Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg written by Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson, and starring Paul Newman in the title role. The cast also features George Kennedy, J. D. Cannon, Strother Martin and Jo Van Fleet. Based on Pearce's semi-autobiographical 1965 novel, the film is about a nonconformist convict in an early 1950s Florida prison camp who refuses to submit to the system.