McHale's Navy (TV show) necrology

[debodun]

actors appearing in all 138 episodes	character	lifespan	age at death	cause of death
Ernest Borgnine	Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale	January 24, 1917 - July 8, 2012	95	renal failure
Tim Conway	Ensign Charles Parker	December 15, 1933 - May 14, 2019	85	hydrocephalus
Joe Flynn	Captain Wallace B. Binghamton	November 8, 1924 - July 19, 1974	49	heart attack while swimming and drowned
Carl Ballantine	torpedoman Lester Gruber	September 27, 1917 – November 3, 2009	92	natural causes
Gary Vinson	quartermaster George “Christy” Christopher	October 22, 1936 – October 15, 1984	47	suicide
Billy Sands	motor machinist mate Harrison "Tinker" Bell	January 6, 1911 – August 27, 1984	73	lung cancer
Edson Stroll	gunner's mate Virgil Edwards	January 6, 1929 – July 18, 2011	82	cancer
Bobby Wright*	radioman Willie Moss	March 30, 1942
Yoshio Yoda	prisoner of war Fuji Kobiaji	March 31, 1934 – January 13, 2023	88	natural causes
appearing in 129 episodes
Bob Hastings	Lieutenant Elroy Carpenter	April 18, 1925 – June 30, 2014	89	prostate cancer
appearing in 73 episodes
Gavin MacLeod	seaman Joseph "Happy" Hanes	February 28, 1931 – May 29, 2021	90	natural causes

* as of late August 2025, Bobby Wright is the last surviving member of the regularly appearing cast.

 

[debodun]

Funny outtake:

 

[debodun]

McHale's Navy Trivia

Ernest Borgnine was reluctant to assume his role in the show until a boy selling candy came to his house and didn't recognize the actor. Borgnine then realized he had to get his name out in public again.

Ensign Parker mentions that his hometown is Chagrin Falls, OH which happened to be Tim Conway's hometown.

McHale and his crew originally debuted in an episode of "Alcoa Presents" called "Seven Against the Sea" which was a dramatic presentation. When transitioned to TV, it was decided to make it a sit-com.

Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway also worked together on the animated series "SpongeBob SquarePants" providing the voices of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, respectively.

The phonetic flags shown at the opening credits are in order C for Charlie, H for Hotel, K for Kilo, and L for Lima, which spells out CHKL (chuckle).

Joe Flynn (Captain Binghamton) was actually very nearsighted and did need to wear glasses. His glasses had no lenses in them during indoor scenes to prevent glaring from the studio lights.

Although Lt. Carpenter and Ensign Parker appeared together in many scenes throughout the series, they rarely spoke to each other.

Captain Binghamton and Quartermaster "Christy" Christopher were the only characters on the show who were married.

Early in the first season, Lt. Carpenter wasn't Binghamton's obsequious flunky. He actually was in command of a PT boat.

The show's boat was a British-designed Vosper MTB, while the real PT-73 was a Higgins boat destroyed in 1945.

 

[debodun]

A 2007 cast reunion with 5 of the actors appearing in "McHale's Navy". Sadly, they are all gone now.