In 1978, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan brainstormed the creation of an adventurous character that would inspire many people to become archeologists. Indiana Jones eventually became one of Hollywood’s most famous characters, but was he based on any actual archeologists?
When the trio of filmmakers sat down to discuss the plot elements and character development ideas for “Indiana Smith,” as Lucas initially called the hero, they were aiming to create a franchise that would eventually span four films. Their inspiration was past Hollywood entries, specifically movies from the defunct Republic Pictures, prominent in the past for producing westerns, adventure stories and B movies. In a 125-page transcript of this brainstorm, Lucas and Spielberg actively look for a character portrayal that invokes other onscreen favorites like John Wayne, Sean Connery and Clint Eastwood. Yet, curiously, no archeologists.
According to author Justin M. Jacobs, it’s hard to find a match between fiction and reality specifically because the films deviate quite a lot from real archeology. “Not once,” he writes in his book Indiana Jones in History, “does the name of a single real-life archaeologist appear” in the brainstorm transcript. Neither does “anything resembling history,” despite the filmmakers ending up scoring a few details that reflected factual history. However, in their effort to honor Hollywood’s past, they may have come close to portraying Indy as a real archeologist, even if by a long degree of comparison.
Roy Chapman Andrews was an academic and archeologist from Wisconsin with quite an adventurous life. Working at the American Museum of Natural History, his name is connected to the findings of several complete dinosaur skeletons in the Gobi Desert in the 1920s, as well as finding proof that early mammals lived alongside these ancient creatures. Over time, he compiled a series of over 20 books about his travels. He recalls cheating death several times during his foreign adventures.
Andrews counts at least eight close calls: “two were from drowning in typhoons, one was when our boat was charged by a wounded whale,” he writes in his book On The Trail of The Ancient Man. “Two were close calls when I fell over cliffs, once I was nearly caught by a huge python, and twice I might have been killed by bandits.” His writings went on to inspire some of those movies of the 1950s that the filmmakers of Indiana Jones wanted to honor.
Despite not basing their character on anyone in particular, it is hard to deny some similarities, especially given that Andrews survived so many dangerous experiences. Spielberg, Lucas and Kasdan have never confirmed such a connection, but the fictional character they've created in a very fictional plot may accidentally be a close proxy of Andrews.