Mara the Lioness Mara the Lioness Mara the Lioness is an animal actor who appeared as Elsa in the 1966 movie "Born Free", based on the true story of Elsa the Lioness raised by George and Joy Adamson. Mara was born in the wild in 1965, a premature cub abandoned by her mother during a violent rain storm. She was found lying on sodden ground, caked in mud on the plains of Masailand by Samwel, an African game scout and Larry Wateridge. Sick with hunger and in a semi coma, she was taken to a nearby coffee plantation in Kenya owned by British
Born Free released in 1969. The film follows "Born Free"-actor Bill Travers as he journeys to a remote area in Kenya to visit George Adamson, and several of Adamson's lion friends. In 1974, a 13-episode American television series was broadcast by NBC, entitled "Born Free", starring Diana Muldaur and Gary Collins as Joy and George Adamson. The series was later followed by television film in 1996 called "", with Linda Purl and Chris Noth. Joy and George Adamson do not appear as the main characters in the story. "To Walk with Lions" (1999) depicts the last years of George Adamson's life, as