Born Free Born Free Born Free is a 1966 British drama film starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers as Joy and George Adamson, a real-life couple who raised Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lion cub, to adulthood, and released her into the wilderness of Kenya. The film was produced by Open Road Films Ltd. and Columbia Pictures. The screenplay, written by blacklisted Hollywood writer Lester Cole (under the pseudonym "Gerald L.C. Copley"), was based upon Joy Adamson's 1960 non-fiction book "Born Free". The film was directed by James Hill and produced by Sam Jaffe and Paul Radin. "Born Free", and its musical
Bill Travers died in his sleep in Dorking, Surrey, aged 72. He was survived by his wife and five children. His widow, Virginia McKenna, carries on his work to help suffering animals, as does their son, Will Travers, who is chief executive of the Born Free Foundation. Bill Travers William Inge Lindon-Travers (3 January 1922 – 29 March 1994) was a Special Forces Army officer, English actor, screenwriter, director and animal rights activist, known professionally as Bill Travers. Travers was born in Sunderland, County Durham, the son of Florence (née Wheatley) and William Halton Lindon-Travers, a theatre manager. His sister Linden (1913–2001),