Voting Station

George Mendonsa

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Military Personnel

The Resume

    (February 19, 1923-February 17, 2019)
    Born in Newport, Rhode Island
    Last name also spelled ‘Mendonça’
    Claimed to be the sailor kissing a nurse in Alfred Eisenstadt’s photo ‘V-J Day in Times Square’

Why he might be annoying:

    He was on his first date with Rita Petrie when he decided to kiss another woman in front of her.
    He and the woman he kissed were complete strangers.
    He was too drunk to remember the kiss.
    Rita noted about their later life, ‘It’ll come up that he’s ‘The Kissing Sailor’. So the kissing sailor has to think he has to kiss everybody. So he does.’
    He tried unsuccessfully to sue Time, Inc., claiming publication of the photo without his permission violated his rights, but waited until four decades after the photo had first ran in ‘Life.’ (1987)
    About a dozen other veterans have claimed to be the sailor in the picture; since Eisenstadt did not get the names of the couple when he photographed them, there is no definitive proof for any of them.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was a second generation fisherman.
    He piloted a destroyer during World War II.
    The contrast between his dark uniform and the nurse’s white outfit helped make for an iconic photo.
    Rita did not mind his kissing the nurse. (‘If we had been engaged, maybe.’)
    He and Rita were married for seventy years.
    Analysis using facial recognition technology concluded he was the best match among the claimants for the sailor in the photo (2005).

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 87.50% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 9 Votes: 22.22% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 96 Votes: 52.08% Annoying