Hollywood's gun-toting actors and World War Two

[Kevin Rohrer]

Tom Tryon: He served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific from 1943–1946[4] during World War II.

 

[Kevin Rohrer]

American Military Personnel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:American_military_personnel_of_World_War_II&from=To

 

[robowo]

Bea Arthur was in the Marine Corps during WW2 also.

 

[sniper5]

Glenn Ford was actually a triple theater vet, serving in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam. He was attached to military film making, PR, radio and combat film crews. Although those sound mundane, I imagine that doing combat filming he came under fire a bit, especially in Vietnam.

 

[toiville2feathers]

My sisters ( 3 of them) were going to a rural country school. Every week they took a dime to school and it was put in a coin folder, when they got the folder full they were able to buy a $5 war bond. My oldest sister who is 81, still has one in her safe deposit box as part of her coin collection. They brought tin cans to school to be collected as scrap metal. In the fall of the year the whole school went out in the country side and collected milk weed pods. the fibers on the seed were used for life vests and parachute cord.
Thats why all those old great cars from the model T era are so scarce. They were mostly turned in for scrap for the war effort. Most if that scrap iron was donated, not sold.
Pretty much all of middle America was involved in the war effort machine.
Back then individuals took on the task of shaping their own lives and achieving their goals and understood the need and the responsibility for doing it. Hard work got you rewarded for your labors, today hard work has been replaced by high tech and if the lights go out we will be in deep do do.

 

[GRIZ22]

Jimmy Stewart had to fight his way into the Army. He went in as an enlisted man before Pearl Harbor. Also worthy of note is that he flew as an "observer" on a B52 mission in Vietnam. That was something a Reserve Brigadier General was not expected to do.

Audie Murphy was a farm boy at the beginning of the war and didn't start making movies until several years after the war. Several sources list Murphy as only qualifying as a Marksman with a rifle not at the higher level of Sharpshooter or Expert. This is demonstrative of how well you shoot doesn't necessarily relate to how well you will fight.

 

[230RN]

Some I didn't see on the list, but I may have missed them.

>Charlie Callas. US Army, expert marksman with the .45. There was a picture of him somewhere holding a 1911 in uniform, but it seems to have disappeared.

>Robert Cummings. AAF pilot and pilot instructor. Avid private pilot after the war and has many awards from Civil Aviation organizations. Of special interest:

While attending Joplin High School, Cummings was taught to fly by his godfather, Orville Wright, the aviation pioneer.[5][7] His first solo was on 3 March 1927.[9] During high school, Cummings gave Joplin residents rides in his aircraft for $5 per person.[7][8] When the government began licensing flight instructors, Cummings was issued flight instructor certificate No. 1, making him the first official flight instructor in the United States. (From Wiki)

Terry, 230RN

 

[NorthBorder]

Though it was another war, one of Hollywood's current elite served...Oliver Stone.

 

[carpboy]

My uncle enlisted in the Marines in the 1930s and was in flight school with Tyrone Power.My uncle washed out as a pilot,but went on to serve as a flight engineer on a C47 in the Pacific and the Berlin Airlift.After reading the list of notable characters,I was left to wonder what it would be like to be in combat with Jonathan Winters(one of the funniest people ever)or Mel Brooks?

 

[carpboy]

Several yrs ago,My brother and I were at a shooting range here in Las Vegas when we met Charlie Callas.We were taking a break while sighting in our deer rifles and Charlie came strolling up and introduced himself.He was nice as could be and always quick with a joke.We went to check out the rifle he was shooting and it was an oddball.It was a Martini action with a Bull barrel chambered in 22lr.We checked out some of Charlies targets and we saw groups at 100yds the size of a Quarter.The old boy definitely knew how to shoot.

 

[rdmercer]

In the mid seventies during the filming of the western Breakeart Pass, I listened to Charles Durning and Charles Bronson during a break, talk about some of what happened during their times during WW2. Very interesting with Richard Crenna as a third person in the group around a fire to keep warm in wintery Idaho.

 

[carbine85]

That's a very impressive list. I was raised watching these guys in the movies. My Dad would always tell me about their military service. I have admired these guys and what they did.

 

[Red Wind]

Art Carney, who played Ed Norton on The Honeymooner's
with Jackie Gleason, and later won a Academy Award for Travels with Charlie, was a wonderful.comic talent.

I remember reading a interview many years ago, where Carney said that surviving Normandy ,with severe shrapnel wounds in his leg, was the turning point in his life. He never expected to get off that battlefield alive.

This was a great group of men. Thank you,Sixty Gunner, for reminding us.

 

[Palehorseman]

He is second on the list.

If one reads up a bit about Sterling ( Walter) Hayden, will find he was a man's man. A Sea captain, a marine, OSS agent, and gun-runner. (he was at one time also a communist) I remember when he had sole custody of his children but was sick of his ex-wife raising sand as to how he was raising their kids. She got a judge to refuse him taking the kids on a cruise, so he kidnaped and put them aboard his sail boat and sailed off to the South Seas. Have read how his children adored him.

Pretty good bio here: http://articles.latimes.com/1986-05-24/local/me-7504_1_sterling-hayden

 

[pendennis]

Glen Ford. I think he stayed in the USAF Reserves and retired as a General Officer. He really was handy with SAA rewvolvers.

salty

Glenn Ford was a U.S. Marine during WWII, and joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1958 as a commissioned officer, and remained until around 1970, or so, maybe later. He retired with the rank of Captain (O6).

RIP, Captain Ford.

 

[ClemY]

If I remember correctly, a couple of these actors were at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7th - unfortunately I can't remember which ones.

Jason Robards was a Navy radioman at Pearl Harbor.

 

[SC Shooter]

There was certainly a different mind set back then. It is not hard to understand why they have been called the greatest generation

 

[jakk280rem]

I knew Jimmy Stewart was a bomber pilot, but didn't know he rose to General Officer rank. Puts a different light on that B-58 Hustler promotional video he did.

 

[steveno]

another good movie with Jimmy Stewart was "Strategic Air Command" with a lot of B-36 stuff

 

[pendennis]

another good movie with Jimmy Stewart was "Strategic Air Command" with a lot of B-36 stuff

The only thing I didn't like about the movie was June Allyson.

Great pics of the B36's and the B47's.

 

[gym]

Thanks for that piece of historical information. It takes a different type of person to be a "tough guy" on the screen, and a political puppet in reality, one who is afraid to leave the house without half a dozen body guards. This new breed of actor is so digitally enhanced by technology that they don't even need to show up to be in the movie.
meanwhile they would cringe, for the most part, if they had to serve their country in time of war. Most are anti gun, so it would be difficult to shoot the enemy with no weapon. I just don't see Brad Pitt in Boot camp.

 

[Acera]

meanwhile they would cringe, for the most part, if they had to serve their country in time of war. Most are anti gun, so it would be difficult to shoot the enemy with no weapon. I just don't see Brad Pitt in Boot camp.

Might choose a different actor to make that comparison.

Brad Pitt is one of the most pro-gun celebrities in Hollywood.
http://www.infowars.com/brad-pitt-goes-public-in-support-of-american-freedom-to-own-guns/

And a romantic also, gave his soon to be wife Angelina Jolie a $400K shooting range as a wedding present.
http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/ne...gelina-jolie-400k-shooting-range-wedding-gift

Brings a tear to my eye


That initial link does have some errors, seems like he pushed the truth to get his point across..............

 

[gym]

You are right about his being pro gun when it comes to himself, but his movies are full of pro Obama propaganda. We know that Obama is anti gun as they get. This was said about "Killing them softly"
While the movie’s story line was cerebral and took a while to develop, it turned out to be a somewhat entertaining movie- but the producers should have refrained from littering the movie with far too many instances of pro-Obama propaganda.
Brad Pitt is pro-Brad Pitt owning guns.

You can take it to the bank that he doesn't particularly care if we have our guns confiscated by an out of control government.

 

[Sol]

....a thread that even mentions the name CHARLES BRONSON, can't have the name Brad Pitt even remotley nearby to soil it. Personally I don't care what pitts or his wifes' opinions on guns or gun control are, they don't apply to real life for %99.999 of us.

 

[Red Wind]

If we can believe this article, Brad Pitt and Angela Jolie are both very much pro gun.

Pitt said in a recent interview with British magazine Live (in response to more gun control following the Colorado movie shooting), “I absolutely don’t believe you can put sanctions or shackles on what is made. Nor do I want to pretend the world is different than what we witnessed that night… America is a country founded on guns. It’s in our DNA. It’s very strange but I feel better having a gun. I really do. I don’t feel safe, I don’t feel the house is completely safe, if I don’t have one hidden somewhere. That’s my thinking, right or wrong.”

Pitt also recently built a $400,000 shooting range as a wedding gift to fiance Angelina Jolie.

Also note 15 other pro gun celebs in the article.