Trivia for
The Great Santini (1979) More at IMDbPro »

• The South Carolina house where much of the movie takes place is the same house in Beaufort used in The Big Chill (1983). It is known as the "Edgar Fripp Home" as well as "Tidalholm."
  
  
• According to author Pat Conroy, Bull is based entirely on his own father, Donald Conroy, a Marine fighter pilot who referred to himself in the third person as "The Great Santini".
  
  
• The character of "Coach Spinks" is based on Jerry Swing, who coached Pat Conroy in high school.
  
  
• David Keith's film debut.
  
  
• Despite playing their mother, Blythe Danner is only 12 years older than Michael O'Keefe and Lisa Jane Persky.
  
  
• On the morning of the Academy Award nominations in 1981, when the movie got nods for actor and supporting actor, author Pat Conroy received a phone call from him father who told him "You and me got nominated for Academy Awards, your mother didn't get squat".
  
  

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