The Towering Inferno Cast List: Actors and Actresses from The Towering Inferno

In the 1970s, Hollywood briefly decided that the best way to deal with national anxiety was to
drop as many famous people as possible into a single giant catastrophe and see who made it out.
Out of that glorious, melodramatic era came The Towering Inferno, a 1974 disaster
blockbuster that locked a who’s who of movie stars inside a burning San Francisco skyscraper.
It wasn’t just a hit; it became the template for ensemble disaster movies for decades to come.

Today, the movie is beloved not only for its nerve-racking set pieces, but also for its
star-studded cast list. Chuck in a couple of legendary leading men, mix in Old Hollywood icons,
add some New Hollywood rebels, and season lightly with future TV stars and character actors,
and you get one of the most stacked credits sequences of any ’70s film.

If you’ve ever watched The Towering Inferno and thought, “Wait, isn’t that…?” this
guide is for you. Let’s walk floor by floor through the towering cast list and meet the actors
and actresses who turned a simple fire into a full-scale Hollywood event.

Why the Cast of The Towering Inferno Was Such a Big Deal

Before we jump into individual performances, it helps to remember just how ambitious this
casting was. The producers weren’t aiming for “a couple of big names and some extras.” They
set out to merge multiple generations of stardom into a single film:

• Old Hollywood royalty like William Holden, Fred Astaire, and Jennifer Jones.
• New Hollywood icons such as Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and Faye Dunaway,
  who were redefining what movie stardom looked like in the 1960s and ’70s.
• Rising and crossover names including Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain,
  and O.J. Simpson, familiar to audiences from television and sports.

The result is that the cast list reads almost like a Hollywood yearbook. Every floor of the
fictional Glass Tower seems to have at least one recognizable face, which makes the stakes feel
strangely personal: when disaster hits, it’s not “random party guests” in dangerit’s a lineup
of stars you already know.

The Dual Heroes: Steve McQueen and Paul Newman

Steve McQueen as Chief Michael O’Hallorhan

First up: Steve McQueen, the “King of Cool” himself, playing Fire Chief Michael O’Hallorhan.
He’s the blunt, blue-collar professional who shows up to the glitzy opening-night party and
immediately realizes that this skyscraper is about as safe as a lit match in a fireworks
factory.

McQueen’s chief is all business: gruff, practical, and allergic to corporate excuses. He’s the
guy barking orders, mapping out evacuation routes, and trying to keep panicked partygoers from
doing the worst possible thing at all times (which they, of course, absolutely do). His
performance grounds the movie. No matter how wild the stunts get, McQueen plays O’Hallorhan
as a real firefighter under unimaginable pressure, not a cartoon superhero.

Fun bit of trivia: McQueen reportedly insisted that his character have as many lines as Paul
Newman’s, leading to a legendary bit of Hollywood math to keep the two stars balanced. Whether
or not the numbers were perfectly even, the result is a true co-lead dynamic: both men feel
essential to the story.

Paul Newman as Doug Roberts

On the other side of the fire line, we have Paul Newman as Doug Roberts, the architect who
designed the Glass Tower. Doug is proud of his buildingbut not so proud that he’s willing to
ignore the shortcuts taken by the company that paid for it.

Newman’s character is the perfect counterweight to McQueen’s fire chief. Where O’Hallorhan is
all tactical urgency, Doug brings emotional stakes: guilt, anger, and a fierce determination to
save as many people as he can from a disaster that never should have happened. He scrambles
through smoke-filled hallways, improvises rescue plans, and wrestles with the moral cost of
“cost-cutting.”

Together, McQueen and Newman are like two sides of the same coin: one representing on-the-ground
heroism, the other representing the conscience of the skyscraper itself. The movie works because
you believe in both of themand because watching these two megastars share the screen is half
the fun.

Power Players at the Top of the Tower

William Holden as Jim Duncan

William Holden plays Jim Duncan, the old-school corporate head whose name is on the building.
He’s the man who wanted the tallest tower in the world, and he’s now uncomfortably aware that
“tallest” does not automatically mean “safest.”

Holden brings weary authority to Duncan, a man who has spent his career cutting deals and
shaking hands, only to find that his empire may literally be going up in flames. He’s not a
cartoon villain; he’s a symbol of what happens when ambition and corporate pressure outrun
responsibility. His clashes with the fire chief and with his own son-in-law are some of the
movie’s sharpest dramatic moments.

Faye Dunaway as Susan Franklin

As Susan Franklin, Faye Dunaway proves that a disaster movie can make space for complicated
personal drama in between explosions. Susan is a TV journalist and Doug Roberts’ love interest,
caught between career ambition and the promise of a quieter life with him.

It would be easy for Susan to exist just as “the girlfriend,” but Dunaway brings enough steel
and inner conflict that you understand why Doug is drawn to her and why she struggles to step
away from her job. She’s elegant, modern, and very much a woman of the 1970s, navigating her
choices even as the building literally burns around her.

Scene-Stealers: Supporting Actors Who Make the Fire Feel Real

Fred Astaire as Harlee Claiborne

Yes, that Fred Astairethe screen legend of classic musicalsappears in The Towering
Inferno as Harlee Claiborne, a charming con man posing as a wealthy investor. He plans to
swindle a lonely woman, but ends up falling for her instead. It’s one of the film’s sweetest
subplots and earned Astaire his only career Oscar nomination for acting.

Astaire plays Harlee with a gentle, melancholic edge: a man who has spent his life skimming off
the top and suddenly finds something (and someone) worth being honest for. In a film full of
fire and panic, his delicate emotional arc adds unexpected warmth.

Jennifer Jones as Lisolette Mueller

Jennifer Jones, another Old Hollywood great, plays Lisolette Mueller, the woman Harlee intends
to con but ultimately grows to love. Lisolette is dignified, kind, and quietly heroic. At one
point she risks her own life to help rescue children trapped in the building, giving the film
one of its most emotional sequences.

Jones’ performance is all the more poignant because The Towering Inferno turned out to
be her final film role. She leaves the screen the same way she spent her career: with emotional
sincerity and quiet grace.

Richard Chamberlain as Roger Simmons

Every disaster film needs someone you can blame, and Richard Chamberlain’s Roger Simmons is very
happy to volunteer. He’s the cost-cutting electrical engineer whose corner-cutting decisions make
the building a tinderbox. Charming and slippery at first, Simmons becomes more frantic and ugly
as the consequences of his actions come crashingsometimes literallydown.

Chamberlain leans into the character’s moral cowardice, and the movie doesn’t let him off the
hook. In a story where a lot of people behave heroically, Simmons is a reminder that greed and
denial are often the real villains.

O.J. Simpson as Harry Jernigan

Long before the events that would later define his public image, O.J. Simpson appeared here as
Harry Jernigan, the building’s security chief. Jernigan is calm under pressure and deeply aware
that something is wrong even before the full disaster unfolds. He helps with the rescue efforts,
adding another layer of competence to the response team.

The casting reflects 1970s Hollywood’s growing interest in sports celebrities crossing over into
film, and Jernigan’s role gives the movie a little more diversity among its authority figures.

Susan Blakely as Patty Simmons

Susan Blakely plays Patty Simmons, Duncan’s daughter and Roger’s wife, whose loyalties are
painfully split between her powerful father and her increasingly compromised husband. Bounced
between the corporate world and the domestic sphere, she embodies the emotional fallout of
decisions made in boardrooms.

Her scenes are smaller than those of the top-billed stars, but Blakely’s presence helps sell
the movie’s central theme: when something this big goes wrong, no one is untouched.

Deeper into the Cast List: Familiar Faces in the Flames

One of the joys of rewatching The Towering Inferno is playing “spot the actor.” Beneath
the headline names, the film is packed with performers who either were or would soon become
familiar faces.

• Robert Vaughn appears as a senator who quickly learns that political
  influence doesn’t mean much to a firestorm.
• Robert Wagner plays Dan Bigelow, a sleek public relations executive whose
  attempt to escape becomes one of the film’s most heartbreaking, visually striking sequences.
• Susan Flannery gives a memorable performance as his secretary Lorrie, adding
  real emotional weight to what could have been a disposable side character.
• Don Gordon appears as one of O’Hallorhan’s firefighters, reinforcing the
  sense that this is a team effort, not a one-man hero show.
• Gregory Sierra, recognizable from television, shows up in the building’s
  maintenance and firefighting efforts, representing the working-class backbone of the tower.
• Mike Lookinland (Bobby from The Brady Bunch) pops up as one of the
  children trapped in the tower, giving younger viewers a familiar face to latch onto.

There are many morecharacter actors, stunt performers, and bit players who each get a moment
in the spotlight as alarms blare and sprinklers fail. That density of recognizable faces is part
of what makes the movie feel so large-scale; the cast list itself is a mini-universe.

How the Ensemble Cast Shapes the Movie’s Impact

Without its cast, The Towering Inferno might have been just another effects-driven
spectacle. What elevates it is how each actor brings a slightly different story into the same
crisis:

• The fire chief and the architect represent competence, responsibility, and moral reckoning.
• The corporate leaders embody ambition and the consequences of cutting corners.
• The con man and the lonely woman give the film its tender emotional core.
• The workers, guards, and technicians show how ordinary people riseor failto meet disaster.

Because the cast is so strong, the movie can juggle all these threads without losing momentum.
You genuinely care who makes it out of the building, not because the script tells you to, but
because the actors sell their fear, courage, and regret. That’s why the film still feels
watchable decades later: its spectacle is powered by real performances.

Experiences and Takeaways from The Towering Inferno Cast

Even if you’ve never lived within shouting distance of a 138-story skyscraper, the cast of
The Towering Inferno makes the movie feel strangely relatable. That’s part of what
makes watching (or rewatching) it such a memorable experience.

On a first viewing, most people come for the headliners: “Steve McQueen and Paul Newman in the
same movie? Sold.” The early scenes feel almost like a friendly tug-of-war between two styles of
leading man. McQueen is compact, practical, and tightly wound; Newman is looser, more
introspective, with emotional weight behind his eyes. Seeing them share scenes is like watching
two different eras of cool negotiate who gets to save the day.

As you watch more closely, though, the supporting players start to shine. If you’re a fan of
classic Hollywood, spotting Fred Astaire and Jennifer Jones is like unexpectedly running into
old friends at a modern party. Their scenes together play almost like a short romantic drama
dropped into the middle of a disaster movie. When the film shifts focus back to them, it slows
down just enough to remind you that these aren’t just “bodies in danger”they’re people with
years of history behind their eyes.

For viewers who grew up on ’70s and ’80s television, the movie becomes a nostalgia scavenger
hunt. You notice Robert Vaughn and think of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; you spot Susan
Flannery and connect her to her long soap-opera career; you see Mike Lookinland and suddenly the
Brady Bunch theme song starts playing in your head. The disaster may be fictional, but the faces
are woven into TV history, which makes the entire tower feel oddly familiar.

The movie also offers an interesting way to think about how we experience risk and
responsibility. Watching it with modern eyes, it’s hard not to feel a little angry at the
corporate characters who treat safety as an optional line item. When William Holden’s Jim
Duncan and Richard Chamberlain’s Roger Simmons argue about cost versus safety, it feels
uncomfortably current. Many viewers come away from the movie thinking about real-world
situations where shortcuts and ignored warnings led to tragedy. The cast sells that tension so
well that it can spark long conversations after the credits roll.

If you’re planning a rewatch, one fun experience is to focus on a different character arc each
time. On one viewing, track only Steve McQueen’s scenes and watch how he methodically escalates
the firefighting response. On another, follow Faye Dunaway’s Susan and imagine how her storyline
would play if it were the center of a smaller, more intimate film. Then take a pass just for the
supporting playersAstaire, Jones, Wagner, Flannery, Sierraand see how their subplots knit the
whole structure together.

For film buffs, The Towering Inferno can also feel like a time capsule of 1970s studio
filmmaking. The ensemble cast reflects a transitional moment, when Old Hollywood glamour, New
Hollywood grit, and the early seeds of modern blockbuster culture all shared the same screen.
Watching these actors navigate disaster side by side is like watching film history move through
a burning building and somehow make it out the other side.

In the end, the experience of the movie is inseparable from its cast list. You remember the
fire, the collapsing stairways, and the cable-car rescue sequencebut you also remember Newman’s
haunted expression, McQueen’s curt commands, Astaire’s gentle smile, and Jones’ determination.
That combination of large-scale spectacle and character-driven emotion is why, decades later,
The Towering Inferno still stands tall among disaster films.