He was the young sailor with the headphones, the one always listening in while the rest of the crew schemed and stumbled their way through another week of trouble. Now the last voice from PT-73 has gone quiet.See More…
John “Bobby” Wright Jr., who played radio operator Willy Moss on the classic sitcom McHale’s Navy, died on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, at his home in Madison, Tennessee. He was 84, and his family said he passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones.
With his passing, an era truly closes. Bobby was the last surviving regular cast member of the show that kept America laughing every week in the early 1960s.
What many viewers never realized was that he came from country music royalty. He was the son of Kitty Wells, the “Queen of Country Music,” and her husband Johnnie Wright, one half of the famous duo Johnnie & Jack.
Born John Robert Wright Jr. on March 30, 1942, in Charleston, West Virginia, he grew up in Madison, Tennessee. At Madison High School he played baseball, basketball and football before deciding to chase a different kind of dream.
Right after high school, he headed west to Los Angeles. It didn’t take long. He soon landed the role of Willy Moss, a part that put him on a set alongside Ernest Borgnine, Joe Flynn and a young Tim Conway.
McHale’s Navy ran on ABC from 1962 to 1966, following the misadventures of a PT boat crew in the Pacific during World War II. Bobby appeared in all 138 episodes, and he joined the cast on the big screen in McHale’s Navy in 1964 and McHale’s Navy Joins the Air Force in 1965.
After the show ended, he took a few more roles, including a robber named Bud Bunnoy in the 1966 western series Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats and a part in the 1974 film Catch the Black Sunshine.
Then came the surprising chapter. Instead of staying in Hollywood, Bobby went home to Tennessee and stepped into the family business, joining his parents and sisters on their syndicated family variety show on television.
He also built a singing career of his own. Between 1967 and 1979 he charted 21 singles on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs, and his biggest hit, “Here I Go Again,” climbed to No. 12 in 1971.
For decades he toured with his famous parents as part of the Kitty Wells, Johnnie Wright and Bobby Wright family show, bringing those old songs to fans on the road until 2007.
He is survived by his two daughters, LeAnn and Kamela, four grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, his sister Sue, and the woman his family called his former wife and forever lifetime friend, Brenda Wright Moore. Funeral services are planned for Tuesday, November 3, in Madison.
Somewhere, the crew of PT-73 is back together again, and Willy Moss has finally signed off the radio for the last time.