In the 1970s, four airport-themed disaster movies based on the novel Airport by Arthur Hailey were released, including Airport, Airport 1975, Airport '77 and The Concorde ... Airport '79. With prominent actors in starring roles, each picture made money at the box office but got panned by critics.
The only actor who appeared in all four films was George Kennedy as Joseph "Joe" Patroni, who worked his way up from a chief mechanic in Airport to a vice president of operations in Airport 1975, a consultant in Airport '77, and an airline pilot in The Concorde ... Airport '79.
Burt Lancaster, Charlton Heston, Dean Martin, Alain Delon, Jack Lemmon and Karen Black each appeared in one of the four films.
Hailey's novel tells the story of a major commercial airport and its operations during a severe winter storm. The fictional airport, Lincoln International, is loosely based on O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.
