EBOOK
About
Continues to chronicle Billy Hayes's life after his book about his 1975 escape from Turkish prison, where he'd been given a life sentence for attempting to smuggle two kilos of hashish, became a worldwide bestseller and an Academy Award-winning film. Hayes shares his journey of self-discovery as an actor and director, a husband, a son of aging parents, and of his rapprochement with the Turkish people when he fulfills a longtime dream and returns to Istanbul. Going back to Turkey--as a guest of the Turkish National Police no less!--is both a frightening and fulfilling experience, as he revisits his former prison and the now abandoned madhouse he had tried to escape from in 1972. Hayes provides a window into the birth of his one man show, Riding the Midnight Express with Billy Hayes, where he's finally able to tell his real story in his own words, in his favorite medium--theater--in New York City, London, Edinburgh, and beyond. When the documentary that followed his momentous journey back to Istanbul, Midnight Return: The Story of Billy Hayes and Turkey, screens at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, Billy and Wendy return to close a circle of love that began 38 years before when they first met there at the film's world premiere. Includes photos. Billy Hayes has been writing, speaking, acting, and directing in theater, film, and television since his escape in 1975. He lives with his wife, Wendy, in Los Angeles, still practices yoga daily, and appreciates every sweet, magical moment.