, she also became one of the first three African American students to study at West Virginia’s graduate schools.

A key member of the trio of black female mathematicians at NASA, Katherine Johnson is portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the film Hidden Figures (2016).

In 2003, the Boston Globe’s team of investigative reporters—Marty Baron, Walter Robinson, Sacha Pfeiffer, Michael Rezendes, Ben Bradlee Jr., and Matt Carroll—received the Pulitzer Prize for uncovering a child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

These six actors play the Boston Globe team in Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight (2015), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

Paul Rusesabagina, formerly the manager of a five-star hotel in Kigali, claims to have saved the lives of over a thousand people fleeing the Rwandan genocide. Though the truth of these claims has been called into question by many, Rusesabagina continues to give lectures on peace around the world.

In Hotel Rwanda (2004), directed by Terry George, Don Cheadle plays the hotel manager, a moderate Hutu with a Tutsi wife, who watches the genocide unfold before his eyes.

Primatologist Dian Fossey made saving the mountain gorilla her life’s work. Fossey lived in the forest with the primates until her still-unsolved murder in 1985.

For her portrayal of Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist (1988), directed by Michael Apted, Sigourney Weaver won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture –Drama.

Outdoorsman Aron Ralston was trapped for six days and five nights in a Utah canyon and forced to amputate his own arm to save his life.

James Franco played the mountain climber in Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours (2010), which was nominated for six Oscars.

Today, Jordan Belfort is a motivational speaker, but before that, he was a stockbroker involved in a massive $200-million fraud.

In his portrayal of the infamous fraudster in Martin Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Leonardo DiCaprio goes from a wealthy stockbroker leading a life of debauchery to a man on the run from the government.

Serial killer Aileen Wuornos was convicted of killing six men, yet claimed she had acted in self-defence after being raped. Wuornos was executed on October 9, 2002.

Patty Jenkins chose Charlize Theron to play Wuornos in the film Monster (2003), and it proved to be a wise choice. Theron won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were working as investigative journalists for the Washington Post when they uncovered the Watergate scandal, which led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Redford (Woodward) and Hoffman (Bernstein) play the famous journalism duo in the film All the President’s Men (1976), directed by Alan J. Pakula.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, aka RBG, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was the second female justice ever to serve on the court, after Sandra Day O’Connor.

Director Mimi Leder tapped Felicity Jones to play RBG in the biopic On the Basis of Sex (2018), which tells the story of the lawyer’s early days battling gender-based discrimination.

American surfer Bethany Hamilton lost her arm in a shark attack in Hawaii. In addition to being a model and spokesperson, Hamilton continues to compete as a professional surfer.

For the surf scenes, Hamilton served as a double for actor AnnaSophia Robb in Soul Surfer (2011), directed by Sean McNamara.

In 2004, while on vacation with her family in Thailand, María Belón was seriously injured during the tsunami. Miraculously, her entire family, including her husband and three sons, survived.

The Impossible (2012), directed by J.A. Bayona, stars Naomi Watts as María (renamed Bennett in the film).

Philippe Pozzo Di Borgo is a French businessman who became a quadriplegic; Abdel Sellou is the ex-con who became his caregiver. Sellou tells the story of their unlikely friendship in his book, You Changed My Life.

François Cluzet and Omar Sy play a fictionalized version of the duo in the movie Intouchables (2011), directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano. An American remake—The Upside, starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart—came out in 2017.

The woman born Diana Spencer became world-famous when she married Prince Charles, the heir apparent to the British throne, in 1981. Known for her elegance, warm personality, and dedication to many charitable causes, Diana remained a popular celebrity after her divorce from Charles in 1996. Her death in a car accident in 1997 sparked an unprecedented outpouring of grief in Britain and around the world.

English actress Emma Corrin has won praise for her performance as the Princess of Wales in the fourth season of the Netflix series The Crown, which follows the tumultuous relationship between Charles and Diana.