Helen Prejean her best-selling book, "Dead Man Walking" (1993), based on her experiences with two convicts on Death Row for whom she served as spiritual adviser before their executions. In her book, she explored the effects of the death penalty on everyone involved. The book was adapted as a 1995 film of the same name, starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. It was also adapted as an opera, first produced in 2000 by the San Francisco Opera. Helen Prejean was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the daughter of Augusta Mae (née Bourg; 1911–1993), a nurse, and Louis Sebastian Prejean (1893–1974), a lawyer.
My Sister Eileen (play) Her sister Ruth consequently did not attend the premiere and never saw the play. Fields and Chodorov adapted their play for the 1942 film that opened while the play was still running on Broadway, as well as the 1953 musical "Wonderful Town". It also served as the basis for the 1960 television sitcom of the same title. My Sister Eileen (play) My Sister Eileen is an American comedy stage production, written by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, based on autobiographical short stories by Ruth McKenney. The stories were originally published in "The New Yorker" and then collected and published