Lt. Audie Murphy was a Medal of Honor winner before beginning his film career, notably starring as himself in To Hell and Back.
This thread seems to have become a catch-all for all veterans who became entertainers, regardless of their rank. So, with that said, here are some others:
Paul Newman:
Qualifying in torpedo bombers in 1944, Aviation Radioman Third Class Newman was sent to Barbers Point, Hawaii. He was subsequently assigned to Pacific-based replacement torpedo squadrons VT-98, VT-99, and VT-100, responsible primarily for training replacement combat pilots and air crewmen, with special emphasis on carrier landings. He later flew as a turret gunner in an Avenger torpedo bomber. As a radioman-gunner, his unit was assigned to the USS Bunker Hill along with other replacements shortly before the Battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945. The pilot of his aircraft had an ear infection which kept their plane grounded. The rest of their squadron flew to the Bunker Hill. Days later, a kamikaze attack on the vessel killed a number of service members, including the other members of his unit.
Steve McQueen:
In 1947, McQueen joined the United States Marine Corps and was promoted to private first class and assigned to an armored unit. Initially he reverted to his prior rebelliousness and was demoted to private seven times. He took an unauthorized absence by failing to return after a weekend pass expired, staying with a girlfriend for two weeks until the shore patrol caught him. He resisted arrest and spent 41 days in the brig. After this he resolved to focus his energies on self-improvement and embraced the Marines’ discipline. He saved the lives of five other Marines during an Arctic exercise, pulling them from a tank before it broke through ice into the sea. He was assigned to the honor guard, responsible for guarding then US President Harry Truman’s yacht. McQueen served until 1950, when he was honorably discharged. He later said he had enjoyed his time in the Marines.
Bob Dornan - better known as a House Representative from California, he had a B-list acting career in between military service and politics.
At age 19, Dornan volunteered to join the United States Air Force. During his time in the USAF, he survived two emergency parachute ejections and two “dead stick” forced landings (including one of an F-100). Dornan also served as a photographer during the Vietnam War and flew relief flights into Biafra. He was an active duty serviceman in USAF until 1958, reaching the rank of Captain. He then served in the Air Force Reserve until 1975.
Bob Dornan took an active role in the civil rights movement. He took part in the historic 1963 March on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr. The following year he helped register African Americans to vote in Mississippi.
Dornan was involved in the entertainment industry. He starred in the film The Starfighters, cast as Lt. Witkowski, an Air Force pilot who was the son of a U.S. congressman. The Starfighters aired on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
David Niven told the story in his autobiography that he met Churchill at a reception during the War, and Churchill said that he was very pleased Niven had rejoined the British Army, but then added that to have done otherwise would have been despicable. James Mason, OTOH, claimed it was not his fight and stayed in Hollywood. Niven never spoke to him again.
I need to correct my post above. Mason didn’t start in Hollywood until after the war. He remained as an actor in England instead.
There are some interesting ones in the 1960 film “Sink the Bismarck” Jack Gwillim played the Captain of HMS George V. Gwillim served 20 years in the Royal Navy. Michael Hordern played Admiral Sir John Tovey. Hordern was a Lt Commander on HMS Illustrious. Esmond Knight played Captain Leach of HMS Prince of Wales. Knight served on the Prince of Wales as a gunnery officer and wounded during the actual battle with Bismarck, becoming legally blind for two years before recovering some eyesight. Kenneth More as the main lead (a fictitious role) was a Lieutenant on HMS Victorious.
Sink the Bismarck! - Wikipedia!
Mason was a conscientious objector.
He’s buried in Arlington so I doubt he could put anything else on it. Here’s the tombstone for PFC Lee Marvin, USMC: https://goo.gl/images/V8iSM5
Since we’re discussing actors who simply served at this point: I give you James Doohan.
"“At the beginning of the Second World War, Doohan joined the Royal Canadian Artillery and was a member of the 14th (Midland) Field Battery, 2nd Canadian Infantry Division.[9] He was commissioned a lieutenant in the 14th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. He was sent to England in 1940 for training. He first saw combat landing at Juno Beach on D-Day. Shooting two snipers, Doohan led his men to higher ground through a field of anti-tank mines, where they took defensive positions for the night. Crossing between command posts at 11:30 that night, Doohan was hit by six rounds fired from a Bren Gun by a nervous Canadian sentry:[10] four in his leg, one in the chest, and one through his right middle finger. The bullet to his chest was stopped by a silver cigarette case given to him by his brother.[6] His right middle finger had to be amputated, something he would conceal on-screen during most of his career as an actor.”
What an interesting guy. I’d forgotten a lot of facts about his military career, other than being a Medal Of Honor recipient. A couple quotes from your wiki article struck me:
About his mother (and this is pretty poetic for a guy that dropped out of school in the FIFTH grade to help support his family after his Dad bailed on them):
She died when I was sixteen. She had the most beautiful hair I’ve ever seen. It reached almost to the floor. She rarely talked; and always seemed to be searching for something. What it was I don’t know. We didn’t discuss our feelings. But when she passed away, she took something of me with her. It seems I’ve been searching for it ever since
His MOH action: The Germans scored a direct hit on an M10 tank destroyer, setting it alight, forcing the crew to abandon it.[69] Murphy ordered his men to retreat to positions in the woods, remaining alone at his post, shooting his M1 carbine and directing artillery fire via his field radio while the Germans aimed fire directly at his position.[70] Murphy mounted the abandoned, burning tank destroyer and began firing its .50 caliber machine gun at the advancing Germans, killing a squad crawling through a ditch towards him. For an hour, Murphy stood on the flaming tank destroyer returning German fire from foot soldiers and advancing tanks, killing or wounding 50 Germans. He sustained a leg wound during his stand, and stopped only after he ran out of ammunition. Murphy rejoined his men, disregarding his own injury, and led them back to repel the Germans. He insisted on remaining with his men while his wounds were treated.
Brigadier General Ralph B. Lovett and Lieutenant Colonel Hallet D. Edson recommended Murphy for the Medal of Honor. Near Salzburg, Austria on 2 June 1945, Lieutenant General A.M. Patch presented Murphy with the Medal of Honor and Legion of Merit for his actions at Holtzwihr. When asked after the war why he had seized the machine gun and taken on an entire company of German infantry, he replied, "**They were killing my friends."**
Murphy received every U.S. military combat award for valor available from the U.S. Army for his World War II service.
And all of this was before he wrote his book (To Hell And Back), his poem about Anzio, brought attention to PTSD, was a film and TV actor AND served once again in the Army during the Korean War.
Few could top that list of accomplishments, much less having only had an education to the fifth grade level.
You can catch a quick glance of R. Lee Ermy as a helicopter pilot in Apocalypse Now and in a decent sized role in Boys From Company C as a Drill Instructor. Both of those roles were before Full Metal Jacket.
Murphy did something few lived to tell about. During the incident that earned him the Medal of Honor he called artillery on his own position. In the move fire direction control asks him on the radio how close the enemy was and he says,”Hold on a second you can talk to them yourself.” Supposedly he really did say that or something similar and more colorful.
I had seen the movie several times before I read the book. Although many of the incidents that actually happened were in the movie, the book had a much darker tone. A tone a Hollywood movie at the time could not have. The book gives you insight into how the war affected him. He suffered from severe PTSD and advocated for mental health treatment for veterans at a time when such things were not spoken about.
As was Lew Ayres. However he served in the army as a medic and was in the Battle of the Philippines. He donated all of his army pay to the Red Cross.
One doesn’t “win” the MOH.
Audie Murphy was a Medal of Honor recipient.
I remember reading roughly 2 decades ago a LA Times article featuring an interview w/ Murphy’s daughter. Many people thought that he returned from the war & hopped into Hollywood w/o any adjustment issues. According to his daughter he suffered heavily from PTSD.
It wasn’t exactly a secret. He was a very vocal advocate for veterans mental health issues and was open about his own issues.
Back in the eighties the step-father of my girlfriend had been a combat photographer in Europe. One time when we came down for Thanksgiving, Russ Meyer and another fellow who had also been a photographer had been invited as guests. It was an absolutely fascinating afternoon as they sat around swapping stories. A pictorial history of WWII in Europe was hauled out and they pointed out the various pics they had taken. One highly dramatic photo had a Sherman tank roaring down a road, emerging from a billow of smoke blowing across it. One of them laughed and said that it was probably the safest photograph he had taken during the war. It was about twenty miles behind the lines and the smoke was from a pile of leaves burning beside the road.
Not quite military service, but Julia Child was both an administrator and a developer of shark repellents with the wartime Office of Strategic Services (the precursor to the CIA) before going on to stardom with her cooking show.