Word Celebrity Blog

Hollywood Actors During WWII


Actors Who Served On Land

Charles Durning served in very intense combat from Omaha beach to the Battle of the Bulge as an infantryman and was wounded three times. He was awarded the silver star for valor.

Don Knotts was a male nurse in the Army in the Pacific.

Edward D. Wood, Jr. served in the Marines.

Hal Holbrook, while serving in the Canadian Army, got his first chance at acting in the base’s theatre troop.

James Arness was severely wounded and left with a lifelong limp at Anzio, Italy while serving as a rifleman with the 3rd Infantry Division.

Mel Brooks served as a forward artillery observer.

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.



Actors On The High Seas

Alan Hale Jr. served in the Coast Guard

Buddy Epsen served as a Coast Guard officer aboard a frigate on solitary weather patrol in the pacific.

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.

Eddie Albert won a bronze star while operating a Coast Guard landing ship during the Battle of Tarawa.

John Ford 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.

Johnny Carson served on board the USS Pennsylvania.

Henry Fonda likewise took a break from acting and enlisted in the Navy, wining a bronze star.

Kirk Douglas was discharged due to wounds he received as an ASW officer.

Lee Marvin served as a marine participating in the invasions at Kwajalein and Eniwetok and was wounded on Saipan.

Paul Newman was a radioman in torpedo bombers.

Rod Stieger dropped out of school and found himself a 16-year-old sailor shortly after.

Tony Curtis was serving aboard a submarine tender a mile away from the USS Missouri during the Japanese surrender.

Roger Corman, Soupy Sales, Don Rickles, and Harvey Korman served as sailors,



Actors in the Air

Charles Broson as a tailgunner aboard a B-29 Superfortress over the skies of Japan and was also awarded the Purple Heart for wounds.

Charlton Heston was a radio operator on a B-25 in the Aleutians.

Clark 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.

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.

Jack Webb flew on B-25 in the European theater  as an air crewman.

Jack Palance earned his gaunt expression after a disfiguring accident that happened while bailing out of his burning B-24.

James 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.

Rock Hudson was an aircraft mechanic in the Philippines.

Russell Johnson flew 44 combat missions as a bombardier in B-25s and oddly enough was shot down over a Japanese territory.



Actors Who 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.