The Deliberate Stranger - Television Film

Television Film

The Deliberate Stranger was adapted into a two-part TV movie originally broadcast on NBC in May 1986. The film, based on Larsen's book, starred Mark Harmon as Bundy. The film omits Bundy's childhood, early life, and first six known victims (five murders and the first victim who survived), picking up the story with the murder of Georgeann Hawkins and following Bundy's further crimes in Washington, Utah, Colorado and Florida. Frederic Forrest starred as Seattle detective Robert D. Keppel, and George Grizzard played reporter Larsen.

Bundy's lawyer Polly Nelson, in her book Defending the Devil, characterized the film as "stunningly accurate" and said it did not portray anything that was not proven fact. She singled out for praise Harmon's portrayal of Bundy, noting how Harmon reproduced Bundy's rigid posture and typically suspicious expression. According to Nelson, her client, still on death row when the program aired, showed no interest in seeing the film. Ann Rule, who had known Bundy before the murders when they worked together on a suicide crisis hotline, felt that Harmon's portrayal missed the insecurities that lurked under Bundy's confident facade. Harmon was nominated for a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Bundy.

While the film is accurate in its portrayal of events, the names of all the victims (as well as Bundy's girlfriend) have been changed, with the sole exceptions of victim Denise Naslund and her mother Eleanor Rose.