Wasn’t James Stewart a bomber pilot in WW2 ?
Stewart was a bomber pilot and was promoted to the rank of colonel by the end of the war. He flew 20 combat missions and quite a few unofficial missions. He stayed in the Air Force Reserve and retired at the rank of Brigadier General after 27 years of service.
Missed the edit. The only other celebrity that I know of that rose to such a rank was Ed McMahon. He flew for the Marine Corps in WWII and Korea. He was a colonel in the Marine Reserves and then switch to the California Air National Guard as a Brigadier General.
Guys, it’s much worse than you think. Not only did Fred Rogers hide his military career (where he was trained as a sniper), but he was the leader of a team that assassinated President Kennedy. He was called back into action by the CIA/Mafia/Cuban group that planned the assassination. Besides Rogers, the group of three snipers assigned to the job included John Denver (who secretly received sniper training from friends of his father, an Army officer) and Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who had been a sniper in the Israeli army. The assassination planners thought that these three would never be suspected - and they never were - until now.
The story that dropzone mentions about Moe Berg is mostly true:
And the reverse.
*Christopher Lee was once denied a movie role because he was “unmilitary like”. He had served in the RAF in WWII.
*Donald Pleasence was asked to keep his ideas to himself during the making of “The Great Escape”. I beleive he had actually been a prisoner of war.
Thinking about it as just about everyone in Britain was called up during WW2 most actors who were alive at that time were vets.
One I’ve just remembered a movie actor called Richard Todd was in the British sixth airborne division during the war and was on the op to take Pegasus Bridge on D Day.
When they made The Longest Day this op was included in the film and he played his commanding officer and another actor played him which must rate as quite unusual.
At one point in The Longest Day he is seen talking to an officer who plays him,.
In times of national emergency, the military often has to relax its standards of behavior and appearance. Most pictures of WW2 personnel don’t look like Patton or recruiting posters. They were just men doing their bit.
Ted Williams flew combat missions in Korea. His wingman on many of these was John Glenn.
He also flew in WWII, but didn’t get into combat.
No, the guy was saying that Marvin paid to have Fred Rogers buried in “the generals’ area” because Rogers saved his life once in battle.
Dick Armitage claimed to have been a Navy Seal, but wasn’t.
I’m very sorry to see that Authentiseal.org is gone. The wall of shame would have brought a lot to this discussion. . .
Mr Green Jeans would have also served but he got a deferment after his son Frank was born.
Sammy Davis Jr. integrated an all-white unit during World War II. Except that they chickened out and couldn’t figure out what to do with him. So they sent him back to basic training. And again. And again.
He went through basic four times.
They finally gave up and sent him to an entertainment troupe.