How Once Upon a Time in Hollywood‘s Solid Compares to Their Accurate-Life Counterparts

Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate

Essentially the most effectively-known sufferer of the Manson Family murders, Sharon Tate changed into tranquil an up-and-coming actress by the time of her demise in 1969. With a handful of TV credits on her resume, her most recognizable movie roles had been Valley of the Dolls, for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination, and The Intrepid Vampire Killers, directed by her future husband Roman Polanski. The pair lived collectively in a dwelling on Cielo Power in Benedict Canyon, the put she changed into murdered alongside with four other of us on August 9, 1969.

Damon Herriman as Charles Manson

Charles Manson changed into the mastermind in the inspire of the Tate-LaBianca murders, to boot to the charismatic chief of the cult he called his family. While he changed into no longer newest for the murders in the Polanski-Tate dwelling, he did take part in the waste of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca the following evening. Earlier than the frightening crime spree he orchestrated in the summertime of 1969, Manson changed into an aspiring singer-songwriter who, through his acquaintance with Dennis Wilson, seen one in every of his songs recorded by the Seaside Boys in 1968.

Rafał Zawierucha as Roman Polanski

By 1969, Polanski changed into already an acclaimed movie director, whose first characteristic, 1962’s Knife in the Water, changed into nominated for an Oscar for Easiest Foreign Language movie. He adopted that with 1965’s Repulsion and 1968’s Rosemary’s Toddler, two panic films at some stage in which the female protagonists descend into a bid of paranoia. It changed into on the put of his panic spoof The Intrepid Vampire Killers, at some stage in which he co-starred, that he met and fell in admire alongside with his accomplice, Sharon Tate. The director changed into in London on the evening of his accomplice’s waste.

Emile Hirsch as Jay Sebring

One among the five waste victims on the Polanski-Tate dwelling, Jay Sebring revolutionized the plot males styled their hair, breaking the taboos round male hair care—whereas also charging extra than $50 for a males’s nick inspire on the Jay Sebring Salon in Los Angeles. Some of his most effectively-known purchasers incorporated Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Steve McQueen, Jim Morrison, and Warren Beatty (whose personality in the 1975 movie Shampoo changed into partly in accordance with Sebring), and he helped open Bruce Lee’s movie occupation. Sebring and Sharon Tate had been romantically fervent prior to she met Polanski, and the pair maintained a shut friendship after her marriage.

Samantha Robinson as Abigail Folger

On the evening of August 8, 1969, Abigail Folger dined on the effectively-known El Coyote restaurant in Los Angeles with Tate, Sebring, and her boyfriend Wojciech Frykowski. The heiress to the Folger Coffee fortune, Folger changed into a frail social employee and buddy to the Polanskis; she and Frykowski had been housesitting whereas Polanski and Tate had been in Europe, and stayed on on the dwelling as soon as Tate returned. She had planned to meet her mother in San Francisco the morning after she changed into murdered.

Costa Ronin as Wojciech Frykowski

A longtime buddy of Polanski’s, Wojciech Frykowski changed into an aspiring screenwriter who had produced one in every of Polanski’s early short films and labored as a lifeguard on the put of Knife on the Water. He met his lover, Abigail Folger, throughout the Polish author Jerzy Kosinski, and the pair lived in Los Angeles collectively from 1968-1969, first at a Laurel Canyon dwelling and later on the Polanski-Tate dwelling.

Dakota Fanning as Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme

Arguably basically the most effectively-known of the Manson Relations, Squeaky Fromme did no longer take part in the Tate-LaBianca murders. She did, on the assorted hand, operate a de facto liaison between the Manson Family and the media at some stage in Mason’s prison trial; she led a neighborhood of Relations, who camped outdoor the courthouse daily and mimicked Manson and his cohort’s physical actions—when Manson and the girls arrived in court with shaved heads and Xs carved into their foreheads, Fromme adopted suit. A protracted time later, in 1975, Fromme would come by notoriety by trying to abolish President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California.

Damian Lewis as Steve McQueen

One among the biggest Hollywood stars of the 1960s and 1970s—at one level the most effective-paid well-known particular person on this planet—McQueen changed into a cinema and vogue icon. Since he changed into one in every of basically the most extremely effective players in Hollywood, McQueen did no longer trip skipped over by Manson, who changed into actively shopping for celebrities to target in scream to open his apocalyptic masterplans. A shut buddy and consumer of Jay Sebring’s—McQueen delivered the eulogy at his funeral—he narrowly avoided the massacre on August 9, having been invited by his buddy to advance inspire occasion on the dwelling on Cielo Power that evening with Tate and her houseguests.

Mike Moh as Bruce Lee

The Hong Kong-American actor Bruce Lee is mainly the most influential and internationally identified martial artist in usual custom, thanks to his success in a handful of action films in the 1970s. Earlier than he changed into a well-known particular person, on the assorted hand, he looked as Kato, the sidekick to the titular personality on the TV imprint The Green Hornet from 1966-1967. He also labored as a stuntman, and he choreographed the fight scenes for the 1968 Dean Martin movie The Wrecking Crew, at some stage in which Sharon Tate had a featured operate.

Austin Butler as Charles “Tex” Watson

Cherish lots of the Manson Relations, Tex Watson flocked to the West Stride to take part in the drug- and song-centric 1960s counterculture. After assembly a few of Manson’s female followers, he joined the Family. Tex participated in both the Tate and LaBianca murders in August 1969; he fled the bid and changed into in a roundabout plot convicted in a trial nick inspire free the three female defendants, and he stays in detention middle this present day.

Bruce Dern as George Spahn

Manson and his followers had been residing on the Spahn Ranch, about an hour power northwest from the Polanski-Tate dwelling on Cielo Power, in 1969. Owned by George Spahn, the ranch changed into in-constructed the early 20th Century and served as a movie put for Western films (Howard Hughes’s The Outlaw changed into filmed there, as had been scenes from Bonanza). Eighty years extinct and blind on the time, Spahn allowed the Manson Family to are residing on the property rent free, the put they helped operate his horse condo industry.

Lena Dunham as Catherine Part

While she did no longer take part in the Tate-LaBianca murders, Catherine Part did testify in the 1970 trial that well-known particular person behold Linda Kasabian (who changed into newest on the LaBianca murders, nonetheless testified that she did no longer participate) changed into the mastermind in the inspire of the crimes. Alongside with Squeaky Fromme and other Manson followers, Part changed into charged with tried waste (later reduced to conspiracy to dissuade a behold) following a dwelling to waste a Manson Family member in scream to quit her from testifying in the trial. In the ’70s, Part served five years after an armed theft alongside other Relations. Upon her open from detention middle, Part disavowed Manson and his followers.

Luke Perry as Wayne Maunder

Maunder changed into a TV actor who came to prominence in 1967 with a starring operate as Lieutenant Colonel George Custer in the western sequence Custer, which aired for 17 episodes. He later starred in a 2nd western imprint known as Lancer from 1968 to 1970, and then on a police procedural known as Lag in 1973.

Dreama Walker as Connie Stevens

Connie Stevens came to popularity after starring on the detective sequence Hawaiian See from 1959 to 1963 as a photographer and singer (which also launched Stevens’s have song occupation). She had a a hit occupation as a tv and movie actress, nonetheless she never accomplished superstardom. A resident of Beverly Hills who lived advance the Polanski-Tate dwelling, she changed into quoted after the murders that they “alarmed the daylights out of everyone,” which precipitated an upsurge in firearm gross sales and security systems in the tony Los Angeles neighborhood.

Nicholas Hammon as Sam Wanamaker

A trained theater actor, Sam Wanamaker made the hasten to Hollywood in the unhurried ’40s prior to he relocated to England in the early ’50s after he changed into branded a communist sympathizer and threatened with blacklisting. He returned to Hollywood in the ’60s and looked in both films and TV reveals. He also changed into a a hit director, first on western TV reveals love Custer and Lancer. His biggest cultural contribution, on the assorted hand, changed into leading the restoration of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London.

Rumer Willis as Joanna Pettet

Pettet changed into an English actor who made her debut in the usual movie adaptation of the Mary McCarthy new, The Crew. A string of movie roles following, collectively with that of James Bond’s daughter Mata Bond in the secret agent spoof Casino Royale. Pettet changed into a respectable buddy to Sharon Tate, and the pair had lunch on August 9 hours prior to Tate changed into murdered by Manson’s followers.

Tyler Coates
Senior Tradition Editor
Tyler Coates is the Senior Tradition Editor at Esquire.com.