Airport had enough plot and enough star power in its cast for three feature films, and it only encompassed about half of the complexity or characters found in Arthur Hailey's best-selling potboiler. Essentially built around 12 harrowing hours at a major Midwestern airport, the film had everything an audience of the period could have wanted -- suspense, romance, drama, and comedy -- all spread across a vast canvas. Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster) is the manager of Lincoln Airport, facing a night beset by the worst blizzard in a decade, a wife (Dana Wynter) who announces she wants a divorce, a primary runway blocked by an airliner stuck in a snowdrift, and a governing board ready to fire him. Bakersfeld's cynical, smooth-talking brother-in-law, Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin), won't let up on his criticism of the management at Lincoln, but he has his own problems as well, mostly in the form of a young stewardess, Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset), who is pregnant by him and whom he finds he genuinely loves. Add to that the presence of an old lady stowaway (Helen Hayes) and a mentally disturbed passenger (Van Heflin) carrying a bomb, and there's more than enough plot to keep viewers engrossed for two hours plus. Airport became one of the top-grossing movies of its era, racking up seven-digit box-office numbers and spawning an entire film genre -- the disaster movie. With Jean Seberg, George Kennedy, Lloyd Nolan, Barry Nelson, and Maureen Stapleton filling out the rest of the leading roles, there was something for almost everyone in this film. The movie still has a lot to offer if only as a prime example of Hollywood at its most successfully glitzy, but, if possible, viewers should try and see the letterboxed version of Airport on DVD (released May 2001). ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Burt Lancaster | Mel Bakersfeld |
Dean Martin | Capt. Vernon Demerest |
Jean Seberg | Tanya Livingston |
Jacqueline Bisset | Gwen Meighen |
George Kennedy | Joe Patroni |
Helen Hayes | Ada Quonsett |
Van Heflin | D. O. Guerrero |
Maureen Stapleton | Inez Guerrero |
Barry Nelson | Capt. Anson Harris |
Dana Wynter | Cindy Bakersfeld |
Lloyd Nolan | Harry Standish |
Barbara Hale | Sarah Bakersfeld Demerest |
Gary Collins | Cy Jordan |
John Findlater | Peter Coakley |
Jessie Royce Landis | Mrs. Harriet DuBarry Mossman |
Larry Gates | Commissioner Ackerman |
Peter Turgeon | Marcus Rathbone |
Whit Bissell | Mr. Davidson |
Virginia Grey | Mrs. Schultz |
Eileen Wesson | Judy Barton |
Paul Picerni | Dr. Compagno |
Leoda Richards | Woman on Dais |
Robert Patten | Capt. Benson - Pilot |
Clark Howat | Bert Weatherby |
Lew Brown | Reynolds |
Ilana Dowding | Roberta 'Robbie' Bakersfeld |
Lisa Gerritsen | Libby Bakersfeld (as Lisa Gerritson) |
James Nolan | Father Steven Lonigan (as Jim Nolan) |
Patty Poulsen | Joan - Stewardess |
Ena Hartman | Ruth - Stewardess |
Malila Saint Duval | Maria - Stewardess |
Sharon Harvey | Sally - Stewardess |
Albert Reed | Lt. Ned Ordway |
Albert Reed Jr. | |
Jodean Lawrence | Marie Patroni (as Jodean Russo) |
Jodean Russo | Marie Patroni |
Nancy Ann Nelson | Bunnie |
Albert Reed, Jr. | Lt. Ned Ordway |
Dick Winslow | Mr. Schultz |
Lou Wagner | Schuyler Schultz |
Janis Hansen | Sister Katherine Grace |
Mary Jackson | Sister Felice |
Shelly Novack | Rollings |
Chuck Daniel | Parks |
Charles Brewer | Diller |
Alfred Newman | Composer |
Alain Delon | |
Joe Gray | Passenger |
William Boyett | Jack Ingram |
Harry Harvey | First passenger told to remove glasses (black frames, thick lenses) Thomas Browne Henry ... Passenger who comes out of bathroom behind Guerrero |
Hugo Friedhofer | Composer |
Ernest Laszlo | Cinematographer |
Susan Blakely | |
Robert Wagner | |
Stuart Gilmore | Editor |
Thomas Browne Henry | Passenger who comes out of bathroom behind Guerrero |
Pat Priest | Mrs. Jerry Copeland - Passenger |
William H. O'Brien | Waiter at Men's Club |
William Hudson | Cindy's father |
Walter Woolf King | Cindy's father |
E. Preston Ames | Art Director |
Alexander Golitzen | Art Director |
Damian London | Praying father |
Michael Bell | Bus Driver |
Mickey S. Michaels | Set Decorator |
Benny Rubin | Passenger rubbing his face |
Jack D. Moore | Set Decorator |
Leon Alton | Man on Dias |
Michael Stearns | Passener 36-D |
Edith Head | Custome Designer |
Merry Anders | Mrs. Burt Ball - Passenger |
Larry Germain | hair stylist |
Fletcher Allen | Operations man |
Ricky Anderson | William Downey - Passenger |
Bud Westmore | Makeup Artist |
Sandra Gould | Passenger |
Ray Andrade | Pietro Carmona - Passenger |
Celia Lovsky | Passenger |
Donald Roberts | Assistant Director |
Maria Andre | Mrs. Portola |
Barbara Morrison | Passenger |
Harvey S. Laidman | Assistant Director |
Nadine Arlyn | Jennifer Barry - Passenger |
Larry Clark Bird | assistant property master |
Ray Ballard | Gilbert Price - Passenger |
David H. Moriarty | sound |
Larry Barton | Rabbi Leo Bernstein - Passenger |
Ronald Pierce | sound |
Waldon O. Watson | sound |
Savannah Bentley | Virginia Lopez - Passenger |
Chuck Bowman | New York Dispatcher |
Chuckie Bradley | Dee Gilroy - Passenger |
James Bradley | Jack Stone - Passenger |
Eve Brent | Mrs. David Corman - Passenger |
Robert Brubaker | Dr. Nash |
Dee Carroll | Florence |
Dort Clark | Dr. Henry Bron - Passenger |
Ellen Clark | Anne Gordon - Passenger |
Tamar Cooper | Carol Blake - Passenger |
Cathleen Cordell | Mrs. William Donovan - Passenger |