The Ship Model Forum

TRIVIA---character actor Ted Hartley appeared in two movies in which he and another actor were involved in military plane crashes: Dean Martin's MURDERERS' ROW and Clint Eastwood's HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER.
In Dean Martin's Matt Helm spy movie MURDERERS' ROW, Hartley played the security guard/villain scientist's nephew. In 1964, Hartley's F-8 Crusader fighter crashed on the deck of the USS Hornet in which he was thrown out of the jet, breaking his back, before it went over the side of the aircraft carrier. After being medically discharged from the Navy, Hartley became an actor and investment banker. Later, Hartley and his wife, actress/Post cereal heiress Dina Merrill, acquired RKO Pictures. Also in MURDERER'S ROW, Dean Martin's son, Dino, appeared in the movie with his band Dino, Desi and Billy (Desi was Desi Arnaz, Jr., son of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball). Dino was killed in 1987 when his California Air National Guard F-4C Phantom fighter crashed into California's ironically-named San Bernadino mountains during a snow storm.
In Clint Eastwood's HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, Hartley played corrupt hotel owner Lewis Belding, and Clint Eastwood played The Stranger. In 1951, Eastwood was in the Army and hitched a ride on a Navy AD-1 Skyraider in Seattle after visitng his parents, destined to Ford Ord, California. After encountering bad weather and running out of fuel, the Skyraider's pilot ditched his bomber near Point Reyes, California where Eastwood and the pilot escaped the sinking plane in life rafts. Eastwood almost drowned in the rough sea. Both men eventually made it to land. Eastwood later said, “In those days, you could wear your uniform and get a free flight. On the way back, they had one plane, a Douglas AD, sort of a torpedo bomber of the World War II vintage, and I thought I’d hitch on that. Everything went wrong. Radios went out. Oxygen ran out. And finally we ran out of fuel up around Point Reyes, California, and went in the ocean. So we went swimming. It was late October, November. Very cold water. (I) found out many years later that it was a white shark breeding ground, but I’m glad I didn’t know that at the time or I’d have just died.”

In Dean Martin's MURDERERS' ROW, Ted Hartley played the security guard/villain scientist's nephew.




In 1964, Hartley's F-8 Crusader fighter crashed on the deck of the USS Hornet in which he was thrown out of the jet, breaking his back, before it went over the side of the aircraft carrier.




An F-8 Crusader on the deck of the USS Hornet.




In Dean Martin's MURDERERS' ROW, Martin's son Dino appeared in the movie with his band Dino, Desi and Billy.






Dino Martin was killed in 1987 when his California Air National Guard F-4C Phantom fighter crashed into California's ironically-named San Bernadino mountains during a snow storm.




In Clint Eastwood's HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, Ted Hartley played corrupt hotel owner Lewis Belding, and Eastwood played The Stranger. In 1951, Eastwood was in the Army and hitched a ride on a Navy AD-1 Skyraider in Seattle after visiting his parents, destined to Ford Ord, California. After encountering bad weather and running out of fuel, the Skyraider's pilot ditched his bomber near Point Reyes, California where Eastwood and the pilot escaped the sinking plane in life rafts. Eastwood almost drowned in the rough sea before making it to land.

In Clint Eastwood's HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, Ted Hartley played corrupt hotel owner Lewis Belding, and Eastwood played The Stranger.






In 1951, Eastwood was in the Army and hitched a ride on a Navy AD-1 Skyraider in Seattle after vising his parents destined to Ford Ord, California. After encountering bad weather and running out of fuel, the Skyraider's pilot ditched his bomber near Point Reyes, California.