Father of director Ron Howard, Rance Howard was actually one of the great but uncredited actors that were featured in the film. Though he did not get as much recognition, Howard still played an excellent role as “the Sheriff.”
Rance Howard, both an actor and director, made appearances in hundreds of films and television shows, making him an expert in the field. He also made his film debut together with Ron in the 1956 film, “Frontier Woman.” He truly made most of his career before he passed away in 2017.
An Ongoing Collaboration
Rosenberg's directorial success for the film truly marked his place in the film industry and brought him countless amounts of opportunities along the way. With such a launch in their career, he attributed much of his recognition to the actor who made a name for the film, Paul Newman.
The two were so fond of working and collaborating with each other that Rosenberg trusted him with four very diverse roles, casting him as the lead role for those feature films. These works included “Pocket Money”, “WUSA”, and “The Drowning Pool.” They've truly made some masterpieces together and it all started with Cool Hand Luke.
The One Scene In Florida
Though most scenes were filmed in California, one particular scene was actually filmed on location at the Callahan Road Prison located in Jacksonville, Florida. This simple scene showed Luke being chased by a gang of dogs. Though you may not have noticed, it wasn't actually Paul Newman playing Luke in that take!
It can surely be dangerous to work with dogs, especially for a scene meant to show their aggression. As such, the job was given to a Newman-look-a-like stuntman in getting chased by real bloodhounds.
Not a Fan At All
It seems that much of the drama that occurred in the production of the film had to do with the author, Donn Pearce. Yet again, Pearce voiced his discontent with the overall film even with all the success that was coming.
Pearce fearlessly mentioned in a 1989 interview that he seemed to be the only man in the country that didn't like the movie. He even added that the producers "screwed it up ninety-nine different ways."
Too Much Prison for Them
Though the film was produced by Warner Bros., we're pretty sure such a movie pitch was being eyed by many other productions. One of the possible producers was actually Columbia Pictures, the production company, film distributor, and member of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group.
Unfortunately, the production house had already made the film, “King Rat”, which had a premise that related to Cool Hand Luke and the whole prison-based story. Therefore, they decided to pass up the promising film to save their budget for more diverse production.