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valarltdOne of the very popular things on the Right is to hold John Wayne up as a Great American Hero (tm). Once again, they have confused fact and fiction, illusion and substance.
The man was an actor. He played heroes. And he did them well. I enjoy a John Wayne movie as much as anyone else. This is not a commentary on his acting skills.
When war time came around, he begged the Department of Defense to NOT be sent. We call that "pulling strings" and "draft-dodging" today.
Not so heroic in an era when everyone else was enlisting. Even Errol Flynn tried, but a heart murmur (coupled with a heart-attack in '42), chronic back pain (and a morphine habit that attended it), chronic tuberculosis and malaria rendered him 4-F.
Clark Gable, The Hottest Property of the day, entered the Army Air Force as a private, went through officer school and flew 5 combat missions as an observer-gunner. After a flack near-miss, MGM pulled strings and had him sent stateside. He was discarged as a Major, when he was too old for duty.
Phillip Holmes (An American Tragedy), Leslie Howard (Gone with the Wind), Lee B. Powell (Flash Gordon, Lone Ranger), Hal Walters (The Man Who Knew Too Much) and band leader Glen Miller were all killed in action.
Ronald Reagan's nearsightedness kept him stateside, but he still served, earning the rank of Captain. His film units produced over 400 army training films.
Don Adams (Maxwell Smart, Tennessee Tuxedo): Marine. Wounded at Guadalcanal. Served as a DI after the war.
Russell Johnson (the Professor, Gilligan's Island): Purple Heart, for injuries in a battle after his bomber was shot down over the Phillipines.
Fred Gwynne (Herman Munster): Navy radioman
Dick Van Dyke: failed to enlist as a pilot 3 times for being underweight, got in on the fourth try, but spent the war stateside as a military radio announcer
James Doohan (Scotty, Star Trek): shot SIX TIMES by a German machine gun at Normandy, costing him his middle finger. (I do hope he was flipping it defiantly at the Germans)
James Arness (Marshall Dillon, Gunsmoke): Severely wounded at Anzio. The trademark limp came from that. Bronze Star, Purple Heart, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three bronze star devices, World War II Victory Medal, and the Combat Infantryman's Badge.
Hedy Lamarr (Sampson and Delilah): helped invent radio controlled torpedos, which were the basis for moder mobile telecommunications. If you have a cellphone, Hedy Lamarr helped invent it!
Christopher Lee: Ministry of Ungentlemanly Activities. Most of what he did (in the company of Ian Fleming) is STILL classified. Butthe pinnicle was Operation Gunnerside: train a crack commando unit of former-Vikings to join SOE on a secret mission to destroy a heavy water plant in Norway before the Nazis could build an atomic bomb with it.
Julia Child (TV cook): Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment Section of the Office of Strategic Services (at 6'2" she was too tall for regular military). She discovered SHARk REPELLANT! Let me repeat, Julia Child discovered shark repellant to keep sharks from blowing up missiles meant for U-boats.
Audry Hepburn: Dutch Resistance agent, smuggled out messages in her ballet slippers.
Mel Brooks: Army combat engineer, i.e. landmine defuser! at the Battle of the Bulge
Gene Autry (the singing cowboy): Army Air Corps, repeatedly flew the single most hazardous supply route of the war.
Mickey Rooney: Army. Earned the Bronze Star.
Patrick Troughton (Dr. Who): Served in the Royal navy
David Niven: Lt. Col. with the British Commandos at Normandy
Alec Guinness: Piloted a landing craft on D-Day for the Royal Navy.
Desmond Llewellyn (Q of the James Bond Movies): British army. POW in Germany for 5 years.
Audie Murphy, cowboy actor, was the single most decorated serviceman of the War.
Next time some rightist gets on about John Wayne being a great hero, tell him Julia Child has a more impressive war record. Anyone whose service can be eclipsed by Mickey Rooney, Herman Munster and a cartoon penguin is not a hero, not in that generation.
Source:
http://www.commonsensejunction.com/xtras/wwii-movie-stars/wwii-movie-stars.html
The man was an actor. He played heroes. And he did them well. I enjoy a John Wayne movie as much as anyone else. This is not a commentary on his acting skills.
When war time came around, he begged the Department of Defense to NOT be sent. We call that "pulling strings" and "draft-dodging" today.
Not so heroic in an era when everyone else was enlisting. Even Errol Flynn tried, but a heart murmur (coupled with a heart-attack in '42), chronic back pain (and a morphine habit that attended it), chronic tuberculosis and malaria rendered him 4-F.
Clark Gable, The Hottest Property of the day, entered the Army Air Force as a private, went through officer school and flew 5 combat missions as an observer-gunner. After a flack near-miss, MGM pulled strings and had him sent stateside. He was discarged as a Major, when he was too old for duty.
Phillip Holmes (An American Tragedy), Leslie Howard (Gone with the Wind), Lee B. Powell (Flash Gordon, Lone Ranger), Hal Walters (The Man Who Knew Too Much) and band leader Glen Miller were all killed in action.
Ronald Reagan's nearsightedness kept him stateside, but he still served, earning the rank of Captain. His film units produced over 400 army training films.
Don Adams (Maxwell Smart, Tennessee Tuxedo): Marine. Wounded at Guadalcanal. Served as a DI after the war.
Russell Johnson (the Professor, Gilligan's Island): Purple Heart, for injuries in a battle after his bomber was shot down over the Phillipines.
Fred Gwynne (Herman Munster): Navy radioman
Dick Van Dyke: failed to enlist as a pilot 3 times for being underweight, got in on the fourth try, but spent the war stateside as a military radio announcer
James Doohan (Scotty, Star Trek): shot SIX TIMES by a German machine gun at Normandy, costing him his middle finger. (I do hope he was flipping it defiantly at the Germans)
James Arness (Marshall Dillon, Gunsmoke): Severely wounded at Anzio. The trademark limp came from that. Bronze Star, Purple Heart, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three bronze star devices, World War II Victory Medal, and the Combat Infantryman's Badge.
Hedy Lamarr (Sampson and Delilah): helped invent radio controlled torpedos, which were the basis for moder mobile telecommunications. If you have a cellphone, Hedy Lamarr helped invent it!
Christopher Lee: Ministry of Ungentlemanly Activities. Most of what he did (in the company of Ian Fleming) is STILL classified. Butthe pinnicle was Operation Gunnerside: train a crack commando unit of former-Vikings to join SOE on a secret mission to destroy a heavy water plant in Norway before the Nazis could build an atomic bomb with it.
Julia Child (TV cook): Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment Section of the Office of Strategic Services (at 6'2" she was too tall for regular military). She discovered SHARk REPELLANT! Let me repeat, Julia Child discovered shark repellant to keep sharks from blowing up missiles meant for U-boats.
Audry Hepburn: Dutch Resistance agent, smuggled out messages in her ballet slippers.
Mel Brooks: Army combat engineer, i.e. landmine defuser! at the Battle of the Bulge
Gene Autry (the singing cowboy): Army Air Corps, repeatedly flew the single most hazardous supply route of the war.
Mickey Rooney: Army. Earned the Bronze Star.
Patrick Troughton (Dr. Who): Served in the Royal navy
David Niven: Lt. Col. with the British Commandos at Normandy
Alec Guinness: Piloted a landing craft on D-Day for the Royal Navy.
Desmond Llewellyn (Q of the James Bond Movies): British army. POW in Germany for 5 years.
Audie Murphy, cowboy actor, was the single most decorated serviceman of the War.
Next time some rightist gets on about John Wayne being a great hero, tell him Julia Child has a more impressive war record. Anyone whose service can be eclipsed by Mickey Rooney, Herman Munster and a cartoon penguin is not a hero, not in that generation.
Source:
http://www.commonsensejunction.com/xtras/wwii-movie-stars/wwii-movie-stars.html
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-16 07:58 pm (UTC)Great list!
no subject
Date: 2012-08-17 01:41 am (UTC)I'd actually debate John Wayne's acting skills as well; my gauge of a good actor is his ability to become DIFFERENT people in each role, but Wayne played the same guy in every movie.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-17 06:42 am (UTC)I enjoy his work, but 90% of the time it's the same role. Ordinary guy gets into a situation over his head, often protecting his family, and has to be a hero. Lately even his bad guys have fallen into this role. (Cowboys and Aliens) I refer to the 90s as "the suit roles."
Or as Family Guy put it: "And now back to tonight's movie, in which Harrison Ford randomly demands strangers give his family back."
no subject
Date: 2012-08-17 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-17 02:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-17 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-17 06:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-18 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-19 01:41 pm (UTC)It cast such a long shadow over the Boomers (my parents) that it even shaded us GenXers.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-19 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-20 05:00 pm (UTC)The D-Man Checks In
Date: 2012-08-20 05:58 pm (UTC)Possible Points To Reconsider: At the time of Pearl Harbor, Wayne was 34 years old. His marriage was on the rocks and he had 4 kids to support. His career was also at the time just taking off, in large part on the strength of his work in the classic western, Stagecoach (1939). But he wasn't rich. Should he chuck it all and enlist? Many of Hollywood's big names, such as Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, and Clark Gable, did just that. But unlike Wayne, these were at the time each & all well-established stars. Wayne probably fretted that if he took some years off for military service, there was a good chance that by the time he got back he'd likely be forgotten & over the hill.
Besides, John Wayne specialized in the kind of movies a nation at war wanted to see, in which a rugged American hero overcame great odds. Recognizing that Hollywood was an important part of the Allied war effort, Washington had told California draft boards to go easy on actors. Wayne obtained 3-A status: "Deferred for [family] dependency reasons."
Wayne cranked out 13 movies during the war, many with war-related themes. Most of the films were enormously successful and within a short time The Duke was one of America's most popular stars. His bankability now firmly established, he did send in the paperwork to enlist, angling for the Naval photography unit commanded by a good friend, director John Ford. A guy who famously prided himself on doing his own stunts, Wayne can hardly be suspected for lacking in physical courage, but Washington stepped in and Wayne now received a new 2-A classification: "Deferred in support of [the] national interest." A month later when the Selective Service decided to revoke many previous deferments, Wayne was reclassified him 1-A. But Wayne's studio appealed and got his 2-A status reinstated until after the war ended.
Re: The D-Man Checks In
Date: 2012-08-20 07:06 pm (UTC)Of course many of them claim Patrick Henry and other such hangers-on were heroes as well.