Bill Ash escaping activities. He ended the war as a flight lieutenant. In August 2015, the BBC reported: "When Ash died aged 96 last year his obituaries noted that he was said to have been the model for Virgil Hilts, the lean, leather-jacketed airman played by Steve McQueen in the 1963 film "The Great Escape"". The character Hilts, nicknamed "The Cooler King" because of the time he spends in the prison camp's punishment block (which the prisoners call the "cooler") for his persistent escape attempts, steals a motorbike and tries to escape to Switzerland but is caught while using it to jump
The Great Escape II: The Untold Story The Great Escape II: The Untold Story The Great Escape II: The Untold Story is a 1988 American made-for-television action-adventure drama film and a sequel to "The Great Escape" (1963) starring Christopher Reeve, Judd Hirsch, Anthony Denison, Ian McShane, and Charles Haid. Donald Pleasence in a supporting role plays a member of the SS (in the 1963 original Pleasence had played Flight-Lieutenant Colin Blythe, 'The Forger'). The film was directed by Jud Taylor (in the 1963 original Taylor had played 2nd Lt. Goff). "The Great Escape II" premiered in two parts on NBC on November 6 and 7, 1988. "The