Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, dies at 97
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The World War II fighter ace who became an iconic test pilot was immortalized with Sam Shepard's portrayal in the 1983 film The Right Stuff, based on Tom Wolfe's novel. However, the producers of Apple TV+'s recent The Right Stuff adaptation of Wolfe's novel opted to leave out Yeager altogether. Omitting Yeager "was a hard choice to make," executive producer Mark Lafferty told USA Today shortly before The Right Stuff's premiere in October, adding: "Chuck Yeager, in the book and movie, didn't really interact with the astronauts. He doesn't touch the larger narratives of our core group of astronauts. He wasn't interested in going to space." Yeager made quite a number of TV appearances over the years, including on Late Night with David Letterman, What's My Line? and as himself on a 1966 episode of I Dream of Jeannie.
TOPICS: The Right Stuff, I Dream of Jeannie, Chuck Yeager, Obits
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