5 Famous Hollywood Actors Awarded Medals for their WWII Service
Regardless of their fame, lifestyle, and ongoing pic comes, several Hollywood actors noncommissioned in WWII.
Not solely did they contribute to the war effort, however additionally impressed several young men to try to to a similar. several of them need to be honored for risking their lives to avoid wasting the yank Nation.
Even though the list is long and a few of the names may surprise you, here area unit simply many stars WHO served within the military, before or once appearance on the large screen.
Charles Bronson
Bronson as Dan Shomron in Raid on Entebbe (1977).
“I might never have found the outside world if I hadn’t been drafted into the Army,” said Charles Bronson, the incredible on-screen character who featured as the screw-up in Death Wish, the enemy of Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West, and one of the individuals in The Magnificent Seven.
[adace-ad id=”5251″]He was born Charles Buchinsky in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and raised in a very impoverished family of fifteen kids. He had to start out operating in a very coalpit at the age of 10, and once he even had to wear his sister’s dress to high school as a result of there virtually wasn’t anything for him to wear.
Publicity photo of Charles Bronson.
When he joined the U.S. In 1943, the Army Air Forces discovered Bronson as a tail gunner for the most hazardous task. During the Second World War, it was the place with the largest casualty rates.
Fortunately, Bronson survived twenty five missions within the “airman’s coffin” and was awarded a Purple Heart once the top of the war.
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
The words of Charlton Heston, the actor who played Moses in The Ten Commandments and won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his epic depiction of Judah BenHur in Ben Hur, were “You can take my gun … when you pry it out of my cold dead hands.”
[adace-ad id=”5251″]Well, there’s also an impressive military career. Heston entered the army in 1944 as he served for two years on a B-25 Mitchell as a radio operator and aerial gunner. Later, during the Second World War, he achieved the rank of staff sergeant.
Author James Baldwin with actors
Marlon Brando and Charlton Heston at the Civil Rights March on Washington in 1963.
In reality, Heston was stationed on the Alaskan Aleutian Islands and never saw fihting, but after becoming a celebrity, the army requested him to narrate some extremely known military movies about nuclear weapons, intended to instruct Energy Department service members and staff.
Conservative, and Reagan and Nixon’s excellent fan, Heston was a five-term president of the NRA in his later years.
Paul Newman
Newman in his first film, The Silver Chalice (1954).
Another winner of the Academy Award, Paul Newman’s passion and ambition during his youth was to become a pilot for his performance in The Color of the Money.
[adace-ad id=”5251″]He entered the Navy’s V-12 program at Yale University in 1943, but Newman was sent to the boot camp and qualified as a archer and radioman after finding that he had color blindness.
USS Bunker Hill
His unit was assigned to the USS Bunker Hill during the Second World War in 1945, which fought in the Battle of Okinawa.
Newman did not make it to the carrier of the aircraft, though. His pilot created an ear infection in a stroke of destiny, grounded the aircraft, and in the Okinawa campaign the unit was held back from flying.
[adace-ad id=”5251″]Two kamikaze attacks in rapid succession demolished the USS Bunker Hill, leading in more than 600 deaths.
After being discharged in 1946, Newman was awarded the World War II Victory Medal, American Area Campaign Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal.
James Stewart
Studio publicity photo of James Stewart.
Jimmy Stewart was already a popular film star nominated for a couple of WWII Aademy Awards. He already had a distinguished army career under his belt, unlike the other performers in our list.
He was also the first American film star to be enlisted in the Second World War and remains the highest-ranking actor in military history.
Lt. Col. James T. Stewart & Major Clark Gable – RAF Polebrook, 1943.
Stewart came from a family with an army service tradition. Although most of them were in the infantry before, Stewart took to the skies during the war as a passionate pilot with a flying permit.
He also took part in the Vietnam War and grew to the rank of Brigadier General in the United States. Reserve Air Force.
[adace-ad id=”5251″]Among the numerous military awards Stewart received were two Distinguished Flying Crosses, four Air Medals, the bronze palm French Croix de Guerre, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Medal of the National Defense Service and the Victory Medal of the Second World War.
Clark Gable
Publicity photo of Clark Gable.
Even Clark Gable, “The King of Hollywood,” enlisted in the Second World War. He lost his third wife, Carol Lombard, in an aircraft crash in January 1942. Gable was devastated and came to the conclusion that joining the military was the only thing capable of rallying his spirit.
Clark Gable
So he wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt a telegram requesting to be enlisted in order to contribute to the war effort.
Gable entered the United States on August 12, 1942. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and participated in countless high-profile fighting missions after finishing the 12-week training.
Gable was at the moment the favourite actor of Hitler among all the stars of Hollywood. Hitler provided a $5,000 reward to anyone who could catch and take the actor to him when he discovered out that Gable was fighting for his nation.
[adace-ad id=”5251″]Gable was awarded the American Campaign Medal, the Medal of the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign, the World War II Victory Medal, the Air Medal, and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service.
