OPERATION PETTICOAT (1959) Cast Then and Now | 67 Years Later

In 1959, Cary Grant and Tony Curtis took a pink submarine called the USS Sea Tiger across the Pacific, and Operation Petticoat became one of the biggest hits of the year. But the most remarkable story wasn't on screen. It was the cast. Tony Curtis joined the Navy as a teenager after watching Cary Grant play a submarine captain, and sixteen years later he was standing beside him on a submarine deck. Behind them was a crew of real veterans, rising stars and future television icons. Today, more than sixty-five years later, only one of the stars of Operation Petticoat is still with us. In this video, we follow what happened to the crew of the Sea Tiger. We start with Cary Grant and Tony Curtis, and the real war service behind their roles. Then we meet the five nurses, including a cereal heiress, Elvis's leading lady and the voice of Norman Bates's mother. Then the men of the Sea Tiger: an Army engineer with a Purple Heart, a real Navy medic who played a Navy medic, a future Bewitched husband, and a nervous young yeoman who would one day captain The Love Boat. Finally, we find out which star is still here, and how two of the Sea Tiger's crew met again on board another ship, more than twenty-five years later. 🔔 Subscribe so you don't miss the next one 🔔 Sources: Internet Movie Database: Operation Petticoat (1959), Operation Petticoat (1977 TV series) American Film Institute Catalog Turner Classic Movies (tcm.com) U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (history.navy.mil) National Archives (archives.gov) Wikipedia: Operation Petticoat, Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, USS Proteus (AS-19), Destination Tokyo, Dina Merrill, Joan O'Brien, Virginia Gregg, Madlyn Rhue, Gene Evans, Arthur O'Connell, Frankie Darro, Dick Sargent, Gavin MacLeod, Marion Ross