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The Tichborne Claimant is a 1998 British drama film directed by David Yates from a screenplay by Joe Fisher. The film stars John Kani, Robert Pugh, Stephen Fry, Robert Hardy and John Gielgud. It is based on the Tichborne case, a historical case of identity theft. In 1854, Roger Tichborne, then-heir to the Tichborne Baronetcy, disappeared while traveling in South America. He was thought likely to have set sail with the ship Bella, which was shipwrecked off the coast of the Empire of Brazil, with no known survivors. In 1865, Thomas Castro, an Australian butcher, started claiming to be the missing heir. The dispute over his identity lasted to his death in 1898. While Castro is currently considered an impostor, doubts considering his real identity have persisted to the present.