The popularity of the film led him to be cast as camp commandant Battaglia opposite Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard's Allied POWs in the 1965 World War II escape drama Von Ryan's Express.
His nephews include Mark Westheimer, a locally famous attorney, and David Westheimer, author of Von Ryan's Express and many other novels.
Bf 108s and postwar Nord 1000s, played the role of Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters in war movies, including The Longest Day, The Great Escape, 633 Squadron, and Von Ryan's Express.
These were introduced by Darryl Winkler in an effort to engender an esprit de corps within his squadron – and echoed the all black look of the British Royal Tank Regiment (although the appearance of Frank Sinatra in the 1965 film Von Ryan's Express readily springs to mind).
The reviews of the film weren't enough to keep away audiences who made the film Sinatra's first hit - albeit a minor one - since the massive success of Von Ryan's Express two years prior.
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The line did become strategically important during World War I and World War II as part of a supply route for Scapa Flow, Orkney: Jellicoe's Express linked Thurso directly with London (Euston) and Portsmouth.
Other big productions to bear his name there include Peyton Place (1957), Return to Peyton Place (1961), Cleopatra (1963, his first Oscar win), Von Ryan's Express (1965), the science fiction epic Fantastic Voyage (1966, which earned him his second Oscar), Planet of the Apes (1968), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and MASH (1970).