I named this page "Five-0 Guest Stars in Cult Classics," for that is how this work in progress is starting out. Best of all, some really good Five-0 guest stars appear in them. I'll add to this list only as I happen to come across something that needs to be added.

 

The Final Countdown (1980)

 

• Martin Sheen  (Cry Lie, Time and Memories)

• Charles Durning  (Retire in Sunny Hawaii . . . Forever)

• Soon-Tek Oh  (8 episodes)

 

Although The Final Countdown did not do well at the box office, it has since become – and is continuing to become – a cult classic among not only science fiction fans, but also with the US Navy, which used the film as a recruiting medium.

 

On December 7, 1980, the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) found itself being drawn through a rogue weather incident and back to the date December 6, 1941. Amos & Andy and The Jack Benny Show could be heard over AM radio broadcasts. Pearl Harbor did not recognize the ship, let alone accept the idea that one of its ships would be named for then-Rear Admiral Chester A. Nimitz (later to become Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet). Reconnaissance confirmed the presence of the Japanese Fleet northwest of Hawai‘i. How should the Nimitz react? Should it use its 1980s capabilities that might possibly affect the outcome of the war and alter the course of history, or should it simply sit back and let the war go on as before?

 

Although the US Navy gave full support to the production, not everything in the movie was factual. As the rogue storm approached, Captain Yelland (Kirk Douglas) ordered the destroyers to return to Pearl. Only the fleet admiral could make that call. The dogfight between the F-14 Tomcats and the Japanese Zeroes was completely unrealistic. The sheer blast from the Tomcats would have obliterated the Zeroes. Indeed, the Tomcats had to throttle back to near-stall speeds in scenes with the World War II planes, and one of the Tomcats nearly went into the ocean during filming. Near the end of the movie, US Senator Samuel Chapman (Charles Durning) and his assistant, Laurel Scott (Katherine Ross) were ferried by helicopter to Ni'ihau, where they would be safe during the attack. All well and good, except that Japanese planes were shown flying overhead. In reality, the Japanese planes flew north of Ni'ihau, Kaua'i, and O'ahu and down the windward side of O'ahu, attacking Kaneohe Naval Air Station and Bellows Airfield before crossing the Ko'olau and attacking Honolulu and Pearl Harbor.

 

Virtually unknown outside Naval Ranks, there is something known as "breakaway music." Breakaway music is a modern U.S. Naval tradition used to motivate sailors upon the conclusion of underway replenishment . . . A song (usually selected by the Captain . . .) is played . . . [that] may sometimes be related to the name of the ship, such as the "Theme from Star Trek" (USS Enterprise) . . . The present day breakaway music for the USS Nimitz . . . can only be the music uniquely written for the ship - John Scott's "Theme from The Final Countdown." (Trivia. The Final Countdown. IMDb)

 

James Farentino, who portrayed CDR Richard Owens and the elusive Mr. Tideman, appeared with Jack in Ride to Hangman’s Tree (1967).

 

John Scott, who composed and directed the music, played the saxophone in "Dr. No" in which Jack appeared as CIA Agent Felix Leiter. Scott is the half-brother of noted composer John Williams. He is also the founder and artistic director of The Hollywood Symphonic Orchestra Society, which preserves and presents works by contemporary composers of film and television music.

 

Director: Don Taylor

Writers: Thomas Hunter, Peter Powell, David Ambrose, Gerry Davis

Music: John Scott

Production Company: The Bryna Company

 

Watch The Final Countdown on Amazon, YouTube, DVD, or VHS.

Hear the theme from The Final Countdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBXbQSu0UOo

 

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Wheels (1978)

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Five-0 veterans appearing in Wheels are . . . 

 

• Linda Ryan (“Most Likely to Murder,” “A Shallow Grave,” and 9 more episodes)

• Gerald S. O’Loughlin (“The Box,” “Six Kilos,” and “And a Time to Die”)

• Tim O’Connor (“10,000 Diamonds and a Heart” and “The Ninety-Second War” part 2)

• Marj Dusay (“The 24 Karat Kill” and “The Singapore File”)

• Jessica Walter (“The Two-Faced Corpse”)

• Allan Rich (“Practical Jokes Can Kill You”)

• Lisa Eilbacher (“Tall on the Wave”)

• John Beck (“Nightmare in Blue”)

• Scott Brady (“The Hostage”)

• Stewart Moss (“Not That Much Different”)

• Ramon Bieri (“Diary of a Gun”)

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This adaptation of Arthur Hailey’s book, Wheels, was shown as a six-part, 10-hour mini-series on NBC Television. It centered around the automotive industry in Detroit, Michigan, presenting a very hard-nosed picture of the fierce competition in the industry and the lonely lives of the families of its hard-driven executives. Its National Motor Company is said by some sources to have been a very thinly disguised Ford Motor Company. 

 

Writers: Arthur Hailey (book); Robert Hamilton, Millard Lampell, Nancy Lynn Schwartz, and Hank Searls (screenwriters)

Director: Jerry London

Cinematographer: Jacques R. Marquette

Music: Morton Stevens (5 episodes), William Broughton (1 episode)

Production Companies: Roy Huggins Productions, Universal Television

Not available for public viewing at this time

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The Hawaiians (1970)

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• Mako                              (Legacy of Terror)

• Miko Mayama                (Skinhead) 

• Bill Fong                         (Forty Feet High and It Kills)

• James Gregory               (Cocoon, All the King’s Horses)

• Keye Luke                      (All the King's Horses)

• Victor Young                 (Sweet Terror, Presenting…in the Center Ring…Murder)

• Victor Sen Yung            (Face of the Dragon)

• Herman Wedemeyer     (155 episodes) 

• Al Harrington               (64 episodes) 

• Winston Char               (18 episodes)

• Khigh Dhiegh                (15 episodes)

• Lyle Bettger                   (12 episodes)

• Galen Kam                    (11 episodes)

• Bruce Wilson                 (7 episodes)  

• Elizabeth Smith            (7 episodes)                                                

• Don Knight                   (6 episodes) 

• Alan Naluai                   (5 episodes)                                                                            

• James Hong                   (4 episodes)

• Soo Yong                       (4 episodes) 

• Daniel Kaleikini           (3 episodes)

• Randall Duk Kim         (3 episodes)

• Marc LeBuse                 (3 episodes)

 

After taking a woman smuggled aboard a cargo ship as his wife, a Japanese immigrant to Hawaii goes on to establish a pineapple empire in the Islands. Director Tom Gries also directed seven episodes of Stoney Burke. The Hawaiians is based on James Michener's novel Hawaii. A series based on James Michener’s book was Hawaii (1966) in which Manu Tupou appeared. He went on to appear in 5 episodes of Hawaii Five-0.

Writers: James A. Michener (novel), James R. Webb (screenplay)

Director: Tom Gries

Producer: Walter Mirisch

Music: Henry Mancini

Production Company: Mirisch

 

Steve’s Girl contributed to this entry.

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The Doomsday Flight (1966)

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Five-0 veterans appearing in The Doomsday Flight are . . .

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Ed Asner ("Wooden Model of a Rat")

Malachi Throne ("Bait Once, Bait Twice," "Will the Real Mr. Winkler Please Die?")

John Saxon ("The Bark and the Bite")

Tom Simcox ("The Sunday Torch")

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A crazed man (Edmund O'Brien) has planted a bomb aboard a jetliner that has just taken off. All he will tell FBI Agent-in-Charge Frank Thompson (Jack Lord) is that it will detonate when it descends below 10,000 feet. Jack gave a good dress rehearsal for McGarrett in this role. 

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In the opening sequence, and again when the bomb-carrying aircraft takes off, we see a serious continuity error. The aircraft is a civilian jetliner, either a DC-8 or a Boeing 707, but the landing gear is from a B-52 Stratofortress. We see just how far jet engine design has come when the aircraft takes off. Black exhaust smoke fills the air.

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Producer - Frank Price

Director - William A. Graham

Writer - Rod Serling

Music - Lalo Schifrin

Production Company - Universal Television

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Two John Frankenheimer Movies

 

Seconds (1966)

 

Five-0 veterans appearing in Seconds are . . . 
 

• Khigh Dhiegh (“Cocoon,”  “Woe to Wo Fat,” and 12 other episodes)

• Jeff Corey (“King of the Hill,” “Highest Castle, Deepest Grave”)

• John Randolph (“Just Lucky, I Guess”)

• Will Geer (“Forty Feet High and It Kills”)

• Richard Anderson (“The Child Stealers”)

 

Even though John Frankenheimer’s Seconds was a commercial failure and was scorned at the Cannes Film Festival, it since has become a cult classic. In fact, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” (2015).

 

Its theme is timeless: A middle-aged, Harvard-educated banker, Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph), reaches his 50s and comes to feel he has wasted his life in pursuing what society told him he should pursue. Emotionally estranged from his wife and daughter, he is drawn into a scheme to take on a new life and identity. He becomes artist Tony Wilson (Rock Hudson). Adjustment to his new life is far more difficult than he anticipated, and the pressures mount until he learns too late that he can’t run away from his past.

 

Writer: Lewis John Carlino

Director: John Frankenheimer

Cinematographer: James Wong Howe

Music: Jerry Goldsmith

Production Companies: John Frankenheimer Productions, Gibraltar Productions, Joel Productions. Released by Paramount Pictures

 

Available on Amazon Video, DVD, and VHS

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The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The cast of The Manchurian Candidate reads like a Who's Who of Hawaii Five-0 guest stars: 

 

• Khigh Dhiegh, who appeared in 15 episodes of Five-0 as the master spy, Wo Fat 

• Albert Paulsen, who appeared in four episodes of Five-0 ("Just Lucky, I Guess," "The Guarnerius Caper," "Nine, Ten, You're Dead," and "Clash of Shadows")

• James Gregory, who appeared in two episodes of Five-0 ("Cocoon" and "All the King's Horses") 

• Henry Silva, who appeared in one episode ("Savage Sunday").

 

This psychological thriller centers around a Korean War veteran, an Army intelligence officer. When he realizes others in his company are experiencing terrifying nightmares, just as he is, he realizes they were brainwashed in Korea without their realizing it.

 

Writers: Richard Condon (novel), George Axelrod (screenplay)

Director: John Frankenheimer

Composers: David Amram, Irving Berlin

Production Companies: M. C. Productions, Metro Goldwyn Mayer

 

Available on DVD

 

 

Three Steve McQueen Productions (Solar Productions)

 

Bullitt  (1968) 

 

• Robert Vaughn     (The Spirit is Willie)

• Vic Tayback          (Angel in Blue; Bones of Contention)

• Felice Orland       (A Hawaiian Nightmare)

• Simon Oakland    (6 episodes)  

 

San Francisco police lieutenant Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) is tasked with protecting a mobster turned state’s witness when he realizes someone on the inside does not want him to succeed in his mission. Of course, the real star of the show is Bullitt’s dark-green 1968 Ford Mustang fastback.

 

Writers: Alan Trustman, Harry Kleiner 

Director: Peter Yates

Composer: Lalo Schifrin

Production Company: Solar Productions

 

 

Nevada Smith (1966)

 

• Pat Hingle      (3 episodes)

• Lyle Bettger   (11 episodes)

• L. Q. Jones     (King of the Hill)

 

This story of vengeance traces a Native American half-breed, who tracks down the men who killed his parents. He will stop at nothing, even having himself sent to prison in order to kill one of the men.  Steve’s Girl writes, “In Nevada Smith, Pat Hingle portrays the warden of the prison camp situated in Louisiana from which Max Sands, who later calls himself Nevada Smith (Steve McQueen), manages to flee. Like the hanging judge in Hang 'Em High and Dr. Grant Ormsbee in three Five-0 episodes, Hingle portrays someone not very sympathetic and portrays him well.”

 

Writers: Harold Robbins (character), John Michael Hayes (screen story, screenplay)

Director: Henry Hathaway

Composer: Alfred Newman

Production Company: Solar Productions

 

 

The Cincinnati Kid (1965) 

 

• Jeff Corey             (King of the Hill; Highest Castle, Deepest Grave)

• Milton Selzer        (7 episodes)

• Karl Swenson       (Three Dead Cows at Makapuu, parts 1 and 2)

• Dub Taylor            (Dear Enemy)

 

A young poker player and womanizer comes up against a legendary card sharp in 1930s New Orleans.

Writers: Richard Jessup (novel), Ring Lardner Jr (screenplay)

 

Director: Norman Jewison

Composer: Lalo Schifrin

Production Companies: Filmways Pictures, Solar Productions

 

Submitted by Steve’s Girl

 

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Four Leonard Freeman Productions

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Cry Rape (1973)

 

• Greg Mullavey (The Listener)

• Robert Hogan (Anatomy of a Bribe)

• George Murdock (The Gunrunner)

• Tony Di Milo (Once Upon a Time, part 2)

• Joseph Sirola (5 episodes)

• Phillip Pine (3 episodes)

 

This was the first time rape was covered in a television movie. In a case of mistaken identity in a rape case, the focus was on the accused, not the victim. Some sources claim this is the reason why Cry Rape has been forgotten, while A Case of Rape with Elizabeth Montgomery is still remembered.

 

Writers: Leonard Freeman, Will Lorin

Director: Corey Allen

Production Companies: Leonard Freeman Productions, Warner Brothers

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Visions . . . (1972)

 

• Barbara Anderson (The Meighan Conspiracy)

• Tim O’Connor (Ten Thousand Diamonds and a Heart, The Ninety-Second War, part 2)

• Joseph Sirola (5 episodes)

• Monte Markham (4 episodes)

 

A professor / visionary predicts that someone is about to plant a bomb only to learn that he is the prime suspect.

 

Writer: Paul Playdon

Producer: Leonard Freeman

Director: Lee H. Katzin

Production Company: Columbia Broadcasting System

Music: Morton Stevens

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Men at Law (1970-1971)

 

• Robert Foxworth (The Listener)

• Sheila Larken (A Bullet for McGarrett)

• Ramon Bieri (Diary of a Gun)

• David Arkin (Killer Bee)

• Lloyd Gough (The Ransom)

• Bill Quinn (Highest Castle, Deepest Grave)

• A Martinez (A Bullet for El Diablo)

• Edward Andrews (Time and Memories)

• Lou Antonio (The Burning Ice)

• Anne Archer (Beautiful Screamer)

• David Doyle (Follow the White Brick Road)

• Dana Elcar (Three Dead Cows at Makapuu)

• Jonathan Goldsmith (By the Numbers, Man in a Steel Frame)

• Kurt Russell (Deadly Doubles)

• Patricia Smith (Full Fathom Five)

• Paul Stewart (Ten Thousand Diamonds and a Heart)

• Joyce Van Patten (The Payoff, I’m a Family Crook – Don’t Shoot)

• Anthony Zerbe (Mother’s Deadly Helper)

• Lane Bradford (Odd Man In, Thanks for the Honeymoon)

• Jack Cassidy (How to Steal a Submarine)

• Jeanne Cooper (. . . And I Want Some Candy and a Gun That Shoots)

• Meg Foster (The Child Stealers, Double Exposure)

• Ivor Francis (I’ll Kill ‘Em Again)

• Arthur Franz (The One With the Gun)

• Jean Hale (Along Came Joey)

• Ron Hayes (The Ransom, The Odd Lot Caper)

• Katherine Justice (Nightmare in Blue)

• Noah Keen (Cocoon)

• Ricky Kelman (‘V’ for Vashon – The Son)

• John McLiam (Up Tight)

• Greg Mullavey (The Listener)

• Felice Orlandi (A Hawaiian Nightmare)

• Logan Ramsey (Ten Thousand Diamonds and a Heart)

• Dennis Redfield (Pig in a Blanket, Love Thy Neighbor, Take His Wife)

• John Rubinstein (Pig in a Blanket, The Friends of Joey Kalima)

• William Shatner (You Don’t Have to Kill to Get Rich – But It Helps)

• Tom Skerritt (Most Likely to Murder)

• John Vernon (Force of Waves)

• Jessica Walter (The Two-Faced Corpse)

• David Wayne (30,000 Rooms and I Have the Key)

• Fritz Weaver (A Very Personal Matter)

• William Windom (Which Way Did they Go?; Bomb, Bomb, Who’s Got the Bomb?)

• Sharon Farrell (13 episodes)

• Harry Guardino (4 episodes)

• Lloyd Bochner (4 episodes)

• Bill Zuckert (3 episodes)

• Gerald S. O’Loughlin (3 episodes)

A high-profile attorney opens a neighborhood law firm to serve those who cannot afford legal services. The series was later renamed “Storefront Lawyers” and showed the main characters working for the large firm that the attorney had left in the first episodes.

 

Writers who also wrote for Hawaii Five-0: Meyer Dolinsky, E. Arthur Kean, Alvin Sapinsley, Bill Stratton

Directors: Charles S. Dubin, Marvin J. Chomsky, Lee H. Katzin

Executive Producer: Leonard Freeman

Productions Companies: Leonard Freeman Enterprises Productions, National General Corporation

 

 

Hang ‘Em High (1968)

 

• James MacArthur (259 episodes)

• Joseph Sirola (5 episodes)

• Mark Lenard (4 episodes)

• Pat Hingle (3 episodes)

• Bill Zuckert (3 episodes)

• Jonathan Goldsmith (“By the Numbers,” “Man in a Steel Frame”)

• L. Q. Jones (“King of the Hill”)

• Russell Thorson (“Cocoon”)

• Tony Di Milo (“Once Upon a Time” part 2)

• Nicholas Georgiade (“The Second Shot”)

• Jack Ging (“Run, Johnny, Run”)

 

A federal marshal is falsely accused of cattle rustling, found guilty by a ruthless judge, and hanged. When he doesn’t die, he returns to law enforcement, finds the men who accused him, and brings them to justice.

 

Writers: Leonard Freeman, Mel Goldberg

Director: Ted Post

Composer: Dominic Frontiere

Production Companies: Leonard Freeman Productions, Malpaso Company

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