Claim: Steve McQueen was in a film.

Papillon is a 1973 American crime drama prison film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner , based on the best-selling autobiography by the French convict Henri Charrière .   The film stars Steve McQueen as Henri Charrière -LRB- `` Papillon '' -RRB- , and Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega . Because it was filmed at remote locations , the film was quite expensive for the time -LRB- $ 12 million -RRB- , but it readily earned more than twice that in the first year of public distribution . The film 's title is French for `` Butterfly , '' referring to Charrière 's tattoo and nickname .