The Great Escape’s most celebrated scene — in which Steve McQueen, playing a WWII POW, eludes his German pursuers by jumping a section of barbed-wire fence on a motorcycle — was, of course, a Hollywood contrivance, added to secure the participation of Steve McQueen, whom the producers knew was a speed-junkie and gear head. The studio, for obvious reasons, would not allow the young star to do the actual stunt; the jump was made by stuntman Bud Ekins, who would later double for McQueen behind the wheel of the Mustang GT in Bullitt.
THE MOTORCYCLE USED: Triumph TR-6 Trophy 650CC. The modern (for the time) motorcycles were modified to look like German-made BMWs.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFTVaOTviP4]