MovieChat Forums > Kelly's Heroes (1970) Discussion > KH actors who were real soldiers

KH actors who were real soldiers

posted 11 years ago by daddymo
7 replies | jump to latest

On a whim I looked at the biographies of the actors to determine which among were actually soldiers...

Telly Savalas (Big Joe) US Army. He didn't see any action and apparently received a Purple Heart from some sort of automobile accident.

Don Rickles (Crapgame) US Navy. He served on the destroyer USS Cyrene in the Pacific.

Carroll O'Connor (Gen. Colt) Merchant Marines. He served in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Gavin McLeod (Moriarty) US Air Force. Not in WW2, he served in the early 1950's.

Harry Dean Stanton (Willard) US Navy. Served as a cook aboard an LST in the Pacific, served at Okinawa.

Len Lesser (Bellamy) US Army. Served as a sergeant in the China-Burma-India theater.

David Hurst (Col. Dankhopf) British Army. Actually born in Berlin and moved to Ireland at the age of 12, he joined the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Because of his German background he was never sent to combat.

George Savalas (Mulligan) US Navy. Decorated gunner, served in the Pacific. (Yes, it's Telly's younger brother.)

Yves Montand (uncredited Sturmbannfuhrer) Never in the military but he lived in France during the war and served in a Nazi youth camp in 1942. Interestingly, he dated Edith Piaf from 1944 to 1946. Piaf's song "Tu Es Partout" is the song that Tom Hanks and company are listening to before the last battle in Saving Private Ryan, which is set in 1944.

[–] nickm2 11 years ago

Well 'squintin' Clint was in the service during Korea but he was never sent, no?

[–] daddymo 11 years ago

Thanks nickm2, how did I miss Clint? He was in the Army in the early 50's, at Fort Ord, California where he was a swimming instructor and a bouncer at the NCO club. While riding a Navy plane back to base after a trip home, the plane made an emergency water landing and Clint and the pilot had to swim at least a mile back to shore.

[–] lmh-10 11 years ago

Telly Savalas (Big Joe) US Army. He didn't see any action and apparently received a Purple Heart from some sort of automobile accident.

If he got a Purple Heart he saw some action, it is a requirement. His official site http://www.tellysavalas.com/about/bio/daredevil.html says his military service ended after an automobile accident stateside but that would not get him a Purple Heart. The same site says he got a Purple Heart but all the relevant records were destroyed in a 1973 fire and Sevalas never talked about his service. So no one knows the details now.

[–] b-rad 11 years ago

To clarify or expand, he would have been wounded or injured while serving in a combat zone. So, it could mean that he was under fire, or it could mean injuries sustained in a combat zone, but not necessarily under direct fire. None of this detracts from his service and his sacrifice, especially since he didn't go around bragging (really, I don't know anyone who's served, who brags about it, and very few of my uncles who served back then would talk, unless they had a few beers, and then they remembered mostly things that struck them as funny).

"The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen."

[–] b-rad 11 years ago

Carroll O'Connor (Gen. Colt) Merchant Marines. He served in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Not to put too fine a point on it, it's not "merchant marines", but "merchant marine", which is a collective term to refer to a country's commercial shipping fleet. It's not military in the strict sense, but civilian. Again, it doesn't detract from the fact that those men were under fire and many paid with their lives to keep supplies flowing. The Atlantic was particularly fatal, because the Germans focused on sinking the merchant ships that kept the UK supplied. The Japanese tended to target military vessels, in contrast, as a matter of strategic doctrine.

"The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen."

[–] b-rad 11 years ago

David Hurst (Col. Dankhopf) British Army...

I know his character is listed here in the IMDb as "Col. Dankhopf" , but I think it's "Colonel Dummkopf", actually, a little joke for the audience.

"The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen."

[–] darryl-tahirali 11 years ago

Good research.

Not surprised at the number: In the US, conscription was in place from 1940 to 1973. Even Elvis Presley at the height of his initial popularity got drafted and spent two years in the army.

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