TV SERIES · 1983– · USA
The Winds of War
21 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
21 Interesting Facts About The Winds of War
Interesting Facts (14)
- #001
Robert Mitchum admitted he only took the series because good film roles had stopped coming his way.
- #002
Many fans of the book and production executives thought Robert Mitchum and Ali MacGraw were too old for their roles, but director-producer Dan Curtis insisted on them.
- #003
The Pearl Harbor attack was filmed at the naval base in Port Hueneme, California, where the navy allowed only four days of shooting.
- #004
Herman Wouk's script ran to 962 pages and 1,785 scenes. It was shot at 267 locations in six countries on two continents, with 34 months of production and another 12 of editing. There were about 50,000 costumes, 112 changes for Robert Mitchum alone, and by the time the cameras stopped, producer-director Dan Curtis had a million feet (185 hours) of film, which he cut down to 81,000 feet, roughly 15 hours of airtime without commercials.
- #005
Shooting on the Pearl Harbor sequence started on December 7, 1981, the 40th anniversary of the real attack.
- #006
Many found Robert Mitchum a surprising choice for Pug Henry: besides being about 15 years too old, he was known for playing rebels and anti-authority types.
- #007
It was Ali MacGraw's first TV appearance, and she got second billing, while Victoria Tennant, despite several TV and film roles behind her, got an "and Introducing" credit.
- #008
Günter Meisner had already played Hitler in Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981)(TV), where Churchill was played by Robert Hardy. Here Churchill is played by Howard Lang, while Robert Hardy took the role again in War and Remembrance (1988)(TV).
- #009
Natalie reminds Byron to remember his mother; in the sequel, War and Remembrance (1988), the pair are played by Jane Seymour and Hart Bochner, mother and son in East of Eden (1981).
- #010
Aaron Jastrow points out that in proper Polish his surname is pronounced "Yastrov," which would make Natalie Natalia Yastrov, very close to Natalia Rostova, the heroine of Lev Tolstoy's War and Peace, and the second half of her story has a very similar title too: War and Remembrance (1988).
- #011
It was Robert Mitchum's first TV acting role, though his second, One Shoe Makes It Murder (1982), aired first.
- #012
For the sequel, War and Remembrance (1988), Barry Morse, Michael McGuire, Sky du Mont, actress-producer Barbara Steele, Heinz Weiss, Leo Gordon and Karl-Otto Alberty were all lined up to return, each in a new role.
- #013
Before getting command of the USS California, Pug begs for a sea command, saying he'd even take a minesweeper. Herman Wouk's earlier Navy novel of World War II was The Caine Mutiny, in which the Caine is a minesweeper; Captain Queeg was played on film by Humphrey Bogart, whose wife Lauren Bacall later married Jason Robards, who served on the Northampton.
- #014
Dan Curtis, Robert "Bob" Cobert and Barbara Steele were all "Dark Shadows" alumni.
Behind the Scenes (1)
- #015
Robert Mitchum was ill during filming and talked about retiring from acting.
Characters & Cast (4)
- #016
Edward Asner was the original choice for Pug Henry.
- #017
Rhoda is uneasy at first about Byron marrying a Jewish girl; ironically, Polly Bergen herself had converted to Judaism, and Hart Bochner, who took over as Byron in War and Remembrance (1988), is Jewish too.
- #018
Ian McKellen and Christopher Cazenove were both considered for Air Commodore Burne-Wilke, who was finally played by Edmund Pegge.
- #019
Lee Strasberg was originally cast as Aaron Jastrow but had to drop out for health reasons, and John Houseman replaced him. Both started out as producers and acting teachers, only broke into films late in life with an Oscar-nominated role (an Oscar-winning one, in Houseman's case), and were both recommended by a former student. Houseman in turn had to pass on the sequel, War and Remembrance (1988), because of his own failing health, and John Gielgud took over.
Easter Eggs & References (1)
- #020
The miniseries was produced by Paramount Pictures, and late on, Natalie and Aaron board a boat with a Paramount executive named Herb Rose. Ali MacGraw and John Houseman both had ties to Paramount: Houseman made films for the studio in the 1940s, and MacGraw had been married to its executive Robert Evans. War and Remembrance was produced by ABC Circle Films, so all mention of Herb Rose (who appears briefly in the novel) and Paramount was dropped, though the replacement cast had their own history together: Jane Seymour and John Gielgud had both been in Oh! What a Lovely War!
Career & Awards (1)
- #021
Ralph Bellamy plays Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Twenty-two years earlier he had played a younger FDR in Sunrise at Campobello (1960) and in the stage version, winning the 1958 Tony Award for Best Actor (Dramatic), and he played FDR again in the sequel, War and Remembrance (1988).
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
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