An Officer and a Gentleman

HistoryLink says a Paramount cast and crew of more than 100 arrived in Port Townsend in late April 1981 to film An Officer and a Gentleman. Taylor Hackford directed Richard Gere as a would-be Navy pilot, Debra Winger as a local factory worker, and Louis Gossett Jr. as the drill instructor. Scenes were shot at Fort Worden State Park, the Tides Inn, the Town Tavern in the 1889 N. D. Hill Building, the Port Townsend Paper Mill, and elsewhere around the historic city. Nearly all of the movie was shot here, HistoryLink says, with only a few scenes on Whidbey Island and at other Western Washington locations.

The town was a second choice. HistoryLink says Port Townsend was selected after the U.S. Navy refused to let Paramount use the real Aviation Officer Candidate School at Pensacola. About 400 residents — 8 percent of the town — answered a casting call for extras. The filming, HistoryLink writes, pumped some three million dollars into the local economy.

The film premiered in 1982. Gossett won the Oscar for best supporting actor; Winger was nominated for best actress. HistoryLink says it grossed more money than any 1982 film except E.T. In October 2006 Gossett came back to Fort Worden for a 25th-anniversary DVD interview. The pin is the old coastal fort that played Navy school.