Dashing Leading Men You Had No Idea Fought In WWII
Updated September
23, 2021
We saw them as our stars – our dashing leading men. We
threw awards at them, cheering whenever we saw them, not realizing that many
carried honors far greater than those earned on the silver screen – for they
were actors who fought in WWII, the most fatal conflict in history. Some came back highly decorated for their
service. Some of these actors present on D-Day might surprise you; others
flew high in the sky or manned the ships at sea.
Hollywood’s 20th-century roster is filled with actors who were
also veterans. Most were relatively unknown when they stepped forward as a
part of that “Greatest Generation” to hold back the forces of evil. Some were already household
names, with long careers on stage and screen. Fame made no difference. It was a
time when it did not matter where one lived or what one did for a living.
There was a job to be done, and they answered the call.
Read on for a
list of some of Hollywood's most famous stars of last
century, all of whom played the "role" of their lives as they helped
to defeat the Axis Powers.
Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia
Commons / Public domain
Clark Gable Sat Atop Hitler's 'Most
Wanted Actors' List
After storming
off the screen and leaving a distraught Scarlett standing alone as he
uttered the words that would become arguably the most famous line in movie history, Clark Gable had no idea what the future held. All he knew
was Gone With the Wind was a box
office smash (and still sits atop the box office record list when
adjusted for inflation), he was living the happiest years of his life, and
he had more movies to make. A scant three years later, his beloved wife
(actress Carol Lombard) passed in a plane crash, and Mr. Gable took off his
movie shoes and laced up his military boots. Much to MGM's chagrin, he even
flew in combat as an observer-gunner in a B-17 mission over Europe,
which eventually led him to produce and narrate a documentary on the experience
called Combat America.
He earned several medals for his tour, but the most dubious
distinction of all wasn't even a medal. The studio heads at MGM weren't the
only ones watching him like a hawk. Mr. Gable found himself on Adolf
Hitler's list of actors the Fuhrer would pay handsomely for if they were captured and
brought to him unscathed.
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Photo: US Air Force / Wikimedia
Commons / Public domain
Jimmy Stewart Turned The Trauma Of War
Into The Greatest Role Of His Career
In 1939, as
Europe reeled in shock from Germany's invasion of Poland, an actor in Hollywood
was waiting for
the release of a film that, little did he know, would skyrocket him to
stardom. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington paved
Jimmy Stewart's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The next year, he won his
only Academy Award in five nominations for his role in Philadelphia Story. Everyone expected more success,
but they would have to wait five years for it. Thanks to a lapse in his
contract with MGM that coincided with Uncle Sam's call to arms, Stewart –
after packing on a few extra pounds to be able to enlist – joined the
Army Air Corps.
For years, he wasted away in training commands like a forgotten
star past his prime. In 1943, that all changed when he begged to be assigned to
a combat squadron and was placed in a B-24 squadron with orders to Europe. Over
the next two years, he flew over 20 combat missions and rose to command
several units. When WWII was over, he came back a highly decorated hero,
boasting two Distinguished Flying Crosses, the French Croix de Guerre, and
multiple Air Medals. He also brought back the scars of war, haunted as he
was over the loss of 130 airmen in combat. He decided to
give Hollywood another go, but the trauma of his service showed itself in
the roles he chose. The most famous example is George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life, a film in which he channeled
the raw emotions he was personally tormented by to bring the character to life.
While initially disliked, over time, that movie became the defining role of his
career, a character he might not have been able to portray if it hadn't been
for the trauma he endured.
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Photo: Universal
Pictures / Wikimedia
Commons / Public domain
Rock
Hudson: Scrawny, Shy Sailor?
Roy Fitzgerald
joined the Navy straight out of high school and worked as a mechanic in the
Philippines. Even then, he dreamed of being a movie star. His fellow
soldiers laughed, as he was a scrawny boy with a very strong shy streak. Little did they know that
that shy, skinny boy would later change his name to Rock Hudson and entertain
moviegoers for decades, even performing a critically-acclaimed lead
role in Giant, for which he received
his only Academy Award nomination.
In 1956, he starred opposite Doris Day in Pillow
Talk, the first in a series of films that rocketed him to
heartthrob status with men and women alike well into the '60s. He became so
famous that he was offered several
roles that made a mark in movie history, including Marlon Brando's role
in Sayonara and Charlton Heston's
in Ben-Hur.
Unfortunately for him, he refused them in order to take on a
moving role in what would be the 1957 box-office failure, Farewell to Arms. However, even that couldn't dull the shine of his rock-hard
jaw and chiseled chest – a transformation from his earlier days as a
skinny soldier in America's Navy.
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Photo: U.S. Navy
photographer / Wikimedia
Commons / Public domain
Before Hustling His Way Into High
Stakes Pool, Paul Newman Was Nearly Felled By Kamikaze
A star for the
better part of three decades, Paul Newman's shining Hollywood career almost never happened. In
1944, he served in a variety of roles in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific. Most of
his enlistment was uneventful after he was dropped from pilot training
when officials discovered his colorblindness. That is, until he and a bunch of replacements received
word they were assigned to the U.S.S. Bunker Hill, which was bound for a little island in the west Pacific called
Okinawa. As they prepared to leave, his pilot came down with an ear infection,
keeping their plane grounded. A young Newman had to watch as the rest of his
squadron flew off to the Bunker Hill.
A few days later when the vessel arrived at the Battle of Okinawa
without Newman, the ship would experience a new kind of terrifying attack:
Kamikaze pilots. Two planes crashed into the carrier
and wiped out over 400 crew members, including part of his squadron.
Newman went on to a long, successful career in Hollywood, the fortuitous
beneficiary of a random infection.
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Photo: U.S. Army / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
Audie Murphy: America's Most Decorated
Combat Soldier Of WWII
It's a scene one
might see in an action movie. It's January 1945. American troops are
fending off a resurgent Nazi army as it carries out one last desperate attempt
to turn the tides of the conflict. A few soldiers man an outpost with orders to
hold it until reinforcements arrive. Unfortunately, the Germans didn't get the
memo to wait and attack the outpost with overwhelming force. One soldier
orders his comrades to fall back to a better position, but he stays behind with
the radio, desperately calling in artillery strikes even as the Germans unleash
a torrent of shells on his position. Emptying his M-1 carbine at the oncoming
troops, he screams for help into the radio phone. Nearby, a tank destroyer stands
ablaze but atop it sits a 50 caliber gun. The soldier jumps atop the
stricken vehicle, noticing he feels warm for the first time in a while as he
opens fire on the advancing German troops. The whole time, he's calling out for
strikes closer and closer to his position. He remains at that location, until
he runs out of ammunition, even after taking shrapnel to his leg, all the
while wondering how he isn't dead. Many others later wondered the same.
But that wasn't a scene from a movie. That was really how Audie
Murphy earned the Medal of Honor – the last item in a long list of accolades – for his
actions that day. He earned every medal the Army awarded and five more from France and
Belgium. When WWII was over, he took the fame he had as a Medal of Honor
recipient and, with a little help from James Cagney, turned it into a
screen – one that included the lead in To Hell and
Back, a blockbuster account of his own experiences in WWII.
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Photo: 20th Century Fox
studios / Wikimedia
Commons / Public domain
After Receiving The Ten Commandments,
Charlton Heston Received The Highest Security Clearance Possible In The US
After Charlton
Heston enlisted in the Army Air Corps, he was stationed in
the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, attaining a modest rank of staff sergeant
while defending the only part of American soil to be invaded during WWII.
Building a high-profile acting career with roles in films like The Ten
Commandments and a brief appearance in David Bradley's Julius Caesar, he went on to become one of
Hollywood's most famous actors. It was this fame that later brought his
service to the country full circle.
In 1983, he was granted a Q-Level security clearance with the Department of Energy, granting him access to the
nation's top secrets as he lent his voice as narrator for several classified
movies and other videos, including the 1989 film Trust
but Verify.
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Photo: Herald American / Wikimedia
Commons / Public domain
Charles Bronson's Family Was So Poor,
He Had To Wear His Sister's Dress To School; He Needed That Army Money
Having had a rough early life, Charles Dennis Buchinsky's future looked as bleak as the coal
mines he was forced to work in. That is, until the Army drafted him, trained
him as an aerial gunner, and shoved him into the cramped compartments aboard
the B-29 Superfortress – the same type of plane as the Enola
Gay, the bomber that ushered in the Atomic Age. Charles didn't have
to worry about carrying a nuclear device behind him, but he did have to
contend with the vicious defenders of the Japanese home islands. He flew 25
missions and received the Purple Heart for injuries sustained during
a raid.
After returning home, Buchinsky moved to Hollywood and
started picking up bit parts, playing
soldiers or sailors in WWII films. At the suggestion of his agent, he
changed his name to Bronson and soon earned a reputation as a tough man of few
words. It was director John Sturges who jump-started Bronson's career,
casting him in Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape. His roles fit the image he had
crafted for himself. The tough guy of Hollywood had come a long way from the
scrappy boy who had to wear a dress to school.
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Photo: Hal Wallis
Productions / Wikimedia
Commons / Public domain
Burt Lancaster Turned A Gig In The
Circus Into A Job In The Army And A Career In Hollywood
When Burt
Lancaster chose to go enlist in the Army, he had little going
for him. Once a talented acrobat but forced to stop due to an injury,
Lancaster found a way to bring his unique skills to the Army. As a member
of the Army's Twenty-First Special Services Division, he traveled with
the USO in the show "Stars and Gripes" for three
years, entertaining soldiers in forward positions in support of the Fifth
Army in Italy.
With little job prospects after WWII, Lancaster decided to give
acting a try – a choice that would earn him an Academy Award for his role
in Elmer Gantry. He even starred in a film
about a disabled trapeze artist, an homage to his previous
career.
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Photo: Unknown photographer scanned by
Derzsi Elekes Andor / Wikimedia
Commons / Public domain
Alec Guinness Commanded A Landing
Craft In The Invasion Of Sicily
Sir Alec
Guinness. Just the mere mention of the name can bring to mind some of the
most appreciated performances on the big screen. From a dashing Lawrence of
Arabia to a prim and proper British officer in a Japanese POW
camp, Guinness commanded both stage and screen. When he joined the Royal Navy Reserve, he
took to the bridge as he had the Shakespearean stage in the years prior to
WWII, commanding a landing ship during the Allied invasion of Sicily and later
taking to the stage in a play promoting the Royal Air Force.
Still, none of that – not even his famous roles in such classics
as Doctor Zhivago, The
Bridge on the River Kwai, and Oliver
Twist – could have
prepared him for the whiny teenager he would have to lead to battle in a galaxy
far, far away. And, just to prove his command over all things in his view,
he guided Luke Skywalker from beyond the grave.
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