Jimmy Stewart stayed in the Air Force Reserves into the Vietnam era, rising to the rank of Brigadier General and even went on a B-52 mission in Vietnam! Very few men would have done that in his position.
James Stewart was interviewed in the British TV documentary The World at War as in his role as a Squadron Commander in the US air force flying operations over Germany which is what he did and talked about his experiences and not as an actor. This was entirely appropriate
He also suffered from PTSD and is actually shown in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” in several scenes he did!!! It is something he suffered for the rest of his life. DE N2JYG
Was just going to comment the same thing. Also can’t forget Jack Lemmon was a Navy ensign during WW2 as well. In Mr Roberts they both wore at least their original hats for filming
I have to disagree with Jimmy Stewart only being in 2 war movies, he starred as Glen Miller in The Glen Miller Story, I suppose technically a biopic but very much involved with the war wouldn't you say
One actor that should be on the list Donald Pleasence, he served in the RAF as a wireless operator in Bomber Command and was shot down and captured in 1944 spending the rest of the war as a P.O.W., this could be why he gave such a convincing performance as Blythe, the forger who was slowly going blind, in ‘The Great Escape’.
DON ADAMS, WW 2. JAMES AVERY, VIETNAM. GENE AUTRY, WW 2. CHARLES BRONSON, WW 2. MEL BROOKS, WW 2. TONY CURTIS, WW 2. JAMES DOOHAN, WW 2. KIRK DOUGLAS, WW 2. QUEEN ELIZABETH II, WW 2. DENNIS FRANZ, VIETNAM. HENRY FONDA, WW 2. ALEC GUINESS, WW 2. ROCK HUDSON, WW 2. CHRISTOPHER LEE, WW 2. LEE MARVIN, WW 2. DAVID NIVENS, WW 2. PRINCE ANDREW, FALKLAND. PRINCE HARRY, AFGHANISTAN. PRINCE PHILLIP, WW 2. ANTHONY QUAYLE, WW 2. DON RICKLES, WW 2. MICKEY ROONEY, WW 2. PAT SAJAK, VIETNAM. ROGER STAUBUCH, VIETNAM. WES STUDI, VIETNAM. JESSE VENTURA, VIETNAM.
@mrjockt- along with Charles Bronson , USAAF ( WW2), Steve McQueen -USMC , and James Garner - USANG ( Korea) A story is that the director of “ the great escape” was talking shit to Donald on his acting during the shoot and Garner had to pull same director aside and tell him that Pleasance had been in the war as was an actual POW in a German stalag…
I like to think during the filming of "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance;" Jimmy Stewart, Lee Marvin, Lee Van Cleef, and John Ford traded WWII stories and mocked John Wayne when he wasn't around.
Also Charles Durning, Donald Pleasance, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Norman Fell, Dan Rowan, Richard Todd, James McEachin, Mel Brooks, James Doohan and so many others.
One notable omission from both of your lists is Sterling Hayden, a great 50s film noir actor, who served as a marine and OSS agent and won a Silver Star in WWII. Also, while not an actor, Norman Lear, who produced All in The Family, Maude and other successful TV shows, richly deserves a mention for having served in the Army Air Corps and flying an almost unbelievable 52 combat missions on B-17s in WWII.
I think you forgot Dame Vera Lynn. She travelled worldwide to entertain the troops practically at the `frontlines`, especially in the Burma theatre of the war. She was a hero to generations of Britons. She performed a huge amount of charity work for troops and veterans. Please include Dame Vera.
The one who put more miles in was Gracie Fields. Who the Mail pilloried because of her Italian husband. To the point that Churchill had to stand up in Parliament and tell them to back off. She was in France so late that she almost had to leave via Dunkirk.
I am a BIG Michael Caine fan, plus my father served in Korea and Vietnam, (where he got a bayonet in the back,) (And he's still going!) (Alas I never met my grandfather because of Gallipoli.), plus I love the film "The Day The Earth Caught Fire. (In my first pre-planning meeting as a staff member for a Sci-Fi convention in San Jose, I suggested the film, and there were at first crickets... but then the convention leader said "that's a great film!" And it earned a special (additional place in my heart.) All that said, please forgive me if I correct you; Michael Caine's first movie role (though very (very) brief was as a police officer in "The Day The Earth Caught Fire." As always thank you so very much for the videos. Oh… and my father-in-law was a Marine D.I.. One of my proudest moments was when one night him and my wife got into a shouting match, when I stepped between them and declared it was time to take a break. He went read face and gave 'it' to me full force, and I took it. (I figure I was stunned, and scared stiff.) The next day he took me aside and told me how impressed he was, and shook my hand. Oh… and I knew of Jimmy Stewarts service, and was properly impressed and appreciative. But he did SO much more than fly a bomber. As I learned when I read the book "Jimmy Stewart Bomber Pilot." Sorry. I guess you hit my nostalgia button. Please forgive.
"The Day The Earth Caught Fire" is a vastly underrated scf-fi classic in my humble opinion. It was my Dad's favourite mainly because he used the work in and around the Daily Express building as a GPO Telephone Engineer at the same time and saw a load of newspaper men in the film that he knew personally. I'd still avoid Chelsea if I were you ;)
Michael Caine was originally hired as an advisor to A Hill in Korea. He complained so much about what they were doing wrong that they gave him a part. Because he could then no longer advise as a cast member. Then they dropped a Temple on his character.
If you make another one, don't forget Wayne Morris, actor before the war and Navy pilot during it. Shit down eight Japanese airplames, and damaged a number of ships and landing craft. Received two Navy Crosses, and was the first Hollywood actor buried in Arlington National Cemetery, followed by Audie Murphy and Lee Marvin. Lee Marvin also saw action in the Pacific. Then there's Ed Kemmer, WW II fighter pilot, who later starred as Rocky Jones, Space Ranger.
18:33 FUN FACT, the US Secretary of the Navy, at the best of the Marine Corps, actually promoted R. Lee Ermey to Gunnery Sergeant (as Ermey was discharged as a Staff Sergeant, a rate below Gunnery Sergeant) years after FMJ was released and how he has been a positive influence for those interested in joining the Marines.
Lancaster was in the Vietnam drama Go Tell The Spartans and the Post Vietnam Twilights Last Gleaming. Who can forget the iconic line, “There are no midgets in the United States Air Force!” The next lines of dialogue were obscured by the laughter of the audience!
Still left out (again), Eddie Albert. Notable movies Roman Holiday and The Longest Day. On September 9, 1942, Albert enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and was discharged in 1943 to accept an appointment as a lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V" for his actions during the invasion of Tarawa in November 1943, when, as the coxswain of a US Navy landing craft, he rescued 47 Marines who were stranded offshore (and supervised the rescue of 30 others), while under heavy enemy machine-gun fire.
Nice shout out to The Court Jester. Still makes me laugh at the "vessel with the pestle" scene. (I recorded it from Talking Pictures a couple of years ago).
Vessel with the Pestle has the pellet with the poison, Chalice from the Palace has the brew that is true. Where is that inventive writing today? A true Classic.
Marlene Dietrich's story is so hidden and yet wonderful to this generation...... someone like George Clooney, Christopher Nolan or Steven Spielberg could make a spectacular bio fillm about her.
The famous scene where he and his girlfriend, later wife, have a tense and emotional phone conversation with one of his friends was the first scene Stewart shot after WW2 was over. Multiple reports indicate that Frank Capra basically said that he was going to roll the cameras but it was okay if it took a few takes to get back into the habit. What is in the movie is mostly, if not entirely, that first 'practice' take in which Stewart's outpouring of intensity and sense of loss he has in the scene scared the pants off Capra and his co-star.
Bea Arthur,"Maude" and "The Golden Girls:,was a Marine in WW2. Betty White served as a civillian volunteer on the home front as a truck driver delivering supplies to various military installions in WW2. HRH Queen Elizabeth served in the Royal Army as a mechanic and truck driver in WW2. Now,"Lizzy's in a Box"!!
Casablanca had at least three First World War veterans in it. Claude Rains who had served in the British Army, Conrad Veidt who served in the Imperial German Army, and Szőke Szakáll who had been in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Rains was half blind as a consequence of being gassed in the trenches. Some other actors of the period who bore the scars of the Great War were Ronald Colman, who walked with a limp from being machine-gunned in his legs and Basil Radford who carried a distinctive scar from a facial wound on his right cheek.
Lancaster is an interesting actor, he was in some turds and he can come off as stiff in good ones. On the other hand he had a wonderful range and an underappreciated dry sense of humor.
Rudy Reyes from Generation Kill should be there in this list. He was one of the IRL soldiers from the events depicted in the show, and he literally plays himself in the show.
Actor Aldo Ray, who played along with john Wayne, who stared in the green berets who served in ww2 saw action as a frog man in UDT 17, a precursor to Navy seals!
Kenneth Connor from the Carry on films served in the army, if I remembering the right one, and during the war he was in the prison that the film The War Horse was set in
He did serve - he was an Infantry Gunner in the Middlesex Regiment, although he continued acting across Italy and the Middle East in the Stars in Battledress Concert Party and then ENSA.
Richard Todd, who was a paratrooper taking the Pegasus Bridge, was asked to play himself in the 'The Longest Day'. He said his real life part was too boring so asked to play his own Commander instead :)
I remember reading years ago that Richard Todd, who played the role of Major John Howard, pointed out to Darryl F Zanuck that something that was incorrect. Zanuck demanded to know “How the hell do you know?” I think it was Henry Fonda and Robert Mitchum who let Zanuck know that Richard Todd had taken part in the actual battle. After this, Darryl Zanuck would always check with Richard Todd to ensure things were factually correct.
He'd have been too old by then, but there is a scene in which Richard Todd, the actor, spoke to an actor playing Richard Todd in real-life 🙂Yeah, complicated, isn't it?
@@itwoznotmehe doesn’t play his own CO Richard Todd was in the Parachute regiment he plays major Howard of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry who was the OC of the operation to capture Pegasus and Horsa Bridges He refused to play himself incase they made him too much of a hero Todd was with the first unit of paratroopers to reach the bridge from their drop zone
Esmond Knight was a junior officer on HMS Prince of Wales during the Battle of the Denmark Strait and was blinded when the Bismarck shelled his ship. In the film "Sink the Bismarck" he played the Captain of Prince of Wales.
nice. there is a recent, pertantly comedic story of the opposite... Peter Butterworth, who was well known in the UK in the 60s and 70s for being one of the stars of the Carry On films helped in the Great Escape. He auditioned for a role in the film the Wooden Horse (1950), before he was famous,... but was told he didn't "look sufficiently like a prisoner". Talbot Rothwell, who wrote many of the Carry On scripts, was also in Stalag Luft III with him. A script exists her wrote for a film, Carry On Escaping, which was never made...
Yes, he was the rude, naughty senator, Sam Chapman. He was also in a memorable episode of the original _NCIS,_ although the finale with Mark Harmon lighting matches repeatedly to stir Durning's memory of WW2 was unbelievably cringeworthy for a very well-made TV series.
@@CharlesWhitford One thing to remember: that episode of NCIS (Call of Silence) was only the 30th episode of the series, so it's not a huge shock that the series hadn't “hit its stride” yet.
Micheal Caine also recounted one of those war stories in The Dark Knight when he was playing the role of Alfred Pennyworth, who was also depending on canon a member of the British military that fought in Korea and or Malaysia.
She wasn't an actress, but she did act; Nancy Wake was a NZ-born, Australian-raised woman who lived & worked in France, around the time WWII broke out- she volunteered as an ambulance driver, helped downed pilots escape Occupied France for neutral Spain, via the Pyrenees - & joined the SOE. She ended up with a code-name ('The White Mouse') from the Nazis, & they put a bounty on her head; in 1947, she appeared in 'Now It Can Be Told' (also known as 'School For Danger')- & in 1987 she cameoed in the mini-series about herself, 'Nancy Wake', (as 'Madame Fouret') which was based on the 1956 biography by Russell Braddon. It was released as 'True Colors' in the US. Wake was played by Australian actress Noni Hazlehurst; though Wake was made a consultant for the film -- but _after_ the script had been written. She criticised it upon reading it, & did so again at the launch of the mini-series; she was disappointed that the film was changed from an 8-hr Resistance story to a 4-hr romance. Late 1980s British television series 'Wish Me Luck' was based on her exploits- & much of the dialogue was copied from her autobiography. There were claims that Sebastian Faulks' 1999 novel 'Charlotte Gray' was based on Wake's war-time exploits, as well as those of British agent Pearl Cornioley- though they've been refuted by the author. Rachael Blampied portrayed Nancy Wake in the 2014 docu-drama 'Nancy Wake: The White Mouse' - this can still be found on RU-vid. Late August 2020, it was announced that Elizabeth Debicki would star & executive produce a limited series about Wake titled 'Code Name Hélène', based on Ariel Lawhon's novel of the same name.
This list could go into the hundreds or thousands. For example, many of the actors in The Great Escape had served in either WWII or Korea, or both. The same is true for A Bridge Too Far, and many more war movies. Veterans: We're all over the place. I have never done film other than documentaries, but I do work on stage sometimes, twice actually playing myself. The public have a certain perception of veterans, and a certain perception of actors. I like when people realize that vets are also creative and sometimes emotive people.
Steve McQueen and Lee Marvin were Marines , with Marvin being gravely wounded in combat. Clint Eastwood as well, surviving a plane crash off coast in Northern California
Can’t believe Audie Murphy wasn’t in this list. Dude was decorated so much that he came back and played himself in a war movie about his life. He would have to be my #1 pick.
How about Chief Boatswains Mate Victor Mature, US Coast Guard? Or Lt. Col David Niven. (Marcel Marceau was in the French Resistance, and Audrey Hepburn was in the Dutch Resistance.)
I forgot to mention that Sir Michael Caine was NS in 1952 and charged at the Chinese in Vietnam with fixed bayonet. That experience probably made him the marvellous actor he became.
I was wondering why Adam Driver aka Kylo Ren wasn't on the list, he served in the Marine Corps. It didn't occur to me that he didn't see combat, he was medically discharged after a bike riding accident. not only that, he han't starred in a war movie yet.
Other veterans: Anthony Quayle, Jon Mills, Trevor Howard, Richard Burton, Leslie Howard (WW1), Victor Mature, Eddie Albert, Lew Ayres, Wayne Morris, Cesar Romero, Kirk Douglas, Paul Newman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Ernest Borgnine, Phillip Ahn, Sidney Poitier, Robert Stack, Steve Forrest, Don Rickles, Walter Brennan (WW1), Randolph Scott (WW1), Buster Keaton (WW1), Ken Kercival (Vietnam).
Christopher Lee was in RAF and SOE during WWII, last rank Flight Lieutenant. Was in several war movies during the 50's like Bitter Victory, The Battle of the River Plate and more
You still FAILED to mention Douglas Fairbanks Jr.s amazing contributions and you have now failed twice. What can you expect when you spell F. Lee ERMEY as F. Lee Harvey? UGH!
What you didn't say about Marlena Dietrich is she co-invented a frequency-hopping signal that could not be jammed. This is what our current Wi-fi and Bluetooth are based on. Thank you Marlena.
Jimmy Stewart retired from the United States Air Force Reserve as a Brigadier General. Stewart enlisted as a private in 1941 and climbed the ranks ending the war as a full bird colonel. By the time he became a Captain he was flying combat missions over Germany. A true American hero.
I am related to Basel Rathbone. There are other members of the Family that were really Famous. Like Major Henry Thomas Rathbone ( Union Army) who was at Fords Theatre with Lincoln and was Stabbed by John Wilkes Booth.
Marlene Dietrich also play the wife of a German field marshal in Judgement at Nuremburg, a superb courtroom film about the post-war trials that took place in that city.
In the movie longest day actor red buttons depicts a paratrooper snagged by his parachute upon a church belltower. In real life he participated in the landings serving in us army
I don't think that those serving in USO should be on this list. Service means enlisted in the military and serve in combat. USO does not come even close and I can tell you this, those who really were in the trenches, mostly didn't even come close in seeing USO or some such thing. They were in combat.
So you had a hard time finding 20 veteran actors though there were dozens of them? Do you think it's fair not to even mention all the others? It won't do.
Robert Duvall and Gene Hackman both served in Korea. Duvall played a doctor in MASH which was different than his infantryman days. Look into the entire cast of The Wild Geese.
Please add Charles Durning, a Ranger at Utah Beach on D-Day. Alsom the actor who played Scotty on Star Trek: always hid one hand because he had lost fingers during WWII.
Hi, if you point the clip with your mouse by Micheal Caine, you can read Micheal Kane and by R.Lee Ermey you can read R'Lee Harvey..why is that? And you still miss a couple so when is part 3??
Would have to say Burt Lancaster and Michael Caine are my favorites. Clark Gable is unbelievable. He married a Fort Wayne hometown girl and was also a gunner on a bomber, actually risking his life.
A fun bit of triva about Ermey, he was apparently the only actor Kubrick ever respected and probably feared just a little, to allow him to improvise his lines.
