Stephen Stucker

Stephen Stucker (July 2, 1947 – April 13, 1986) was an American actor, known for portrayals of bizarre characters, notably the manic control-room worker Johnny in the early 1980s Airplane!

He made his screen debut co-starring in the 1975 comedic sexploitation film Carnal Madness as Bruce Wilson, a gay fashion designer who escapes from an insane asylum with two fellow inmates, fleeing to an all-girls school.

For the first film, the writers gave Stucker the straight lines for his scenes and let him write his character's off-the-wall responses.

In 1984, he had a co-starring role as the sex-obsessed psychiatrist Dr. Bender in the teen comedy film Bad Manners (aka: Growing Pains).

In a November 1985 interview, Stucker claimed he had suffered from cancer-related symptoms as early as 1979, prior to public knowledge of what AIDS was, and that he had previously been an intravenous drug user.