Series Description

Once An Eagle was a nine hour dramatic miniseries that aired on NBC about two career Army Officers' military and personal lives over a thirty year time period covering both World Wars. Sam Damon was a dedicated and honorable officer while Courtney Massengale was a scheming rat with no ehtics or morals whatsoever. It's a classice battle of good vs. evil involving men with the power of life and death. Evil often wins in the short run ... but will it win in the end?

Once An Eagle Miniseries Cast

Sam Elliott .... Sam Damon
Cliff Potts .... Courtenay Massengale
Amy Irving .... Emily Pawlfrey Massengale
Glenn Ford .... George Caldwell
Ralph Bellamy .... Ed Caldwell
Melanie Griffith .... Jinny Massengale
Darleen Carr .... Tommy Caldwell
Forrest Tucker .... Colonel Avery
David Wayne .... Colonel Terwilliger
William Windom .... General Duke kPulleyne
James Cromwell .... J.L. Cleghorne
Dane Clark .... Harry Sheppard
Andrew Duggan .... General McKelvey
Lynda Day George .... Marge Krisler
John Saxon .... Captain Townshend
Barry Sullivan .... General Bannerman
Gary Grimes .... Jack Devlin
Clu Gulager .... Alvin Merrick
Robert Hogan .... Ben Krisler
Kim Hunter .... Kitty Damon
David Huddleston .... Earl Preis
Juliet Mills .... Joyce
Harriet Hilliard .... Harriet Nelson
Albert Salmi .... Senator Bert McConnadin
James Shigeta .... Lin Tso-Han
Phyllis Thaxter .... Alma Caldwell
Anthony Zerbe .... Dave Shifkin
John Anderson .... George Varney
Andrew Robinson .... Reb Rayburne
Patricia Stich .... Nurse Pomeroy
Jeff Cotler .... Sam Damon (As a Boy)
Tracie Savage .... Peggy Damon
Lynne Marta .... Celia Harrodson
Dennis Burkley .... Krazewski
Will Seltzer .... Brewster
Jane Elliot .... Cheryl Logan
Patti D'Arbanville .... Michele
Hayden Rorke .... Paul Sinclair
Ron Masak .... Maynard Lambert
Kario Salem .... Joe Brand
Carmen Argenziano .... Adam Brand
George Wyner .... Dr. McCabe
Cathey Paine .... Mae Lee Cleghorne
Kip Niven .... Ryetower
Tom Reese .... Sergeant Stoner
Lee de Broux .... Bill Nickerson
Andrew Stevens .... Donny Damon
Jim Antonio .... Captain Lasovitch
Frank Michael Liu .... Captain Nagasay
Ben Piazza .... Captain Jerome
Kent Smith .... General Jacklyn
Jordan Rhodes .... Sergeant Ives
Anne Bellamy .... Helene McConnadin
George Murdock .... Sergeant Chepenek
Randall Carver .... Lee McConnadin

Once An Eagle Miniseries Trivia

This miniseries was based on the 1968 novel of the same name written by Anton Myrer. The screenplay was adapted by Peter S. Fischer.

The ficticious Sam Damon was based on the real-life "Major General William C. Chase" who had been the commander of the 1st Cavalry Division.

Once An Eagle was one of four novel adaptations that NBC collectively called "Best Sellers". The first in the series was the "Captains and the Kings Miniseries", the second was Once an Eagle, the third was the "Seventh Avenue Miniseries", and the last one was "The Rhineman Exchange Miniseries". Miniseries were extremely popular from the mid-1970s and continued into the early 1980s. They afforded the opportunity to bring novels to television that were just too complex to depict in a two hour movie format.

Sam Elliot played the role of another character that worked for the government during the fifth season of the original Mission Impossible TV Series. His character was Impossible Missions Force (IMF) agent Doug Robert and he assisted the regular characters on twelve missions that season and on the second mission of the sixth season.

In a historical goof, the German soldiers in the World War I scenes set in 1918 were wearing spiked helmets. That type of helmet was actually replaced in 1916.

Once an Eagle received an Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Cinematography in Entertainment Programming for a Series" for part 1 of the series. "Captains and the Kings" won the award. Once an Eagle also received a Golden Globe nomination for "Best Supporting Actress - Television" for Darleen Carr's performance. The winner of that award was Josette Banzet for her part on an ABC miniseries titled "Rich Man, Poor Man".

Sam Elliot also starred as a military General in the 1993 film, "Gettysburg" which was based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara. Interestingly, Once an Eagle and The Killer Angels are the only two novels on the United States Army's recommended reading list for their Officer Professional Development program! Gettysburg was originally conceived as a TV miniseries that would air on TNT but station owner Ted Turner felt it was too good to waste on TV and released it as one of the longest films ever. At four hours and 14 minutes, most viewers refused to sit that long in a movie theater seat and the film flopped.

Episodes List With Original Air Dates

1. Part 1 (2 Hours) (12/2/1976)
2. Part 2 (1 Hour) (12/9/1976)
3. Part 3 (1 Hour) (12/16/1976)
4. Part 4 (1 Hour) (12/23/1976)
5. Part 5 (1 Hour) (12/30/1976)
6. Part 6 (1 Hour) (1/6/1977)
7. Part 7 (2 Hours) (1/13/1977)