Alvin Boone Straight (October 17, 1920 – November 9, 1996) was an American man who became notable for traveling 240 miles on a riding lawn mower from Laurens, Iowa to Blue River, Wisconsin to visit his ailing brother.
 He inspired the 1999 film "The Straight Story".
Arthur Daniel Flannery (born March 10, 1944) is an American actor from Evanston, Illinois.
 He has played roles in several movies, short films, and T.V. shows from a variety of genres including drama, action, and thriller.
 His filmography includes The Straight Story (1999), and Contagion (2011) and T.V. series such as Empire (2015 TV series) and Boss (2011-2012).
James "Wiley" Harker (January 27, 1915 – May 1, 2007) was an American character actor who portrayed Crane Tolliver in the soap opera "General Hospital" in 1983.
 He also played Justice Harold Webb in "First Monday in October" (1981).
 He also appeared in "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead" and "The Straight Story".
The Castaway Cowboy is a 1974 American adventure film released by Walt Disney Productions starring James Garner, Vera Miles, Eric Shea, and Robert Culp about a Texas rancher who gets shanghaied, then jumps ship and finds himself washed ashore in Hawaii.
 Filmed on location in Hawaii, the movie was directed by Vincent McEveety and written by Don Tait and Richard M. Bluel.
The Straight Story is a 1999 internationally co-produced biographical road drama film directed by David Lynch.
 The film was edited and produced by Mary Sweeney, Lynch's longtime partner and co-worker.
 She co-wrote the script with John E. Roach.
 The film is based on the true story of Alvin Straight's 1994 journey across Iowa and Wisconsin on a lawn mower.
 Alvin (Richard Farnsworth) is an elderly World War II veteran who lives with his daughter Rose (Sissy Spacek), a kind woman with an intellectual disability.
 When he hears that his estranged brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton) has suffered a stroke, Alvin makes up his mind to go visit him and hopefully make amends before he dies.
 Because Alvin's legs and eyes are too impaired for him to receive a driving license, he hitches a trailer to his recently purchased thirty-year-old John Deere 110 Lawn Tractor, having a maximum speed of about 5 miles per hour, and sets off on the 240 mile journey from Laurens, Iowa to Mount Zion, Wisconsin.
Angelo Badalamenti (born March 22, 1937) is an American composer, best known for his work scoring films for director David Lynch, notably "Blue Velvet", the "Twin Peaks" saga (1990–1992, 2017), "The Straight Story" and "Mulholland Drive".
 Badalamenti received the 1990 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for his ""Twin Peaks" Theme", and has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Soundtrack Awards and the Henry Mancini Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
Richard W. Farnsworth (September 1, 1920 – October 6, 2000) was an American actor and stuntman.
 He is best known for his performances in "The Grey Fox" (1982), for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination, "Anne of Green Gables" (1985), "Misery" (1990), and "The Straight Story" (1999), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
 His sudden death followed a long struggle with prostate cancer.
Castaway 2007 was a follow-up to the BBC series "Castaway 2000" in which a group of people from the British public are "castaway" on a remote island.
 While in the 2000 series 36 men, women and children moved to a remote Scottish island for a year, this series featured 15 men and women from the British public who were moved to a New Zealand island for three months.
 The basic premise of a group of volunteers living as a community in a remote location remains, however this time the BBC promised an "exotic location, on the other side of the world".
 Another change since Castaway 2000, was that the castaways were voted off the island one-by-one, in a manner similar to other reality series like "Big Brother".
Mary Sweeney is an American film producer, director, writer and film editor, who collaborated for 20 years with her husband, avant-garde American film director, David Lynch.
 Sweeney worked with Lynch on several films and television series, most notably the original "Twin Peaks" series (1990), "Lost Highway" (1997), "The Straight Story", (1999) and "Mulholland Drive" (2001).
 Sweeney is the Dino and Martha De Laurentiis Endowed Professor in the Writing Division of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.
 She is the Chair of the Film Independent Board of Directors.
Castaway is a 1983 autobiographical book by Lucy Irvine about her year on the Australian tropical Torres Strait island of Tuin, having answered a want ad from writer Gerald Kingsland seeking a "wife" for a year in 1982.
 It was published by Victor Gollancz Ltd..
 Irvine stated she longed for a “major personal challenge”.
 She also acknowledged she was taking chances, but as she was neither in a relationship nor had children, she felt it was worth taking.
 Her book was the basis of the 1986 film "Castaway", starring Oliver Reed as Gerald Kingsland and Amanda Donohoe as Irvine.

Question: Did the movies The Castaway Cowboy and The Straight Story come out in the same year?
Answer: no