Military People Celebrities in The Military

[Frisco-Kid]

Character actor Jack Warden was a paratrooper with the 101st in WWII, but I don't know which PIR. He badly broke a leg on a practice night jump in England just before D-Day. He healed up in time to join his unit at Bastogne.

Rod Serling, of TWILIGHT ZONE fame, was a paratrooper with the 511th PIR, 11th Airborne, in WWII in the Pacific as a Demolition Specialist. He jumped into Corregidor and was awarded the Purple Heart for shrapnel wounds.

Singer-songwriter, actor, Kris Kristofferson served in the Army in the early '60s. Although trained as a helicopter pilot, he was Airborne qualified. He attained the rank of captain, but resigned his commission in '65 to pursue a career in music.

The legendary Jimi Hendrix was a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne at Ft. Campbell, KY, in the early '60s. He was given a medical discharge after breaking an ankle on a jump.

Soul, jazz, and blues singer Lou Rawls served as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne in the mid-50s.

Any of you know any other Airborne celebrities?

 

[BravoZulu]

Morgan Freeman
"I joined the Air Force, I took to it immediately when I arrived there. I did three years, eight months, and ten days in all." A1C Morgan Freeman during his service as a Radar Repairman. c. 1955

In 1955, Morgan enlisted in the United States Air Force after turning down a scholarship to Jackson State University. The actor rose the ranks to Airman 1st Class after nearly four years in the service before he left the military to pursue an acting career. He appeared on-screen for the first time in the 1964 TV series Another World and took home the best supporting actor Oscar in 2005 for Million Dollar Baby.

 

[BravoZulu]

Gene Hackman left home at age 16 and lied about his age to enlist in the United States Marine Corps. He served four and a half years as a field radio operator. He was stationed in China (Qingdao and later in Shanghai). When the Communist Revolution conquered the mainland in 1949, Hackman was assigned to Hawaii and Japan. Following his discharge in 1951, he moved to New York and had several jobs. His mother died in 1962 as a result of a fire she accidentally started while smoking. He began a study of journalism and television production at the University of Illinois under the G.I. Bill, but left and moved to California

 

[BravoZulu]

Ice_T - Tracy Lauren Marrow
In 1975, at the age of seventeen, Marrow began receiving Social Security benefits resulting from the death of his father and used the money to rent an apartment for $90 a month. He sold cannabis and stole car stereos to earn extra cash, but he was not making enough to support his pregnant girlfriend. Once his daughter was born, he joined the United States Army in October 1977. Marrow served a two-year and two-month tour in the 25th Infantry Division and was involved with a group of soldiers charged with the theft of a rug. While awaiting trial, he received a $2,500 bonus check and went absent without leave, returning a month later, after the rug had been returned. Marrow received a non-judicial punishment as a consequence of his dereliction of duty.


When he was stationed in Hawaii (where prostitution was not a heavily prosecuted crime) as a squad leader at Schofield Barracks, Marrow met a pimp named Mac. Mac admired that Marrow could quote Iceberg Slim and he taught Marrow how to be a pimp himself. Marrow was also able to purchase stereo equipment cheaply in Hawaii, including two Technics turntables, a mixer, and large speakers. Once equipped, he then began to learn turntablism and rapping.

Towards the end of his tenure in the Army, Marrow learned from his commanding officer that he could receive an honorable discharge because he was a single father, so he was discharged in December 1979

 

[BravoZulu]

Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris
He joined the United States Air Force as an Air Policeman (AP) in 1958 and was sent to Osan Air Base, South Korea. It was there that Norris acquired the nickname Chuck and began his training in Tang Soo Do (tangsudo), an interest that led to black belts in that art and the founding of the Chun Kuk Do ("Universal Way") form. When he returned to the United States, he continued to serve as an AP at March Air Force Base in California.

Norris was discharged from the U.S. Air Force in August 1962. Following his military service, Norris applied to be a police officer in Torrance, California. While on the waiting list, Norris opened a martial arts studio.

 

[BravoZulu]

Clinton Eastwood Jr
Drafted into the Army during the war in Korea, Eastwood was sent to Ft. Ord in California for basic training. He lucked into a job as a swimming instructor and remained at Ft. Ord. He worked nights and weekends as a bouncer at the NCO club.

Don Loomis recalled hearing that Eastwood was romancing one of the daughters of a Fort Ord officer, who might have been entreated to watch out for him when names came up for postings. While returning from a prearranged tryst in Seattle, Washington, he was a passenger on a Douglas AD bomber that ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean near Point Reyes. Using a life raft, he and the pilot swam 3.2 kilometres (2 mi) to safety.

Eastwood was honourably discharged from the Army in 1953

 

[BravoZulu]

Paul Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver, auto racing enthusiast and a US NAVY SAILOR.
Paul served during WWII in the Pacific theater.
He enrolled in the Navy V-12 program at Ohio University, hoping to be accepted for pilot training, but was dropped when it was discovered he was color blind.
Paul was sent to boot camp and after he trained and became a radioman and gunner.
Qualifying as a rear-seat radioman and gunner in torpedo bombers, he was assigned to Pacific-based replacement torpedo squadrons, VT-98, VT-99, and VT-100.
These torpedo squadrons were responsible primarily for training replacement pilots and combat air crewmen, placing particular importance on carrier landings.
He later flew from aircraft carriers as a turret gunner in an Avenger torpedo bomber.
Paul saw scattered combat and had luck that kept him from a brush with death when his pilot fell ill with an ear infection, grounding their airplane.
During the Battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945, the rest of Paul’s squadron was transferred to an aircraft carrier, USS Bunker Hill CV-17 which was hit by two kamikaze planes.
Nearly 350 Sailors were killed, including Paul Newman’s entire contingent.
Paul was transferred to Sand Point in Seattle after the Japanese surrender and was stationed with Carrier Aircraft Service Unit 7 (CASU-7), which was a shore-based air-support unit.
CASUs did all the nuts and bolts work ashore and serviced and rearmed aircraft.
He wasn’t here long, however, receiving his discharge in Bremerton on 21 January 1946, and using his GI Bill to resume his college education.
Paul Newman died on the morning of 26 September 2008, aged 83, surrounded by family and friends.

 

[BravoZulu]

OTD in 1966, the TV series "Batman" premiered featuring Cesar Romero as The Joker. During WWII, Romero served in the U.S. Coast Guard aboard the attack transport USS Cavalier (APA-37), seeing action during the invasions of Tinian and Saipan.

 

[BravoZulu]

Jon Pertwee
The 3rd Doctor Who. He was 18 and a jobbing actor when the war broke out. He volunteered for the Royal Navy and after training was posted aboard HMS Hood. He saw action aboard her in the Med and quickly gained promotion. In 1941 he was selected for officer training and transfered off Hood, just two days before she sailed to meet her fate at the hands of Bismark.
He was then assigned to Naval Intelligence, where worked alongside James Bond author lan Fleming, organised training for the Royal Marine Commandos and S.O.E. agents and reported directly to Winston Churchill on such matters.
He was also recommended for another role by James Bond creator Ian Fleming – and proved to be an expert in using a range of 007-like gadgets, including a smoking pipe that fired bullets and handkerchiefs containing secret maps.
When he was demobilised after the war he returned to acting and his naval experiences came into good stead when he took on the role of Petty Officer Pertwee in the hugely popular radio sitcom The Navy Lark

 

[BravoZulu]

Don Adams, actor, was a US Marine during WWII?!
Don Adams was an American actor, comedian and director.
In his five decades on television, he was best known as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 in the TV situation comedy Get Smart which aired 1965-1970.
Don enlisted in the US Marine Corps in 1941 and after boot camp was assigned to the Third Marines in Samoa until he was sent as a replacement to the Battle of Guadalcanal.
During the Battle of Guadalcanal Don's whole platoon was wiped out and he was the only survivor of his platoon.
He was evacuated and spent over a year in a Navy hospital in Wellington, New Zealand.
After his recovery, Don served as a Marine drill instructor in the US at the Marine Corp Recruit Depot in San Diego.
Don passed away on 25 September 2005 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.
He suffered from lymphoma and a lung infection.
Before he died, he joked about not wanting a mournful funeral, preferring, he said, to have his friends get together "and bring me back to life."

 

[BravoZulu]

British actor Basil Rathbone (1892-1967) during WWI. Best known for playing Sherlock Holmes, Rathbone was a lieutenant in the Liverpool Scottish Regiment during the war. Fighting in France (where his brother was killed), he was awarded the Military Cross.

 

[BravoZulu]

Fred Gwynne served in the United States Navy, as a radioman on a submarine chaser in the Pacific during World War II. He would later become well known as, “Herman Munster” in 1964.

 

[BravoZulu]

Prior to a training mission at Tyndall Field, Clark Gable poses for a photo while shouldering ammo for his plane’s .50 calibre machine gun in 1943

 

[digrar]

Graham Studley Cornes, played 2 years of Australian Football with power house Glenelg in the South Australian State league before being conscripted, serving 2 years of National Service, including 12 months with the Seventh Battalion the Royal Australian Regiment, in Viet Nam in 1970.
Returning to footy, he continued a 300+ game hall of fame career, first as a player and then as a coach, eventually becoming in 1991, the inaugural coach of the Adelaide Crows, in the newly formed national competition.
His two Sons, Chad and Kane both played AFL, playing over 250 and 300 games for the much hated (by most people, but especially for members of the Cornes tribe) Port Adelaide football club.

SANFL

• SANFL premiership: 1973
• 3x Glenelg best and fairest
• Glenelg Captain: 1978
• South Adelaide playing coach: 1983–84
• Nine times Advertiser Team of the Year
• Glenelg Hall of Fame

Representative

• Tassie Medal: 1980
• 2x All-Australian team: 1979, 1980
• Simpson Medal: 1979

Overall

• Australian Football Hall of Fame
• South Australian Football Hall of Fame (inaugural inductee)

Coaching

• 2x National Football Carnival Championship:
  1988, 1993
• 2x SANFL premiership: 1985, 1986
• 2x All-Australian team: 1987, 1988

 

[TIGREDELAIRE]

My friends, cordial greeting, I made some inquiries about it and made a presentation for the Colombian Air History Academy, where I have the privilege of belonging, I can provide you with the following famous soldiers:

Humphrey Bogart, Buster Keaton, Audie Murphy, Benny Hill, Jack Palance, Charles Bronson, Clark Gable, Charlton Heston, Don Adams, Paul Newman, Burgess Meredith, Christopher Lee, Audrey Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks, James Stewart, Ronald Reagan, Lee Marvin, Claude Akins, Ernest Borgnine, Toshiro Mifune, Hardy Krüger, César Romero, Marlene Dietrich, James Best, Montgomery Doohan, Michael Caine, Jamie Farr, Dan Blocker, James Garner, Alan Alda, Harvey Keitel, Wes Studi, Ronald Lee Ermey, Larry Wilcox, Dale Dye, Dennis Franz, Jesse Ventura, Oliver Stone, Si Robertson, Bob Gunton, Adam Driver, Elvis Presley, Jimmy Hendrix, Jeff Bridges, Sean Connery, Roger Moore, George Lazenby, Robert Ryan, Leonard Nimoy, Jackson Deforrest Kelly, Tom Selleck, Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, Jean Reno, Mr. T, George Peppard, James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Clint Eastwodd, Richard Pryor, Gal Gadot...

I also have a list of Latino actors who participated in their respective Military Forces, such as Cantinflas, Luis Aguilar, Emilio Fernández, Jorge Negrete, Ignacio López Tarso, mexicans, principally

 

[BravoZulu]

Academy Award for Best Actor winner Clark Gable in a B-17. Gable joined the Army and became an aerial gunner during WW2. He flew five combat missions, including one to Germany, between May 4 and September 23, 1943, earning the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts.
NB: Gable was 40 years old when he joined and he completed 5 "official" missions but he changed with others and snuck aboard many other missions that didn't count until movie moguls had him removed from flying duties

 

[BravoZulu]

12 September 1914 – Desmond Llewelyn was born (d.1999)... Llewelyn served in the Royal Welch Fusiliers in WW2 & was sent to Colditz Castle!
A Welsh actor, he was best known for his role as Q in 17 of the James Bond films between 1963 & 1999.
At the outbreak of the WW2 in September 1939 halted his acting career; Llewelyn was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the British Army, serving with the Royal Welch Fusiliers. In 1940, he was captured by the German Army in France and was held as a prisoner of war for five years, in Oflag VII-C and following various escape attempts in the infamous Colditz Castle (Oflag IV-C) in Germany.

 

[BravoZulu]

Robert Taylor
During World War II, he served in the United States Naval Air Forces (Reserve), where he worked as a flight instructor and appeared in instructional films.
Throughout 1940 and 1941 he argued in favor of American entry into World War II, and was sharply critical of the isolationist movement. During this time he said he was "100% pro-British"
After playing a tough sergeant in Bataan in 1943, Taylor contributed to the war effort by becoming a flying instructor in the U.S. Naval Air Corps. During this time, he also starred in instructional films and narrated the 1944 documentary The Fighting Lady.

 

[RisingStar]

Not sure if these count as full blown "celebrities" in the traditional sense, but they are very prolific authors/artists in literature/comics so I'll include them.

J.R.R. Tolkien, who later wrote the Lord of the Rings, as a soldier in the British Army in World War I (1915)

Ernest Hemingway, who wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls among other books, as a foreign volunteer in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican faction (1930s), pictured in the center

J.D. Salinger, who would later author the iconic novel The Catcher in the Rye, kicking back in an Army Jeep during his service for the US Army in World War II (1944)

Sgt. Steve Ditko in post-war Germany as part of the US Army, where he also drew comics for an Army newspaper in 1945. Ditko would later go on to a prolific comic book career, notably co-creating Spider-Man with Stan Lee.

Jack Kirby, who already created Captain America, and would later create the Fantastic Four, Ant-Man/The Wasp, The Hulk, Thor, X-Men, Nick Fury, Black Panther, Silver Surfer, Inhumans, and Eternals, plus the New Gods for DC, among others, as an Army scout in World War II.

 

[RisingStar]

Bela Lugosi, then known as Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, as an officer of the Austro-Hungarian Army in WWI. He fought on the Eastern Front (1916)