Kevorkian, known as Dr. Death, assisted in more than 130 suicides. After willingly sending a videotape of himself euthanizing a terminally ill man to “60 Minutes,” he was convicted in 1999 of second-degree murder and spent eight years in prison before getting paroled in 2007.Loosely based on Neal Nicol and Harry Wylie’s book “Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s Life and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia,” the HBO film follows Kevorkian’s (Al Pacino) rise as he builds his infamous Mercy Machine and sets out to perform assisted suicides while waging an epic legal battles defending a patient’s right to die.
John Goodman will play Nicol, a friend and co-worker of Kevorkian since 1961 and a steadfast supporter of the right to die. Susan Sarandon will play Janet Good, an activist with the Hemlock Society who becomes one of Jack’s staunchest supporters, working side by side with him to make humane suicide available to the terminally ill and suffering.
