19 Hollywood Greats Who Served or Helped in WWII | eBaum's World

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19 Hollywood Greats Who Served or Helped in WWII

Some were in the thick of it, while others contributed in other ways.

By E39Freak

Published 11 years ago

Some were in the thick of it, while others contributed in other ways.

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1
Henry Fonda. Navy Intelligence Officer. Joined the Navy in November 1942, where he eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant and won a Bronze Star and Presidential citation for his work.

2
Tony Curtis. He enlisted in the Navy at the age of 17 and served on a submarine tender in the Pacific. In September 1945, the future actor watched the surrender of the Japanese forces from the deck of his ship, the USS Proteus.

3
Rod Steiger. Actor in movies such as On the Waterfront and The Pawnbroker. Steiger ran away from home at age 16, and lied about his age to sign up for the Navy, serving as a torpedoman on destroyers in the Pacific.

4
Robert Altman. Film maker and Director of MASH. He flew more than 50 bombing missions in Borneo and the Dutch East Indies with the US Army Air Force's 307th Bomb Group.

5
Paul Newman. He joined up in 1943. Disqualified from being a pilot due to color blindness, he flew as a radioman and gunner, and narrowly avoided death on board the USS Bunker Hill when it was attacked by kamikaze bombers. Newman was scheduled to be aboard, but his flight was delayed.

6
Mel Brooks. Corporal in the 78th Infantry Division as Minesweeper. Also took part in the Battle of the Bulge.

7
Lee Marvin. US Marines. Shot in the ass during the Battle of Saipan. Not a joke, look it up

8
Kirk Douglas. Joined after Pearl Harbor. Navy Communications Officer. Discharged in 1944 after an injury.

9
James Stewart. Followed in the footsteps of his WWI veteran father, enlisting even before Pearl Harbor. He became the commander of the 445th Bomb Group, flying at least twenty combat missions and rising from private to colonel in only four years.

10
Jack Palance. He flew on B-24 Liberator bombers during the war.

11
Alec Guinness. Royal Navy. Commanded a landing craft during the invasion of Sicily and Elba

12
Heddy Lamarr. Australian actress. She teamed up with her neighbor, avant-garde composer George Antheil, to invent frequency-hopping spread-spectrum, a technology that helped prevent radio-controlled torpedoes from being jammed by the enemy. It wasnt actually used by the military until 1962, but Lamarr still had a more direct impact: She made a massive 7 million for war bonds in one evening by selling kisses.

13
Ernest Borgnine. Already a Navy vet, he re-enlisted soon after Pearl Harbor and patrolled the Pacific aboard an Anti-Submarine ship.

14
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Son of swashbuckling legend Douglas Fairbanks, ex-husband of Joan Crawford, and star of 'The Prisoner Of Zenda' and 'Gunga Din,' Fairbanks is arguably best known for his naval service: After serving alongside British commandos at the beginning of the war, he helped plan the Beach Jumpers units, a specialist group that used diversionary tactics to help retake the Mediterranean.

15
Donald Pleasance. Royal Air Force. He was in "The Great Escape" and later a part of the "Halloween"series. His RAF bomber had been shot down in August 1944, and he was held for a year in a POW camp.

16
Clark Gable. After his wife, Carole Lombard, was killed in a plane crash returning from a war bond tour, the 'Gone With The Wind' star signed up with the U.S. Army Air Force. Gable was given a special assignment to make a film to recruit aerial gunners, and flew combat missions on Flying Fortresses over Europe.

17
Christopher Lee. Royal Air Force Intelligence Officer in Africa and Italy, before helping to track down Nazi war criminals in the final months of his service.

18
Charles Dunning. He was one of the first troops on Omaha Beach during D-Day, was stabbed by a German solider in Belgium, and was one of the few to escape a massacre of American POWs at Malmedy during the Battle of the Bulge. He was awarded a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts, and carried a bullet in his hip for the rest of his life.

19
Audrey Hepburn. Helped the Dutch resistance by acting as a secret messenger, and raised money for their cause by holding dance recitals

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