He’s the second guy I thought of after Bill Paxton, who was also with Biehn in Terminator (he’s the leader of the punks that accost a naked Arnold Schwarzenegger who has just appeared from the future), Aliens (as Pvt. Hudson of the Colonial Marines to Biehn’s Cpl. Hicks), and Navy SEALs (as Dane, the SEAL sniper in a movie also featuring Charlie Sheen). He has the dubious distinction of being the only actor whose characters have been killed by a Terminator, an Alien, and a Predator.
Additionally, Paxton played an Army communications officer reporting to Gen. Franklin Kirby in another movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger - Commando. He intercepts Rae Dawn Chong’s distress call when Arnold starts blowing things up on the way to rescue his daughter.
I can’t claim to have seen Resistance, but in it, Paxton plays a WWII pilot (“Maj. Theodore ‘Ted’ Brice”) who crashes in Nazi-occupied Belgium. This would probably fall under “Air Force” as per the “Army Air Force” rule proposed above, given the film’s timeframe.
We’ve already covered the Navy with Navy SEALs, but Paxton also plays a naval officer in U-571.
He plays real-life astronaut Fred Haise in Apollo 13. If you don’t want to accept Paxton’s role as Hudson in Aliens to count for the Marines, you’ve got to give it to him for Apollo 13; Haise was a Marine Corps fighter pilot prior to joining NASA.
Jack Nicholson was a Marine Colonel in A Few Good Men, a Navy Signalman in The Last Detail, an Air Force officer in Terms Of Endearment, and – shucks, I know McMurphy is a Korean War veteran who’d earned a medal for breaking out POWs in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, but did we ever actually find out his rank or branch? (If not, he technically played an Army officer in The Terror.)
And double bonus points for playing a Kriegsmarine officer in The Sea Chase. (Although his character had quit the Kriegsmarine because he didn’t like Hitler. Wayne didn’t go the Full Nazi.)
Van Johnson qualifies I think. He played an Air Marshall in Eagles Over London, a lieutenant in the Caine Mutiny, an army private in Battleground, and a Marine in No Leave, No Love.
USAF General, Seven Days In May
USN Lieutenant, Run Silent Run Deep
USMC Master Gunnery Sergeant, South Sea Woman
US Army First Sergeant, From Here To Eternity
James Cagney:
Army–The Roaring Twenties
Navy–Mister Roberts, Here Comes the Navy, The Gallant Hours
(Royal Canadian) Air Force–Captains of the Clouds
U.S.M.C.–Devil Dogs of the Air, What Price Glory?
O.S.S.–13 Rue Madeleine
Gary Cooper:
Army–Seven Day’s Leave, Sergeant York
Army (union)–Only the Brave
Army (confederate)–Operator 13
Army (British)–The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
Army (Italian)–A Farewell to Arms
Navy–Devil and the Deep, The Story of Dr. Wassell, You’re in the Navy Now
Merchant Marine–The Wreck of the Mary Deare
Air Force–Wings, the Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, Legion of the Condemned.
Royal Flying Corps–Lilac Time
French Foreign Legion–Beau Geste, Beau Sabreur, Morocco
At that, Charlton Heston played a Marine (55 DAYS AT PEKING), an Army officer (MAJOR DUNDEE, THE OMEGA MAN), a Navy officer (MIDWAY, GRAY LADY DOWN), and an Air Force officer (BAILOUT AT 43,000 FEET) – not counting Colonel Taylor in PLANET OF THE APES, but with bonus points for serving as an aerial gunner back in the '40s.
