Robert Hays
Probably one of the lesser-known of the Airplane! stars at the time of the movie's release, Hays became the movie's "breakout star" and despite working consistently after the movie was released he is best known for his roles in three successful spoof movies; Airplane 1 and Airplane II - The Sequel, as well as Superhero Movie. He has also worked successfully as a producer.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Legendary U.S. basketball player Abdul-Jabbar played for both the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers. Although he has appeared on multiple television shows and in many movies he is best known for his role on Airplane! where his character "had a remarkable resemblance to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar".
Lloyd Bridges
Bridges appeared in both Airplane! and Airplane II - The Sequel. Although his father had wanted him to be a lawyer, he realized that acting was his career of choice whilst a student at UCLA where he also met his wife, Dorothy. Having amassed many fans of his more serious stage and screen work, he was beloved by millions more as the blustering and overly-dramatic spoof action movie character Steve McCroskey, whose stress levels rise to almost unimaginable levels in the control tower as Striker is attempting to fly the beleaguered plane safely home. The genius in his performance is that he plays McCroskey as an allegory of the typical disaster movie cop whilst a comedy movie unravels around him.
Peter Graves
Graves was a gifted athlete, musician and actor who headed to Hollywood in 1950 after two years in the military and time as a student at the University of Minnesota. He is primarily recognized for his television work, specifically "Mission : Impossible" and he transferred his authoritative performance in a legitimate action movie with ease onto the spoof of his previous genre. His smooth tones and personable demeanor mask the fact that many of his lines in the movie are bordering on the inappropriate and insinuating pedophilia.
Julie Hagerty
Hagerty is best known for her role as Elaine Dickinson and it was actually her big-screen debut; she had worked successfully as a model since the age of fifteen, but despite the incredible success of Airplane! it was unfortunately never a springboard for a global movie career. Despite several appearances in Bob Fosse movies that ended on the proverbial cutting room floor, Hagerty's career became peppered with made-for-television movies and commercials.
Leslie Nielsen
Leslie Nielsen is almost synonymous with the spoof movie genre, so much so that even when he appears as a character in a drama the audience find themselves waiting for him to deliver a comedic line or two. Canadian Nielsen's biggest gift as an actor was playing comedy roles as if they were straight ones. His Dr Rumack injects seriousness and urgency to the situation and he also has some of the funniest one-liners in the movie. Nielsen went on to star in the "Police Squad" series on television which became the worldwide smash series "Naked Gun".
