Van Johnson in “Men of the Fighting Lady.” His character escorted and guided a wounded, blind pilot to a successful carrier landing in his damaged F9F. Based on a true incident.
Well, at the time of posting I couldn’t think of anybody. Arni did a pretty good job with the Harrier in True Lies. Not flying for years, then hop in one, blast a bridge, catch his daughter and fire the bad guy through the building and take out a helicopter.
John Belushi in 1941.
Major T.J. Kong
”Well boys, I reckon this is it- toe to toe nuclear combat with the rooskies”
Hi,
Didn’t Jimmy Stewart also play Charles Lindberg in “The Spirit of St Louis”?
Yes he did. And he also flew that cobbled-together wreck in Flight of the Phoenix, the prototype which killed the great Paul Mantz during filming, IIRC. Stewart was a one-of-a-kind, from the era when actors pulled strings to get INTO combat. In a B-24 yet!!! True greatness, along with the aforementioned Fred the bartender and Gordo Cooper.
Ill have a Coca Cola… in a clean glass.
And a couple more nominees:
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Peter Graves and Kareem in Airplane; (that cockpit scene is absolutely hysterical…)
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Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove
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Ted Stryker (Airplane)
Whole room full of them. Pancho, Fred, Yeager, Crossfield.
Best NF-104 movie ever.
Brig Gen Frank Savage from Twelve O’Clock High. Great pilot, great leader.
No quibbles with all the good nominations, but I am surprised that Tom Hanks hasn’t been mentioned for his portrayal of Capt. “Sully”. That was an edge-of-the-seat ride, all the more riviting because it was a real event.
My vote is for Dick_Van_Dyke in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I mean, the guy flew an old car full of people.
Oooh, that reminds me of Denzel Washington that flew an airliner upside down in order to land the plane in the movie Flight… after being up all night drinking and doing drugs. Wins for skill, maybe not character. Lol
A great movie no one saw, “Never Cry Wolf”.
There’s 5 minute sequence with Brian Dennehy as a crusty old bush pilot with an equally crusty old DH Otter.
Well, Captain Wild Bill Kelso did shoot down a Jap submarine.
Most of the names I thought of have already been mentioned - Han Solo, Jimmy Stewart, etc, but I’ll add both Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader), and Luke Skywalker. Luke could bullseye womprats, which weren’t much bigger than two meters, and Vader managed to flip his TIE Advanced X-1 away from his exploding wingmen, out of the trench, and into the deep reaches of space before his boy blew up the Death Star.
The Right Stuff is full of best pilots. Love the quote from Gordo Cooper - “Who’s the best pilot you ever saw? You’re looking at him.”
That’s Wild Bill Kelso [;)]