Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a 1969 American Western film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman (who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film). Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman), and his partner Harry Longabaugh, the "Sundance Kid" (Robert Redford), who are on the run from a crack US posse after a string of train robberies. The pair and Sundance's lover, Etta Place (Katharine Ross), flee to Bolivia
Butch Cassidy 1960 interview, Josie Bassett claimed that Cassidy came to visit her in the 1920s "after returning from South America," and that "Butch died in Johnnie, Nevada, about 15 years ago." Locals of Cassidy's hometown of Circleville, Utah claimed in an interview that Cassidy worked in Nevada until his death. Western historian Charles Kelly closed the chapter "Is Butch Cassidy Dead?" in his 1938 book, "The Outlaw Trail: A History of Butch Cassidy and His Wild Bunch", by observing that if Cassidy "is still alive, as these rumors claim, it seems exceedingly strange that he has not returned to Circleville, Utah,