I have been sitting here trying to figure out what to write about, and I finally decided to write about what is on television. Encore is showing The Longest Day, a 1962 movie about the invasion of Normandy on D-Day. Obviously, this is an important historic event, and numerous movies have been made about it. What amazes me about this movie is the ensemble cast of huge actors from that time in Hollywood history. All this time, people have been playing “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” when they could have been playing “One Degree of The Longest Day“.
It stars John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter six years after they were in The Searchers.
It stars John Wayne and Robert Mitchum four years before they made El Dorado.
Sean Connery and Gert Frobe appeared in this film two years before Connery, as James Bond, heard Frobe, as Auric Goldfinger, say, “No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die.”
It has Richard Todd, who was Ian Fleming’s first choice to play James Bond in Dr. No. Interestingly. Dr. No came out in 1962, as well.
I mean, this thing has everybody in it, and there are connections all over the place. To prevent having a post that drags out, I’ll just list a bunch of the actors and my favorite film of theirs.
Eddie Albert – The Longest Yard (although he was also good in Green Acres)
Richard Burton – Cleopatra (which I think was being filmed at the same time)
Red Buttons – Hatari! (which also starred John Wayne)
Sean Connery – Goldfinger (the best James Bond movie ever)
Henry Fonda – Once Upon a Time in the West (a great Spaghetti Western)
Gert Frobe – Goldfinger (the title character in the only James Bond movie to show a Kentucky Fried Chicken)
Jeffrey Hunter – The Searchers (which also starred John Wayne)
Peter Lawford – Ocean’s Eleven (a member of the Rat Pack who married into the Kennedy clan)
Roddy McDowall – Planet of the Apes (also in Cleopatra with Richard Burton)
Sal Mineo – Giant (appeared with Elizabeth Taylor, who was also in Cleopatra)
Robert Mitchum – Five Card Stud (starred with Dean Martin, who was also in Ocean’s Eleven and was a member of the Rat Pack)
Edmond O’Brien – The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (which also starred John Wayne)
Leslie Phillips – Harry Potter Series (as the voice of the Sorting Hat)
Robert Ryan – The Wild Bunch (a movie that’s bloodier than The Longest Day)
Rod Steiger – The Amityville Horror (there was a horror in that house but not the one they show in the movie)
Robert Wagner – Broken Lance (married to Natalie Wood, who starred in The Searchers with John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter)
Stuart Whitman – The Day the Earth Stood Still (also starred in The Commancheros with John Wayne in 1961)
John Wayne – The Searchers (my favorite actor of all time)
Richard Dawson – The Running Man (but he was better on The Match Game and Family Feud)
Bernard Fox – Big Jake (which also starred John Wayne, but he was also in my favorite television show, The Andy Griffith Show)
So, I present the game, “One Degree of The Longest Day“.
SBI: A Thinning Crowd 