After years of painstaking research (and yet more pain when a Columbo end credit mis-named him as “Jimmy Pelham”) we have finally managed to identify and verify the actor playing the Day Helmsman in The Poseidon Adventure. His name is Gary Wright and we’re spending a lot of time trying to find out more about him. Identifying uncredited cast in the Irwin Allen shows and movies is an immense task and with the help of a team of fellow fans we’re managing to identify more and more. It takes watching a lot of other movies and shows to find out actor names.

On this occasion (after the Columbo “Dead Weight” end credit debacle) we have finally worked out Gary Wright’s name from the only other verifiable end credit there is for him (the movie Foxy Brown with Antonio Fargas) and a little Columbo clue. Perhaps appropriate as this has taken so much detective work. The clue comes from the Columbo episode “Now You See Him” starring the wonderful Jack Cassidy as illusionist The Great Santini. In the episode, Santini actually calls Gary Wright “Mr Wright”. Normally we wouldn’t think anything of that, but in the episode another Irwin Allen actor, Mike Lally, is given the character name “Michael Lally”.

For completeness, here is Gary Wright’s end credit in Foxy Brown. Note that Don Gazzaniga (giant in the Land of the Giants episode Weird World) also appears in the movie.

Gary Wright also appears very briefly as an engineer in The Towering Inferno.

We’ve developed a deep affection for Gary as we search out more and more credits for him (so far all in the early to mid 70s). One of the funniest is a little known uncredited appearance in a movie called Get to Know Your Rabbit where Gary causes havoc around star Tom Smothers whilst being chased and caught. Have never seen our helmsman move so fast. Normally he is standing very still.

Our deep appreciation goes to everyone sending in names for background characters who don’t normally get named and credited in productions. These characters, plus stunt people and production crew are the unsung heroes of the Irwin Allen productions and we want them to be recognised for their work and to be remembered. Special thanks go to Phil Arnold and Woody Anders for their recent input in trying to get to these long searched for names. This is going to be an endless task as there are still so many more people we have yet to identify.

Several Irwin Allen related items including Lost in Space and Land of the Giants costumes are up for auction in the Profiles in History Hollywood Auction 74 (30 September and 1 October 2015).

The cast of The Poseidon Adventure (Ernest Borgnine, Stella Stevens, Carol Lynley, Eric Shea, and Pamela Sue Martin) will be joining the Land of the Giants cast at the Hollywood Show Vegas on Saturday 19 November 2011. Also attending are Land of the Giants guest stars Celeste Yarnall (The Golden Cage) and Bruce Dern (Wild Journey), plus Voyage Movie star Barbara Eden, Mike Lookinland (The Towering Inferno), Lawrence Montaigne (guest in The Time Tunnel), Felix Silla (stuntman on The Towering Inferno), Barbara Luna (Five Weeks in a Balloon), and Vitina Marcus (The Lost World and Lost in Space).

IANN is running a new Irwin Allen competition. Competition closes on 10th November 2011:

Click here for details on how to enter the Irwin Allen Competition

First Prize: UK DVD for Season Two of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Second Prize: Promotional Time Tunnel T Shirt (size XL)

Third Prize: 8 Irwin Allen movie photos including 2 from Towering Inferno, 2 from The Swarm, 2 from When Time Ran Out, 1 from The Story of Mankind (of Chico Marx) and 1 from The Big Circus

Fourth Prize: Fan produced Giants patch, 2 Giants photos, 1960’s Stefan Arngrim photo, and a Stefan Arngrim postcard from his appearance in Switch

Fifth Prize: British 1998 Lost in Space postcard, Colour 10×8 of Mark and Marta, and 3 small photos

Sixth Prize: Original publicity photo from The Night the Bridge Fell Down and Alice in Wonderland, plus a 10×8 of Desi Arnaz Jr. (star of The Night the Bridge Fell Down)

There is a new DVD release combining four movies, three of which are Irwin Allen movies:

Fantastic Voyage
The Lost World
The Towering Inferno
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

There has been some debate as to whether Meryl Streep had an early role in The Towering Inferno, playing a secretary named Janet.  We have just learned, courtesy of Joseph Musso, that the role of Janet was played by actress Jennifer Rhodes.

There has been some debate as to whether Meryl Streep had an early role in The Towering Inferno, playing a secretary named Janet.  Meryl Streep’s first recorded screen role was in 1977, and Towering Inferno was filmed in 1974 when Streep was still at college.  The role of Janet remains uncredited so we would be interested to know if anyone has any definitive information on who played this role.

The Towering Inferno has been released in High Definition (HD) Blu-Ray format in the US.  The British PAL version is due out in November 2009.