Playboy Goes To The Movies

Some of Hollywood’s greatest — and most notorious — productions started life in the pages of Playboy; these are their stories, from The Hustler to The Hurt Locker

- Nick Rogers

Hollywood may be awash in adaptations, sequels, prequels and reboots, but we can’t complain about the many times it has turned to playboy for source material. The films that have sprung from works of short fiction or nonfiction originally published in these pages span five decades and genres as diverse as science fiction, sports, horror and…however you’d classify a Charlie Sheen biker flick.

Here’s a look at our favourite cinematic classics and curios that began life as original PLAYBOY stories.

Sinking the Eight Ball

The Hustler, Walter S. Tevis’s short story about a pool shark stalking dangerous prey, exceeds the “nice jolts” promised by our January 1957 issue’s Playbill. Richard Tyler’s accompanying illustration reflects the boldness with which protagonist Sam Willis tries to redraw his life, while Tevis’s tale belies the foolhardy — and in this case fatal — belief that a fresh start can altogether change a person or erase their vulnerabilities.

The 1961 film of the same name rechristens Sam as Fast Eddie Felson and lets him live, albeit with damning consequences. Paul Newman tapped reservoirs of resignation and regret to create the indelible character, but years later he faulted his own performance, telling Playboy in 1983 that he felt he had been “working too hard, showing too much” — the lament of an idol without an Oscar. Four years later, he got one — for reviving Fast Eddie in 1986’s The Color of Money, another film based on a Tevis story. As Fast Eddie says, “The balls roll funny for everybody, kiddo.”

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