Actor James (Gunsmoke) Arness was in his own words “shot all to hell” and severely wounded and left with a lifelong limp at Anzio, Italy while serving as a rifleman with the 3rd Infantry Division. Charles Durning (the Sting , Rescue Me) served in very intense combat from Omaha beach to the Battle of the Bulge as a infantryman and was wounded no less than three times in a year while being awarded the silver star for valor. Funny man Mel Brooks served as a forward artillery observer. A young Hal Holbrook, while serving in Canada with the Army, got his first chance at acting in the base’s theatre troop. Don Knotts, (Mr Limpet) was a male nurse in the Army in the Pacific. Before his trips to the Twilight Zone, Rod Serling was a paratrooper with the 11th Airborne Division in the Pacific where he specialized in combat demolitions whenever he wasn’t in the ring with the division's boxing team. Famed cross-dresser and B-movie film legend Edward D. Wood, Jr. served in the Marines after volunteering at age 17. He claimed that as a flame-thrower operator he wore a pink silk bra and panties under his uniform as he thought the silk would be more fire retardant than the issued GI underwear at the Battle of Tarawa
Talent on the High Seas
Actor Eddie Albert won a bronze star while operating a Coast Guard landing ship during the hellish Battle of Tarawa. Buddy Epsen (Beverly Hillbillies) also served as a Coast Guard officer aboard a frigate in on solitary weather patrol in the pacific. Henry Fonda likewise took a break from acting and enlisted in the Navy, wining a bronze star. Not to be outdone action picture star Douglas Fairbanks joined the Navy as a lieutenant and promptly found himself attached to British naval special forces. Fairbanks was instrumental in helping form the US Navy Beach Jumper program and later won a silver star while serving on PT Boats in combat. Rod Stieger dropped out of school and found himself a 16-year-old sailor shortly after. Actor Paul Newman was a radioman in torpedo bombers. Director John Ford, who went on to direct John Wayne in more than 20 movies, commanded the photography group of the OSS (WWII’s CIA) and was present on the beach at Normandy. Ford left the Navy as a Rear Admiral. A twenty year old Tony Curtis was serving aboard a submarine tender a mile away from the USS Missouri during the Japanese surrender. Camp movie inventor and gimmick man Roger Corman chased depth charges. Funnymen Soupy Sales, Don Rickles, and Harvey Korman served as sailors while Johnny Carson was an officer on board the war wagon USS Pennsylvania, herself a Pearl Harbor veteran. Hollywood tough guy Kirk Douglas was discharged due to wounds he received as an ASW officer.
Actors in the Air
While Lee Marvin served as a marine participating in the invasions at Kwajalein and Eniwetok and was wounded on Saipan while fellow Dirty Dozen star Charles Broson as a tailgunner aboard a B-29 Superfortress over the skies of Japan and was also awarded the Purple Heart for wounds. Rock Hudson was an aircraft mechanic in the Philippines.
Charlton Heston was a radio operator on a B-25 in the Aleutians. On another B-25 in the European theater Dragnet star Jack Webb flew as an air crewman. Jack Palance earned his gaunt expression after a disfiguring accident that happened while bailing out of his burning B-24. Having to gain weight to join the Army Air Force, James (It’s a Wonderful Life) Stewart served as a command pilot on B-24s leading more than 20 missions deep into German skies. He ended the war as a Brigadier General and air wing chief of staff in the 8th Air Force. Grieving over the loss of Carol Lombard, Clark “Scarlett I don’t Give a Damn” Gable joined the Army Air Corps and led a film section making training films. Unsatisfied with this he flew on combat missions over Germany where his biggest fan Adolf Hitler placed a bounty on his head if captured alive. Couchmaster Ed McMahon trained as a fighter pilot and wound up remaining in the Air National Guard until 1966 when he retired as a Brigadier General.
They also served
Actors Buddy Hackett, Glenn Ford, Jack Paar, Bob “Captain Kangaroo” Keeshan, Jack Klugman, Red Skelton, Robert Stack, Lee Van Cleef, Dick Van Dyke, Robert Montgomery also served, as did William Holden, although they never saw combat. Musician Desi Arnaz was drafted but after being hurt in boot camp served the rest of the war helping with the USO. Dean Martin was drafted into the army and served for a year in Ohio before being found 4-F and discharged.
The presidents and other famous Americans who served in the WWII military machine are numerous enough for their own articles.
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