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Frank Cady
Frank Cady

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U.S. Army Air Forces

WW2 Victory Medal
American actor best known for his recurring and popular role as storekeeper Sam Drucker in three U.S. television series during the 1960s: Petticoat Junction, Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies.

Served during WW2.
Jess Cain
Jess Cain

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U.S. Army

Silver Star
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
American radio personality.  For 34 years, from 1957 to 1991, Cain was the morning drive personality on WHDH-AM in Boston.  Cain also was a professional actor and appeared in numerous theater and musical theater productions, and appeared in early television on the Sergeant Bilko {a.k.a "Phil Silvers"] Show.  In the Boston area, he was known especially for playing Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  Cain's song about Carl Yastrzemski - which he adapted from an old ragtime tune called "Shoutin' Liza Trombone" -  appeared on "The Impossible Dream," a WHDH-produced album commemorating the 1967 Boston Red Sox season and later as part of the soundtrack of the 2005 movie Fever Pitch.

Served in WW2 in the Battle of the Bulge and earning the Silver Star.  On 16 March 1945 while serving with Company A, 275th Infantry Regiment, 70th Infantry Division near Saarbrucken, Germany, Private Cain was the only one of a group of fifteen men sent to obtain information and determine enemy strength in the Siegfried Line, who was not a casualty in the machine-gun trap sprung on them.  Crawling, creeping, and finally running, while enemy machine-gun and burp guns blazed away at him, Private Cain made his way back to his Battalion Command Post to report the situation.  He then directed the laying of a smoke screen by the mortars, and then led a second group to the scene.  Seven painfully wounded men were evacuated while streams of enemy fire probed the smoke-covered field in an attempt to hamper the movement and escape.
Michael Caine
Michael Caine

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British Army English film actor.  He became well known for a number of popular and notable critically acclaimed performances, particularly in films such as Zulu (1964); The Ipcress File (1965); Alfie (1966); The Italian Job (1969); The Battle Of Britain (1969); Get Carter (1971); Sleuth (1972); The Man Who Would Be King (1975); Educating Rita (1983); Without a Clue (1988); Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988); The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992); Secondhand Lions (2003); Academy Award-winning performances for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and The Cider House Rules (1999); as Nigel Powers in the parody Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002); and more recently as Alfred Pennyworth, the butler from Batman Begins (2005), and The Dark Knight (2008), the protagonist in Harry Brown (2009) and a supporting character in Inception (2010).  Caine is one of only two actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting (either lead or supporting) in every decade from the 1960s to 2000s (the other one being Jack Nicholson).  In 2000, Caine was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of his contribution to cinema.

Called for National Service in 1952, until 1954, he served in the British Army's Royal Fusiliers, first at the British Army of the Rhine HQ in Iserlohn, Germany and then on active service during the Korean War.
Archie Campbell
Archie Campbell

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U.S. Navy

WW2 Victory Medal
American writer and star of Hee Haw, a popular long-running country-flavored network television variety show.  He was also a recording artist with several hits on the RCA label in the 1960s.

Joined in 1941 and served until the end of WW2.
Yakima Canutt
Yakima Canutt

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U.S. Navy

WW1 Victory Medal
American rodeo rider, actor, stuntman and action director.  started bronc riding at the Whitman County Fair in Colfax in 1912 and at 17 he won the title of World's Best Bronco Buster. Canutt started rodeo riding professionally and gained a reputation as a bronc rider, bulldogger and all-around cowboy.  Won his first world championship at the Olympics of the West in 1917.  He won the saddle-bronc competition three years in 1921, 1922 and 1923. He had won the saddle-bronc competition in Pendleton in 1917, 1919, and 1923 and came second in 1915, and 1929. Canutt won the steer bulldogging in 1920, and 1921 and won the All-Around Police Gazette belt in 1917, 1919, 1920 and 1923. Canutt introduced many British stuntmen to Hollywood-style stunt training.  Canutt directed the close-action scenes for Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus.  For Ben-Hur, Canutt staged the chariot race with nine teams of four horses.  Canutt has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 Vine Street. In 1967, he was given an Honorary Academy Award for achievements as a stunt man and for developing safety devices to protect stunt men everywhere. He was inducted into the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum (Hall of Fame).

Served during WW1 and was stationed at Bremerton, Washington.
Frank Capra
Frank Capra

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U.S. Army

Army Distinguished Service Medal
American Campaign Medal
WW1 Victory Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
Sicilian-born American film director and a creative force behind a number of films of the 1930s and 1940s, including It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Lost Horizon (1937), You Can't Take It With You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Meet John Doe (1941), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946).  Capra won a total of six Academy Awards.  He was nominated six times for Best Director and six times for Outstanding Production/Best Picture.  Out of six nominations for Best Director, Capra received the award three times.  He briefly held the record for winning the most Best Director Oscars when he won for the third time in 1938.

Enlisted on October 18, 1918.  He taught ballistics and mathematics to artillerymen at Fort Winfield Scott in the Presidio of San Francisco.  While there, he caught Spanish flu and was medically discharged with the rank of second lieutenant on December 13, 1918.  He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1920 as Frank Russell Capra.  He was commissioned as a major in the Army Signal Corps during WW2.  He directed or co-directed ten documentary propaganda films between 1942 and 1948, including the seven-episode U.S. government-commissioned Why We Fight series - consisting of Prelude to War (1942), The Nazis Strike (1942), The Battle of Britain (1943), Divide and Conquer (1943), The Battle of Russia (1943), The Battle of China (1944) - plus Know Your Enemy: Japan (1945), Tunisian Victory (1945), and Two Down and One to Go (1945) that do not bear the Why We Fight banner; as well as produced the African-American targeted The Negro Soldier (1944).  The Why We Fight series is widely considered a masterpiece of influential propaganda and won an Academy Award.  Prelude to War won the 1942 Academy Award for Documentary Feature.  Capra regarded these films as his most important works.  As a colonel, he received the Distinguished Service Medal in 1945.
Drew Carey
Drew Carey

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U.S. Marine Corps
Reserve
American actor, comedian, photographer, and game show host.   Gained popularity starring on his own sitcom, The Drew Carey Show, and serving as host on the U.S. version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?.  Carey has appeared in several films, television series, music videos, a made-for-television film, and a computer game. He currently hosts the game show The Price Is Right.

Joined in 1980 and served 6 years.
Philip Carey
Philip Carey

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U.S. Marine Corps

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
National Defense Service Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
Korean War Service Medal
American actor in film and television.  He made appearances in films such as I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951), This Woman is Dangerous with Joan Crawford (1952) Calamity Jane with Doris Day (1953), Pushover (1954), The Long Gray Line (1955) and Monster (1979).  In 1971, Carey guest-starred on the landmark fifth episode of All in the Family, playing Steve, an ex-professional football player friend of Archie Bunker's who tells Archie he's gay.  The episode was one of the first times homosexuality had been dealt with sympathetically on U.S. network television.

Served in WW2 and was wounded as part of the ship's detachment of the USS Franklin (CV-13) and served again in the Korean War.
George Carlin
George Carlin

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U.S. Air Force American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums.  Carlin started out as a conventional comedian and had achieved a fair degree of success as a Bill Cosby style raconteur in nightclubs and on TV until the late 1960s, when he radically overhauled his persona.  His routines became more insightful, introducing more serious subjects.  As he aged, he became more cynic and bitter, unintentionally changing his stage persona again in a radical way throughout the 90s.  This new George Carlin, usually referred to as the late George Carlin, is one of the most acclaimed and enjoyed by the public and critics.  Carlin's forte is Lenny Bruce-style social and political commentary, spiced with nihilistic observations about people and religion peppered with black humor.  He is also noted for his masterful knowledge and use of the English language.  Carlin's notorious "Seven Dirty Words" comedy routine was part of a radio censorship case that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978.

He was trained as a radar technician and was stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana.  During this time he began working as a disc jockey at radio station KJOE, in the nearby city of Shreveport.  He did not complete his Air Force enlistment. Labeled an "unproductive airman" by his superiors, Carlin was discharged on July 29, 1957.
Art Carney
Art Carney

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U.S. Army

Purple Heart
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
Academy Award-winning American actor in film, stage, television and radio.  He is best-known for playing Ed Norton, opposite Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden in the situation comedy The Honeymooners.  In 1974, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Harry Coombes, an elderly man going on the road with his pet cat, in Harry and Tonto.

Wounded in the leg during the Battle of Normandy in WW2 and awarded the Purple Heart.
David Carradine
David Carradine

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U.S. Army American character actor, best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s television series, Kung Fu.  His acting career, which included major and minor roles on stage, television and cinema, spanned over four decades.  A prolific "B" movie actor, he appeared in more than 100 feature films and was nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award.  The last nomination was for his title role in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill.

Drafted in 1960 where he drew pictures for training aids.  While stationed at Fort Eustis, Virginia he helped to establish a theater company which became known as the "entertainment unit".  He was honorably discharged after a two-year tour.
Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson

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U.S. Navy

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years (1962 to 1992). Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987.  He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992, and received Kennedy Center Honors in 1993.

Joined on June 8, 1943, received V-12 officer training at Columbia University.  Commissioned an ensign late in the war, was assigned to the USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) in the Pacific.  Served as a communications officer in charge of decoding encrypted messages.
Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash

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U.S. Air Force American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.  Although he is primarily remembered as a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll--especially early in his career--as well as blues, folk, and gospel.  This crossover appeal led to Cash being inducted in both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Served in the early 1950s.  When he enlisted the military would not accept initials as his name, so he adopted John R. Cash as his legal name.  After basic training in Texas (where he met first wife Vivian Liberto), he was shipped to Landsberg, Germany. While in the service Cash organized his first band, the Landsberg Barbarians.  He was discharged in 1954.
Sid Ceasar
Sid Ceasar

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U.S. Coast Guard

WW2 Victory Medal
American comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.

In 1939, when WW2 was just starting in Europe, he enlisted and was assigned to play in military revues and shows.
John Chambers
John Chambers

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U.S. Army

WW2 Victory Medal
American make-up artist who became a veteran in both television and film.  After the war he found employment repairing faces and making prosthetic limbs for wounded veterans.  In 1953 he joined the NBC television network working for many live shows for a six-year period.  His first movie was Around the World in Eighty Days.  He worked on The List of Adrian Messenger that featured the gimmick of having the audience guess which famous stars were under Chambers' makeup.  Chambers also worked on The Munsters and The Outer Limits TV series.  His work became known worldwide in the Planet of the Apes series, for which he won a special Academy Award.  Chambers worked on the pilot of Mission Impossible and created the pointed ears worn by Leonard Nimoy in the original Star Trek television series.  He has a "star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Served in WW2 as dental technician.
Gower Champion
Gower Champion

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U.S. Coast Guard

WW2 Victory Medal
American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer.  In the early 1950s, he made several film musicals: Mr. Music (1950), Show Boat (1951), Lovely to Look At (1952), the autobiographical Everything I Have Is Yours (1952), Give a Girl a Break (1953), Jupiter's Darling (1955), and Three for the Show (1955).   In 1948, Champion had begun to direct as well, and he won the first of eight Tony Awards for his staging of Lend an Ear.  He had a solid success with Bye Bye Birdie (1960).  In 1964, he directed one of Broadway's biggest blockbusters, Hello, Dolly! for which he won two Tony Awards for direction and choreography.

Served in WW2.
Charles Champlin
Charles Champlin

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U.S. Army

Purple Heart
WW2 Victory Medal
American film critic and writer.  Champlin was a writer and correspondent for LIFE and TIME Magazine for seventeen years, and was a member of the Overseas Press Club.  He joined the Los Angeles Times as entertainment editor and columnist in 1965, principal film critic, and book reviewer.  He is a founder of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and has been a board member of the American Cinematheque.  His television career began in 1971 when he hosted "Film Odyssey" on PBS, introducing classic films and interviewing major directors.  Champlin taught film criticism at Loyola Marymount University from 1969 to 1985, was adjunct professor of film at USC from 1985 to 1996, and has also taught at UC Irvine and the AFI Conservatory.  He has also written many books.

Served in WW2 in the infantry.
Jeff Chandler
Jeff Chandler

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U.S. Army

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
American radio and film actor and singer in the 1950s.  In radio he acted in the dramas Escape, Academy Award Theater, The Whistler, and the radio detective series Michael Shayne.  In radio comedy he played bashful biology teacher Phillip Boynton on Our Miss Brooks.  His first film appearance was in Johnny O'Clock (1947).  In the 1950s, Chandler became a star in western and action movies; Sword In the Desert (1948).  He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Cochise in Broken Arrow (1950).  He repeated the role in The Battle at Apache Pass (1952) and Taza, Son of Cochise (1954).  He was the first actor nominated for an Academy Award for portraying a Native American.  Chandler became a top leading man.  Among the movies of this period are Female on the Beach (1955), Foxfire (1955), Away All Boats (1956), Toy Tiger (1956), Drango (1957), The Tattered Dress (1957), Man in the Shadow (1957), A Stranger in My Arms (1959), The Jayhawkers! (1959), Thunder in the Sun (1959), and Return to Peyton Place (1961).

Served in WW2 as a Cavlary officer, mostly in the Aleutians.  His enlistment record for the Cavalry on November 18, 1941 gave his height as six foot four inches and his weight as 210 pounds. 
Julia Child
Julia Child

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Office of Strategic Services American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.

Joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) after finding that she was too tall to enlist in the Women's Army Corps (WACs) or in the U.S. Navy's WAVES. She began her OSS career as a typist at its headquarters in Washington, but because of her education and experience soon was given a more responsible position as a top secret researcher working directly for the head of OSS, General William J. Donovan. As a research assistant in the Secret Intelligence division, she typed 10,000 names on white note cards to keep track of officers. For a year, she worked at the OSS Emergency Rescue Equipment Section (ERES) in Washington, D.C. as a file clerk and then as an assistant to developers of a shark repellent needed to ensure that sharks would not explode ordnance targeting German U-boats.  In 1944 she was posted to Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where her responsibilities included "registering, cataloging and channeling a great volume of highly classified communications" for the OSS's clandestine stations in Asia. She was later posted to China, where she received the Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service as head of the Registry of the OSS Secretariat.
Nestor Chylak
Nestor Chylak

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U.S. Army

Silver Star
Purple Heart
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
American umpire in Major League Baseball who worked in the American League from 1954 to 1978.  He umpired in three ALCS, including the first one played (1969, 1972, 1973), serving as crew chief in 1969 and 1973, and in five World Series (1957, 1960, 1966, 1971, 1977), serving as the crew chief in 1971 (in which he called balls and strikes in the decisive Game 7) and 1977.  He also worked in six All-Star Games: 1957, 1960 (both games), 1964, 1973 and 1978, calling balls and strikes in the second 1960 game and in 1973.

Served in WW2 in Europe in the Battle of the Bulge he was wounded by shrapnel from an exploding shell and was hospitalized for eight weeks with an injury that nearly cost him his sight.  He earned both the Silver Star and Purple Heart during his service.
Fred Clark
Fred Clark

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U.S. Navy
& U.S. Army

European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
American film character actor.  , Clark made his film debut in 1947 in The Unsuspected. His 20-year film career included almost 70 films, and numerous television appearances.  Among his films are Ride the Pink Horse (1948), Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948), Flamingo Road (1949), White Heat (1949), Sunset Boulevard (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955), How to Be Very, Very Popular (1955), Daddy Long Legs (1955), Auntie Mame (1958), and Visit to a Small Planet (1960).  He continued making films during the 1960s, most notably a large role in The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964) and John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (1965).  He was more often seen on television, as a regular on Burns and Allen as their neighbor Harry Morton, and guest roles on The Twilight Zone, The Beverly Hillbillies, and I Dream of Jeannie.

Served in WW2 as a Navy pilot (1942) but later joined the Army and spent nearly two years with the Third Army in Europe.
Jerry Clower
Jerry Clower

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U.S. Navy

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
American country comedian best known for his stories of the rural South.  Clower made 27 full length recordings in his 27 year career as a professional entertainer.  In 1973, Clower became a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and remained with that organization until his death.  He was the author of 4 books.

Served in WW2.  Began a 2-year stint immediately after graduating high school in 1944. Upon his discharge, in 1946, he was a Radioman Third Class (RMN3) on the USS Bennington (CV-20) and had earned the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (with two bronze service stars), and the World War II Victory Medal.
Ty Cobb
Ty Cobb

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U.S. Army

WW1 Victory Medal
American Major League Baseball outfielder.  Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the last six as the team's player-manager, and finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics.  Cobb is widely regarded as one of the best players of all time.  He still holds several records as of 2011, including the highest career batting average (.366 or .367, depending on source) and most career batting titles with 11 (or 12, depending on source.)  He retained many other records for almost a half century or more, including most career hits until 1985 (4,189 or 4,191, depending on source), most career runs (2,245 or 2,246 depending on source) until 2001, most career games played (3,035) and at bats (11,429 or 11,434 depending on source) until 1974, and the modern record for most career stolen bases (892) until 1977.  He committed 271 errors in his career, the most by any American League outfielder.

Served in WW1.  In October 1918, Cobb enlisted in the Chemical Corps branch of the United States Army and was sent to the Allied Expeditionary Forces headquarters in Chaumont, France.  He served approximately 67 days overseas before receiving an honorable discharge and returning to the U.S.  Cobb served as a captain underneath the command of Major Branch Rickey, the president of the St. Louis Cardinals.  Other baseball players serving in this unit included Captain Christy Mathewson and Lieutenant George Sisler.  All of these men were assigned to the Gas and Flame Division where they trained soldiers in preparation for chemical attacks by exposing them to gas chambers in a controlled environment.
Nicholas Colasanto
Nicholas Colasanto

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U.S. Navy

WW2 Victory Medal
American actor and television director, known primarily for his role as Coach Ernie Pantusso on the sitcom Cheers.  He also appeared in feature films which include Fat City, Family Plot, and Raging Bull.

Left High School to serve in WW2 from January 22, 1943 to July 3, 1945.  Held the enlisted rate of Coxswain.
John Coltrane
John Coltrane

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U.S. Navy

WW2 Victory Medal
American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, he helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz. 

Served in WW2 enlisting in 1945.  He played in the Navy jazz band once he was stationed in Hawaii.
Sean Connery
Sean Connery

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Royal Navy Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (one of them being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award) and three Golden Globes.  Connery is best-known for portraying the character James Bond, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983 (six "official" EON productions films and the non-official Kevin McClory-helmed Thunderball remake, Never Say Never Again). In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His film career also includes such films as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, Highlander, and The Rock.

Enlisted at age 16 (1946) and served 3 years.
William Conrad
William Conrad

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U.S. Army Air Forces

European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
American actor, film and television director.  He was usually cast as threatening figures, perhaps his most notable role was his first credited one, as one of the gunmen sent to eliminate Burt Lancaster in The Killers. He also appeared in The Naked Jungle.  He also stared Cannon, which ran on CBS from 1971 to 1976.

Served as a fighter in WW2.  On the day he was commissioned in 1943 at Luke Field, he married June Nelson. He left the U.S. Army Air Force with the rank of captain, and as a producer-director of the Armed Forces Radio Service in London.
Hans Conried
Hans Conried

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U.S. Army

WW2 Victory Medal
American comedian, character actor and voice actor.  He played many major classical roles onstage.  After having been a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre Company, he was heard as Professor Kropotkin on the radio show "My Friend Irma" and had various roles on the "Edgar Bergen - Charlie McCarthy Show". He was in the original cast of Cole Porter's 1953 Broadway hit "Can-Can" and stayed with the show for more than a year.  Known for his sharp wit, Conried was in demand as an actor, panelist and narrator, appearing frequently in television series and movies throughout the 60s and 70s.  Perhaps best known for his portrayal of Uncle Tonoose on "The Danny Thomas Show" (1953).

Enlisted in September 1944 during WW2.
Tim Conway
Tim Conway

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U.S. Army American comedian and actor who worked in sitcoms, sketch comedy, and film.  Conway is best known for his role in McHale's Navy as the inept Ensign Charles Parker, and for co-starring alongside Carol Burnett on The Carol Burnett Show which earned him five Emmy Awards.  .

Served in the early 1950s for two years ("defending Seattle").
Jackie Coogan
Jackie Coogan

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U.S. Army
& U.S. Army Air Forces

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films.  Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family.

Served as a flight officer during the Burma Campaign in 1944.
Jackie Cooper
Jackie Cooper

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U.S. Army

WW2 Victory Medal
American actor, TV director, TV producer and executive.  He was a child actor who managed to transition to an adult career.  As of 2011, Cooper's Oscar-nominated performance in Skippy is the earliest nomination (1931) in any Academy Award category in which the nominee is still living.

Served in WW2.
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby

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U.S. Navy American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist.  A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy.  He later starred in his own series, the situation comedy The Bill Cosby Show.  He was one of the major characters on the children's television series The Electric Company for its first two seasons, and created the educational cartoon comedy series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, about a group of young friends growing up in the city.

Join in the mid-1950s and served at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland and at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.  While serving in the Navy as a Hospital Corpsman for four years, Cosby worked in physical therapy with some seriously injured Korean War casualties, which helped him discover what was important to him.
Howard Cosell
Howard Cosell

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U.S. Army

WW2 Victory Medal
American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality.

Served in WW2 in the Army Transportation Corps, where he was promoted to the rank of major.
Wally Cox
Wally Cox

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U.S. Army

WW2 Victory Medal
American comedian and actor, particularly associated with the early years of television in the U.S.  He appeared in the TV series Mr. Peepers (1952 to 1955), plus several other popular shows, and as a character actor in over 20 films.   Wally Cox was the voice of the popular animated cartoon character Underdog.  He also was a guest on the game show What's My Line and on the pilot episodes of Mission: Impossible and It Takes a Thief.  Cox made several appearances on Here's Lucy, as well as The Beverly Hillbillies and evening talk shows.  Cox published a number of books including Mr. Peepers, My Life as a Small Boy, Ralph Makes Good, and a children's book, The Tenth Life of Osiris Oakes.

Served in WW2 for 4 months.
Bob Crane
Bob Crane

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U.S. Army
National Guard
American actor and disc jockey, best known for his performance as Colonel Robert E. Hogan in the television sitcom Hogan's Heroes from 1965 to 1971, and for his murder.

On June 21, 1948, he enlisted in the National Guard and was honorably discharged on May 1, 1950.
Broderick Crawford
Broderick Crawford

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U.S. Army Air Forces

European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
 American stage, film, radio and TV actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his starring role in the television series Highway Patrol.  Started his career in vaudeville with his parents.  Gained fame in 1937, when he starred as Lenny in Of Mice and Men on Broadway.  He appeared in Scandal Sheet (1952), Human Desire (1954), Il bidone (1955), Between Heaven and Hell (1956), and Not as a Stranger (1955).  Crawford was typecast in his television roles as gruff but fearless characters.  He worked in 140 motion pictures and television series during his career and remained an especially durable presence in television.  He is one of the few performers who have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6901 Hollywood Boulevard and another for television at 6734 Hollywood Boulevard.

Served in WW2.  Assigned to the Armed Forces Network in London, he was sent to Britain in 1944 as a sergeant, serving as an announcer for the Glenn Miller American Band.
Johnny Crawford
Johnny Crawford

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U.S. Army

National Defense Service Medal
American character actor, singer and musician.  He first performed before a national audience as a Mouseketeer.  At 12, Crawford rose to fame for playing Mark McCain, the son of the Lucas McCain character, in the popular 1960s ABC western series, The Rifleman, which aired from 1958 to 1963.  He was nominated for an Emmy Award at the age of thirteen for his role.  Crawford had wide popularity with American teenagers and a recording career that generated five Top 40 hits, including the single "Cindy's Birthday," which peaked at #8 on Billboard's Top 40 in 1962.  His other hits included "Proud" (#29, 1963), "Your Nose is Gonna Grow" (#14, 1962) and "Rumors" (#12, 1962).  Among his films are Indian Paint (1965), The Restless Ones (1965), and El Dorado (1967).

Enlisted for two years and worked on training films as a production coordinator, assistant director, script supervisor and occasional actor.  He was an E-5 when he received an honorable discharge in December 1967.
Richard Crenna
Richard Crenna

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U.S. Army

European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
American motion picture, television, and radio actor and occasional television director.  He starred in The Sand Pebbles, Wait Until Dark, Body Heat, the first three Rambo movies, Hot Shots! Part Deux, and The Flamingo Kid.  Crenna played CBS-TV network series Our Miss Brooks, and ABC's TV comedy series The Real McCoys, (1957-1963).

Served in WW2 as an infantry radioman where he saw combat duty in the European theater at the Battle of the Bulge. He later served in the Pacific theater decoding Japanese intercepts.
Donald Crisp
Donald Crisp

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British Army
& U.S. Army Reserves

European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
British War Medal
Victory Medal
English-American film actor.  He was also an early motion picture producer, director and screenwriter.  He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1942 for his performance in How Green Was My Valley.  From 1908 to 1930, in addition to directing dozens of films, he also appeared in nearly 100 silent films, though many in bit or small parts.  One notable exception was his casting by Griffith as General Ulysses S. Grant in Griffith's landmark film The Birth of a Nation in 1915.  Crisp directed some 70 films in all, most notably The Navigator (1924) with Buster Keaton and Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925).  Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, he appeared in a wide range of roles alongside some of the era's biggest stars, including Katharine Hepburn in The Little Minister (1934), Charles Laughton and Clark Gable in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Bette Davis and Henry Fonda in That Certain Woman (1937), Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights (1939), Errol Flynn in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) and The Sea Hawk (1940), and Gregory Peck in The Valley of Decision (1945).

Served as a trooper in the 10th Hussars in the Boer War, in WW1 he served in British army intelligence, and he later served served in U.S. Army Reserves during WW2, where he rose to the rank of colonel.
Robert Cummings
Robert Cummings

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U.S. Army Air Forces

WW2 Victory Medal
American motion picture and television actor.  Cummings performed mainly in comedies, but was effective in his few dramas, especially two Alfred Hitchcock films, Saboteur (1942) and Dial M for Murder (1954).

In November 1942, he joined the United States Army Air Corps.  During the war he served as a flight instructor.  He had worked as a flight instructor for many years prior to the war.  He was, in fact, the first certified flight instructor in the United States, having gained certification in 1938.  After the war, he served as a pilot in the United States Air Force Reserve.
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis

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U.S. Navy

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s.  He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama.  In his later years, Curtis made numerous television appearances.  He won his first serious recognition as a skilled dramatic actor in Sweet Smell of Success (1957).  The following year he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in another drama, The Defiant Ones (1958).  Curtis then gave what many believe was his best acting in Some Like It Hot (1959).  That was followed by the comedy Operation Petticoat (1959), Sex and the Single Girl (1964), and The Great Race (1965).  His dramas included playing the slave Antoninus in Spartacus (1960) , The Outsider (1961), and The Boston Strangler (1968).  Curtis appeared frequently on television; he co-starred with Roger Moore in the TV series The Persuaders!.  Later, he co-starred in McCoy and Vega$.  In the early 1960s, he was immortalized as "Stony Curtis," a voice-over guest star on The Flintstones.

Served in WW2 after Pearl Harbor was bombed and war was declared.  Chose submarine duty and served aboard USS Proteus, a submarine tender.

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