War Movie actors who also experienced the real thing- (A list)

[Pete Hill]

Hi everyone,

to all war movie buffs, here are a list of actors who appeared in war films and who also experienced the real thing at some point in their lives.

Clarke Gable (USA)- Served in the US air-force during WW2. He worked primarily in public relations and morale-boosting but also trained as a gunner and he flew five missions on B-17s over Germany. War movies he appeared in included Command Decision

Jimmy Stewart (USA)- Trained as a bomber pilot for the USAAF in WW2, he served in the 8th Air-Force and flew 25 bombing missions over enemy territory as the pilot of a B-24. When he was interviewed for the 1970s documentary TV series 'The World at War', he recalled as the biggest fear- "the (German) fighter was the boogey-man....the fighter had eyes!" War movies he appeared in- Strategic Air-Command

Richard Todd (UK)- Was a Paratrooper in the British 6th Airborne division in WW2 and he saw action on D-Day in Normandy, 1944. He fought at the famous action at Pegasus Bridge and later acted in a scene in a film that re-created this battle. War movies he appeared in included- The Dam Busters, The Longest Day, D-Day: the 6th June, Operation Cross-Bow.

Donald Pleasance (UK) Flew as a Navigator in Lancaster bombers in British RAF Bomber-Command during the night-air offensive against Germany in WW2. His plane was shot down in 1944 and he was captured and placed in a POW camp where he was interrogated & tortured by the Gestapo. After the war, he seldom spoke about his wartime experiences. War movies he appeared in - The Great Escape, The Great Escape II (TV)

Charles Bronson (USA) Joined the United States air-force during WW2 and served in the war in Pacific against the Japanese. He flew 25 combat missions as a tail gunner in a B-29 in 1944/45, flying long-range bombing missions over Japan and received a Purple Heart for being wounded by shrapnel from anti-aircraft fire. War movies he appeared in include:- The Dirty Dozen, The Battle of the Bulge

Lee Marvin (USA) Joined the US Marine Corps at the outbreak of WW2. He fought in the Pacific against the Japanese and was wounded in the buttocks by shrapnel during the battle of Saipan in 1944. War movies he appeared in included:- The Dirty Dozen, The Big Red One, Hell in the Pacific.

Hardy Kruger (Germany). Was a member of the Hitler Youth until he was old enough to join the German army during the last stages of WW2. He fought against the Allies in Europe in 1945 as an infantryman in the Waffen-SS. War movies he appeared in included:- The One that got away, A Bridge Too Far, The Wild Geese and the Battle of the river Neretva.

Toshiro Mifune (Japan). Served in the Imperial Japanese Air-Force during WW2 as a member of an aerial reconnaissance and photography unit. War movies he appeared in included:- Midway, 1941, Hell in the Pacific.

Rod Steiger (USA). Served in the United States Navy in the Pacific during WW2 on board a Destroyer. His first introduction to war was when he was ordered to machine-gun and sink an un-armed Japanese civilian fishing boat whilst his ship was escorting the carrier USS Hornet en route to launching the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in 1942. War movies he appeared in included:- Lion of the Desert, Waterloo, The Longest Day.

Henry Fonda (USA). Also served in the United States Navy in WW2 and, like Steiger, also fought in the Pacific on board a Destroyer. However he gained a higher rank (Quarter-Master) and was already an established actor when he enlisted in the Navy in 1943. He earned a Bronze Star for bravery. War movies included:- The Longest Day, Midway, Battle of the Bulge

Ernst Borgnine (USA). Served in the US Navy in WW2, rising to the rank of Gunner's 1st Mate. War movies included:- The Dirty Dozen, From Here to Eternity, All Quiet on the Western Front (1979 remake)

Dirk Bogarde (UK). Served in WW2 as an officer in a British Photo-Intelligence Unit. Took part in the liberation of the Belsen death camp in 1945 and he once had to kill a wounded allied officer to put him out of his misery. War movies included:- Ill-met by moonlight, A Bridge Too Far

Eddie Albert (USA). Served in the US Navy in the Pacific in WW2. During the battle of Tarawa in 1943, he drove a Landing Craft and was credited with rescuing 70 wounded soldiers whilst under Japanese fire. War movies included Attack!, The Longest Day

Alec Guiness (UK). Served in the Royal Navy during WW2 and was a crew-member on board a Landing Craft for the allied invasion of Sicily and also participated in ferrying supplies to Yugoslav partisans. War movies included:- Bridge on the River Kwai.

David Niven (UK). Fought in WW2 with the British army in a rifle regiment and later in the Commandoes. He was present at the evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940 and later in the war took part in missions behind enemy lines. War movies included:- The Way ahead, Spitfire, The Guns of Navarone

Michael Caine (UK). Fought as a rifle-man in a British Army Regiment during the war in Korea 1950-53. War movies included:- Zulu, A Hill in Korea, The Last Valley, Play Dirty, Battle of Britain, A Bridge Too Far

Audie Murphy (USA). Fought with the US Army in Sicily, Italy and France, surviving several wounds to become the highest-decorated US soldier in WW2. Played himself in the movie based on his wartime experiences To Hell and Back. Privately, he said he disliked the film, saying it 'missed by a mile'.

Paul Newman (USA). Joined the US Naval air-force and served in a torpedo Squadron as a gunner/radio-operator on Grumman Avengers. In May 1945, his crew was about to be sent to reinforce the Torpedo Squadron on board the carrier USS Bunker Hill during the battle for Okinawa. At the last moment, his crew was held back as his pilot developed an ear infection. Shortly afterwards, Bunker Hill was hit by a Japanese Kamikaze and hundreds of men were killed, including most of the fliers of the ship's Avenger squadron. Newman's pilot falling ill was a quirk of fate that almost certainly saved his life.

Other mentions-

Oscar winner Jack Palance did not get to experience actual combat but he trained as a bomber pilot in WW2. During a training flight over California, his B-24 accidently crashed and Palance received severe facial burns, creating his gaunt, lined features that he was famous for as an actor.
Don Adams (TV's Get Smart) - Fought in WW2 as a rifleman in the US Marines, taking part in the bloody battles on Guadalcanal in 1942-43. After one action, he was the only survivor of his platoon.
James Doohan ('Scotty' in Star Trek) - served in the Canadian artillery during WW2 and fought in Normandy in 1944.
At least three cast members of BBC TV's Dads Army all experienced war for real. Clive Dunn (Corporal Jones) was captured in North Africa in WW2 and spent 4 years in a POW camp. John Laurie (Private Frazer) fought in the First World war as did Arnold Ridley (Private Godfrey), the latter taking part in the terrible Battle of the Somme in 1916. Ridley was badly wounded in both legs and his left arm and also sustained a severe head injury when a German soldier struck him with a rifle butt. He volunteered again to later fight in WW2 but suffered shell-shock during the retreat through France in 1940 and was discharged. It was therefore very ironic that Ridley played the most gentle and timid member of Captain Mainwaring's Home-Guard platoon!
Jon Pertwee ( BBC TV's Dr Who in the 1970s)- served in the British Royal Navy in WW2 on board the Battleship HMS Hood. Was lucky enough to be transferred from the ship shortly before it was sunk in 1941.
US TV, stage and occasional movie actor Charles Durning had an extraordinary experience in WW2. As a soldier in the famous 1st US army division, he survived the bloody landing on Omaha beach on D-Day. Six months later, he was captured by the Germans during the battle of the Bulge and he was one of only three men to survive the infamous Malmedy massacre where over 100 captured Americans were machine-gunned by Waffen-SS.
US actor Raymond Burr (TV's Ironside and Perry Mason) fought in WW2 in the Marine Corps and was wounded at the battle of Okinawa in 1945.

If anyone out there has any more to add to the list, I would love to know. Cheers, Pete

[NeilE]

Was Gable's war record real Pete? I've read somewhere it wasn't and that it was mainly a PR job.

Still if it was real he did better than Errol Flynn whose war movies were regarded with some derison by the troops because he never went anywhere near the front... particularly his movie about Burma...

An Australian to add to the list would be Bud Tingwell, who was a fighter pilot and saw action in the Western Desert and also in the Pacific in Spitfires also.

Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe were both gunners in the Eighth Army also.

I'll try to think of some others...

Cheers

Neil

PS hey where did you get all that info from?

[R Pope]

James Garner was a footslogger in Korea, got machine-gunned. The scars on his chest were why he never appeared on film shirtless.

[Laserlloyd]

How could you forget Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier in World War II.


Opp's.... I see you do have him listed... Sorry....

I'm a little tired after watching two nights of the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi oval to see Danica Patrick win the race...



Lloyd...

[Kilian]

Does someone know what Kirk Douglas did during WWII? I know only he was a U.S. Navy Lt., but i cant find what he did there.

[pghaddick]

Hello,

This is mainly for us Brits, who remembers Jack Warner, who made many movies (The Blue Lamp 1949 was probably the most famous )but was well known as being Police Sergeant George Dixon in "Dixon of Dock Green on U.K. television from 1955 to 1976!!,flew Sopwith Camels with the R.F.C. / R.A.F.

Cheers

PGH

[Gregvan]

Hi Kilian,

Kirk Douglas ("Paths of Glory", "In Harm's Way," and many others) attended the midshipman school at Notre Dame University, and graduated as a naval ensign. He was assigned as a communications officer to Anti-Submarine Unit 1139 in the Pacific, and spent most of 1942 and 43 on small patrol craft. He was injured in an encounter with a Japanese sub when a depth charge went off almost immediately after being discharged. Suffering internal injuries, he later got complications from amoebic dysentery. He spent five months at Balboa Hospital at San Diego Naval Station, and was given a medical discharge in 1944.

Our British friends will know that David Niven ("Dawn Patrol," among many others) had a very distinguished military career in WW2. He was the son of William E.G. Niven, who was killed at Gallipoli in WW1. David Niven attended Sandhurst, giving him his "officer and gentleman" bearing; he served four years with the Highland Light Infantry before resigning his commission.

Giving up a thriving film career in 1939, he left Hollywood and returned to England and rejoined the British Army. He served in the Rifle Brigade, and was eventually assigned as a liaison officer between the British 2nd Army and the First U.S. Army. He arrived in Normandy a few days after D-Day. He also served in the specialist Phantom Signals Unit.

Unlike other celebrities who served, he remained very close-mouthed about his wartime career. He told one story: "I was asked by some American friends to search out the grave of their son near Bastogne. I found it where they told me I would, but it was among 27,000 others, and I told myself that here, Niven, were 27,000 reasons why you should keep your mouth shut after the war."

He was made a Legionnaire of the Legion of Merit, the highest American order that be earned by a foreigner - presented by Eisenhower himself.

Greg

[Pete Hill]

Hi Neil,
I got most of the info off the internet, simply by trawling through fansites and mini-biographies on various actors of that generation. Some was easier to come by than others as some actors such as James Stewart and Richard Todd were willing to talk about their experiences whilst others such as Donald Pleasence rarely spoke of it. Rod Steiger's experiences I got from seeing him interviewed on the 2001 BBC documentary Hell in the Pacific whilst Paul Newman's brush with death is mentioned in Max Hasting's recent book on the Pacific war Nemesis. You are right, Neil, there is controversy and some disagreement about whether Clark Gable actually did fly those missions or whether it was just movie studio guff to build up publicity for their star. However most of the sources I consulted seem to say that he did fly those sorties as a gunner.
There have been instances when Movie Studios and the celebrity machines have created false-hoods regarding the military service of certain actors. British actor Trevor Howard served in the military during WW2 but never left the UK and therefore never experienced any actual combat. However rumours and stories circulated the press when Howard was a rising film star during the late 40s that he had seen action in the war and had been decorated for gallantry! To his credit, Howard always refuted those stories and never tried to pretend that he had fought overseas.
A more recent example is the disgrace of American actor Brian Dennehey who appeared in many hit films in the 1980s and 90s. There was a commonly held perception that the burly actor was a Vietnam combat veteran. To be fair, Dennehey never actually said he was such but then again, he never went out of his way to refute those stories either. Eventually the truth was uncovered that he had served in the armed forces during the 1960s but had never left the States.
Thanks for mentioning Bud Tingwell.

To R Pope,
thanks for the info on James Garner. One more for the list!

To Gregvan,
also thanks for the info on Kirk Douglas. I had found out that he had served in the armed forces in WW2 but I had not yet put him on the list because I could not find out any details so thank you for doing so.

To pghaddick,
thanks for the info on Warner. There must be a number of actors of the 20s and 30s era who must have served in the Great war, I must find out more about them.

Here's a couple more I have found:-

Harry Andrews (UK) - Served in the Royal Artillery during WW2. Famous for portraying the stiff-upper lipped British officer in many war films. War movies included:- Battle of Britain, Charge of the Light Brigade, Too late the Hero, A Hill in Korea, The Hill.

Denholm Elliot (UK) - Served in the RAF as a Gunner/Navigator in Bomber Command (I wasn't able to find out what type of aircraft). Shot down over Denmark in 1942, spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp where he helped organise theatricial entertainment for the other prisoners. War movies included:- A Bridge Too Far, Too Late the Hero, The Cruel Sea

Christopher Lee (UK) - The actor who has achieved recent fame for playing villians in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the two most recent Star Wars films was a member of the Royal air-force Intelligence service in WW2 and saw action with the Special Forces in Finland during the Finnish-Soviet war in 1940.

[TomVrille]

Just to nudge us a little closer to 'on topic', how about Pat O'Brien, US Navy veteran, WW1!

[Kilian]

Originally Posted by Pete Hill

To Gregvan,
also thanks for the info on Kirk Douglas. I had found out that he had served in the armed forces in WW2 but I had not yet put him on the list because I could not find out any details so thank you for doing so.

Ditto