24 Frames

Veteran's Day: 24 Actors Who Went to War

by Alex Vo | November 10, 2016

TAGGED AS: Calendar

On November 11, America honors the armed forces with Veterans Day (and for the world over, Armistice Day and Remembrance Day). On our part, we present this photo gallery which takes a look at 24 actors who fought and served their country.

Michael Caine (The Dark Knight series) was rifle infantry for the British Army and served in the Korean War.

Alec Guinness (Star Wars) served with the Royal Navy during WWII, leading vessels into the invasion of Sicily and Elba, and later assisting the resistance movement in Yugoslavia.

Rob Riggle (21 Jump Street) joined the Marines in 1990 and served in the Kosovo War and the current conflict in Afghanistan.

Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) trained as radioman and gunner for the U.S. Navy and served on torpedo squadrons in the Pacific during WWII.

Christopher Lee (Lord of the Rings series) volunteered to join the Finnish in the Winter War, before joining the Royal Air Force and flying campaigns in Italy, Egypt, and Sicily. As World War II winded down, Lee was assigned to track down Nazi war criminals.

Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles) was a combat engineer for the U.S. Army who participated in the Battle of the Bulge, and spent the rest of the time on the front lines defusing land mines.

Lee Marvin (The Dirty Dozen) joined the U.S. Marines and was wounded in the WWII Battle of Saipan and was subsequently awarded the Purple Heart.

Charles Bronson (Death Wish) was an aerial gunner for the U.S. Air Force in WWII, earning a Purple Heart for his wounds over a 3-year career.

Ernest Borgnine (The Wild Bunch) joined the Navy after high school and was honorably discharged in 1941, before joining again after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Dennis Franz (NYPD Blue) was drafted by the U.S. Army and served 11 months with the 82nd Airborne Division during the Vietnam War.

Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone) was an Army paratrooper who participated in the WWII Battle of Leyte that would free the Philippines from Japanese occupation.

Audie Murphy (The Red Badge of Courage) was one of the most decorated American soldiers of WWII, most notably achieving a Medal of Honor for single-handedly holding off a German company in France and then led a counterattack while wounded and out of ammunition.

David Niven (The Pink Panther) participated in the Invasion of Normandy and commanded a reconnaissance squadron called the Phantom Signals Unit.

Denholm Elliott (Raiders of the Lost Ark) was a Royal Air Force gunner shot down over Denmark in WWII. He remained in a German POW camp for the rest of the war, where he developed an interest in acting after a book of Shakespeare was sent to him by the Red Cross.

Rod Steiger (In the Heat of the Night) joined the U.S. Navy at 16 after lying about his age and was assigned as a torpedoman in the Pacific.

Tyrone Power (Witness for the Prosecution) joined the U.S. Marines in 1942 and flew wounded soldiers from the Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns.

Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca) was expelled from prep school and joined the U.S. Navy at 18, where he ferried troops after Germany signed the armistice ending the first World War.

Charles Durning (The Sting) spent three years in the U.S. Army during WWII, earning multiple medals including the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart.

Buster Keaton (The General) saw action in World War I, where his 40th Infantry Division was assigned combat duty in France.

Clark Gable (Gone With the Wind) flew five combat missions in a WWII joint campaign between the United States and British Air Forces. Hitler was a fan of Gable and had a bounty out for his live capture.

Henry Fonda (12 Angry Men) enlisted to fight for the U.S. Navy during WWII and was stationed on the destroyer USS Satterlee in the Pacific.

James Stewart (It’s a Wonderful Life) flew over two dozen bombing runs in WWII, eventually being promoted to major general by President Reagan after retiring from the Air Force in 1968.

James Doohan (Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan) joined the Royal Canadian Artillery at the start of WWII. He first saw combat during the D-Day Normandy invasion, where he was shot six times and had one of his fingers amputated.

Kirk Douglas (Spartacus) joined the U.S. Navy in 1941 and was serving in the Pacific as part of a submarine defense unit. He was discharged due to injuries sustained from a depth charge accident explosion.

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