Joseph A. "Joe" Flynn

Joseph A. "Joe" Flynn (November 8, 1924 – July 19, 1974) died at the age of 49. He was best known for his role in the 1960s ABC television situation comedy, McHale's Navy. He was also a frequent guest star on 1960s TV shows, such as Batman, and appeared in several Walt Disney film comedies. Later in his career, Flynn worked as a voice actor for Disney animated features.

Over the years, Flynn achieved recognition in television, earning credits as a regular on William Bendix's The Life of Riley and on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. He appeared at least twice on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. His appearance on March 30, 1961, was a patriotic program set at sea on the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-10), oddly foreshadowing his later role on McHale's Navy. He guest starred on Walter Brennan's ABC sitcom, The Real McCoys and on the syndicated western, Pony Express.

In 1961, Flynn was cast as a regular on the first season of NBC's The Joey Bishop Show but left early, reportedly because he was stealing too many scenes from Joey Bishop. That same year, he guest starred on the Peggy Cass and Jack Weston series The Hathaways, an unusual sitcom about a suburban Los Angeles couple that adopts three chimpanzees. He appeared, too, in Edmond O'Brien's syndicated 1960 crime drama, Johnny Midnight and earlier on Jim Davis's syndicated adventure series, Rescue 8.

From 1962 to 1966, Flynn played the irascible Captain Wallace "Wally" Burton Binghamton (also known as "Old Leadbottom") on ABC's McHale's Navy, in which he became known for his exasperated catch phrases "What is it, What, WHAT, WHAT!?", "What in the name of: the Blue Pacific/Halsey/Nimitz", and "I could just scream!" He also starred in two 1964 theatrical films spun off from the series, McHale's Navy and McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force.

In the spring of 1970, Flynn co-starred with Tim Conway – with whom he had worked in McHale's Navy and the two McHale's Navy movies – in the situation comedy The Tim Conway Show as the inept operators of the single-plane charter airline Triple A Airlines. The unsuccessful show ran for only 12 episodes.

Besides the two McHale's Navy movies, Flynn's career in feature films included the 1963 comedy Son of Flubber, in which he had a small part as a television announcer; Flynn would later star in the sequels of the Flubber series as Medfield College's Dean Higgins in a trio of Disney Studio films, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972), and The Strongest Man in the World (1975), his final live-action film. Flynn also starred in The Love Bug (1968), The Barefoot Executive (1971), The Million Dollar Duck (1971), with Don Knotts in How to Frame a Figg (1971), and in 1973 in The Girl Most Likely to..., a made-for-television movie.

He made a dozen appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1972 and 1973. Flynn was a guest panelist on the hit game show series, Match Game '74, on January 17, 1974, in what was his final television appearance. Shortly after completing voice-over work for The Rescuers (released in 1977), 49-year-old Flynn was discovered by family members in the swimming pool of his Beverly Hills home, the victim of an apparent drowning accident on July 19, 1974. Although some celebrity friends expressed concern about the circumstances surrounding Flynn's death, authorities found no evidence of foul play. Some believe Flynn suffered a heart attack while swimming.