‘Airport 1975’: What You Didn’t Know … Mr. Roper? Erik Estrada? A Real Crash?

Released 50 years ago, Airport 1975 was the sequel to the popular film Airport (1970) and an important part of the emerging disaster film genre that still resonates with audiences today.

While not critically adored (Roger Ebert called it “corny escapism”), it was a financial hit for Universal Pictures, raking in $103 million at the box office on a $3 million budget. Starring Hollywood heavyweights Charlton Heston, Sid Caesar, Karen Black, George Kennedy and Gloria Swanson, it had almost the same plot as its predecessor.

Even if you’ve seen the film recently, here are five surprising things you probably didn’t know about one of the biggest disaster films of the 1970s.

1An airplane featured in the film crashed in real life

The cause of most of the drama in Airport 1975 is a mid-air collision between a Boeing 747 piloted by Captain Stacy (Efrem Zimblast Jr.) and a small private plane. In a strange case of life imitating fiction, the private plane used in the film, a Beechcraft A55 Baron, had a mid-air collision with a Cessna 180 while flying over Tracy, California, on Aug. 24, 1989. The occupants of each plane were killed.

2Several actors in the film would go on to have success on TV

AIRPORT 1975, bottom l-r: Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy, Gloria Swanson, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Susan Clark, Sid Caesar, Linda Blair, Roy Thinnes, Myrna Loy, Helen Reddy on poster art, 1974

Credit: Everett Collection

A number of actors with smaller roles in Airport 1975 had great careers on the small screen. Conrad Janis played Mindy’s father Fred McConnell in Mork & Mindy (1978-82); Norman Fell won a Golden Globe as Mr. Roper on Three’s Company; Jerry Stiller had a career resurgence playing Frank Costanza on Seinfeld (1989-98); Susan Clark won a Golden Globe portraying Katherine Popadopolis on Webster (1983-89); and Erik Estrada set hearts aflutter as Ponch on CHiPs (1977-83).

3Only one character is seen in all four Airport films

Credit: Everett Collection

There are four movies in the Airport film series: Airport (1970), Airport 1975 (1974), Airport ’77 (1977) and The Concorde …Airport ’79 (1979). While each film had a cavalcade of stars and essentially the same plot (put famous people on a plane, have something bad happen), only one actor appeared in all four films. George Kennedy played Joe Patroni in each picture, with his character gradually increasing his responsibilities as he went from a mechanic to eventually an airline pilot.

4Some big names turned down roles in the film

AIRPORT 1975, Linda Harrison, Gloria Swanson, 1975.

Linda Hamilton and Gloria Swanson. Credit: Everett Collection

Airport 1975 could have looked quite different if certain roles had gone to the famous actresses Universal Pictures originally wanted. Greta Garbo and Bette Davis were offered the role of the “aging diva” but turned it down. Gloria Swanson, playing a fictionalized version of herself, took the part. Joan Crawford was offered the part of the “comedic alcoholic” but refused, and Myrna Loy took the role.

5Many actors in the film worked together in other productions

AIRPORT 1975, Martha Scott, Helen Reddy, 1974

Martha Scott and Helen Reddy. Credit: Everett Collection

Martha Scott, a nun in the film, portrayed Charlton Heston’s mother in The Ten Commandments (1956) and Ben Hur (1959). Heston and Linda Harrison, Gloria Swanson’s assistant, were love interests in Planet of the Apes. And Nancy Olson, who plays the mother of a girl who needs a kidney transplant (Linda Blair), was in Sunset Boulevard (1950) with Gloria Swanson.

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