I never would have guessed.
Posted on 04/14/2011 6:11:08 PM PDT by WOBBLY BOB
In honor of Military Families Week, AOL salutes the many movie stars who've served our country, many of whom -- like George C. Scott and Henry Fonda -- also starred in the most famous war movies of all time.
Clark Gable enlisted at age 43 after losing wife Carole Lombard to the war effort, but some stars, including Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Stewart, were already in the service when the U.S. entered World War II. Others, like Gene Hackman and Harvey Keitel, did their service before becoming famous. (And both left home early to join up.)
Please join us in paying tribute to these famous veterans, who weren't just acting when they portrayed men in uniform.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.moviefone.com ...
George C. Scott: My son began his service as a guard at the 8th and I Marine Barracks, after completing School of Infantry and Security School, and before going to the White House Communication Agency as a member of Marine Presidential Security Forces. (He served under George Bush #2) It is as a terrible place today as it was then to send any young man. They seldom exercise or fire a weapon, and are continually picked on for minuscule issues about uniforms and behavior. Whatever leadership skills the officers and NCO’s acquired elsewhere are abandoned for their duration there.
Henry Fonda: The article did not mention his staring roll in “Mr. Roberts”. For the roll he wore the same Navy officer’s hat he wore on active duty.
Don Imus served in the Marines
Drew Carey
Drew Carey served in the Marines and the reserves
Granted this article is about American actors, but LTC David Niven and James Doohan both had distinguished records in WWII. Michael Caine later served with the Royal Fusiliers in the ‘50s.
Harvey Keitel and Gene Hackman are Marines.
James Arness(Gunsmoke) Battle of Anzio
I never would have guessed.
that depends on what the meaning of "acting" is.
BTTT
Jack Palance was trained as a B-24 pilot but did not deploy due to injuries sustained in a training crash.
Charles Bronson, "...enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces and served as an aerial gunner in the 760th Flexible Gunnery Training Squadron, and in 1945 as a B-29 Superfortress crewman with the 39th Bombardment Group based on Guam. He was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds received during his service."
James Garner.
Johnny Cash was a Morse Code Intercept Operator with the USAF.
IIRC, Jimmy Stewart insisted that his agent take 10% of his military pay during the war.
“The true list goes on and on. Today’s armed forces couldn’t even use most of the skinny pretty-boys in Hollywood.”
I don’t know but maybe it could turn some of them into men?
Jack Klugman - US Army, WWII
George Carlin — U.S. Air Force
Jimi Hendrix — U.S. Army
There was also a radioman in Jimmy Stewart’s Bomber Group named Walter Matthau ;-)
In January 1954, at the age of 16, Fender quit school and started a three-year hitch in the United States Marine Corps. However, he was court-martialed in August 1956 and was discharged with rank of Private (E-1).
He was beset by legal troubles in May 1960 after he and a band member were arrested for possession of marijuana in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After serving nearly three years in the Angola prison farm, he was released through the intercession of then Governor Jimmie Davis, also a songwriter and musician.
In 1988, Fender played the mayor of a small New Mexico town in the Robert Redford-directed film, The Milagro Beanfield War.
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