Warren Oates
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U.S. Marine Corps
 |
American actor best known
for his performances in several films directed by Sam Peckinpah
including The Wild
Bunch (1969) and
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974). He starred in
numerous films during the early 1970s which have since achieved cult
status including
The Hired Hand (1971),
Two-Lane
Blacktop (1971) and
Race with the
Devil (1975). Oates also portrayed Sergeant Hulka in the box office
hit
Stripes (1981).
Joined at 18 in 1946, because "I figured if I didn't, I'd end up in
jail." He served two years as an airplane mechanic. |
Hugh O'Brian
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U.S. Marine Corps
|
American actor, known for
his starring role in the ABC television series
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955 to 1961). During his
early years with Universal he was confined as a secondary player to
standard action pictures such as
Red Ball Express
(1952), Son of Ali Baba
(1952) and Seminole
(1953). In 1954, he left Universal to freelance and was offered
the starring role in The
Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955) on TV, a year later. It
became a mainstay hit and Hugh an overnight star. During his
six-year run on the western classic, he managed to show off his singing
talents on variety shows and appeared on
Broadway.
He remained a durable talent throughout the 1960s and 1970s with
plentiful work on the summer stock stage and on TV, including the series
Search (1972).
Served in WW2. Dropped out of the University of Cincinnati after
one semester to enlist. Only 17, he became the youngest Marine drill
instructor in the U.S. He served 4 years and was discharged in 1947. At one
point he turned down an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, deciding
instead to enroll at Yale University to study law. |
Pat
O'Brien
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U.S. Navy
 |
American film actor with
more than one hundred screen credits. O'Brien appeared with James
Cagney in nine feature films, including
Angels
with Dirty Faces (1938) and Cagney's last film,
Ragtime (1981). O'Brien may be best remembered for his role as
a police detective in
Some Like It Hot
and the title role of a football coach in
Knute
Rockne, All American (1940), where he gave the speech to "win just
one for the Gipper". On April 4, 1957, he guest starred in the
first season of the NBC variety program,
The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. He had a small
role as Burt Reynolds' father in the 1978 comedy film
The End.
Served during WW1. Reportedly, he also served with Jack Benny at
Great Lakes Naval Station. |
Carroll
O'Connor
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U.S. Merchant Marine
|
American actor,
producer and
director whose television career spanned four decades. Known at
first for playing the role of Major General Colt in the 1970 movie,
Kelly's Heroes,
he later found fame as the
bigoted working man
Archie Bunker,
the main character in the 1970s
CBS television
sitcoms
All in the Family (1971 to 1979) and
Archie
Bunker's Place (1979 to 1983). O'Connor later starred in the
NBC television
crime drama
In the Heat of the Night from 1988 to 1995, where he played the
role of southern Police Chief William (Bill) Gillespie.
During
WW2 was rejected by the
United States
Navy and instead enrolled in the
United States Merchant Marine Academy for a short time.
However, he left that institution and became a merchant seaman. |
Laurence Olivier
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Royal Naval Reserve
 |
English
actor,
director, and
producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the
20th century. Olivier played a wide variety of roles on stage and
screen from Greek tragedy,
Shakespeare and
Restoration
comedy to modern American and British drama. Olivier's
AMPAS acknowledgments are considerable... fourteen Oscar nominations,
with two wins (for Best Actor and Best Picture for the 1948 film
Hamlet), and two honorary awards including a statuette and
certificate. He was also awarded five
Emmy awards from the nine nominations he received. Additionally, he
was a three-time
Golden Globe and
BAFTA winner. He appeared in nearly sixty films.
Served in WW2 and rose to the
rank of
Lieutenant
as a pilot in the
Fleet Air Arm. |
Harry
O'Neill
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U.S. Marine Corps
|
American professional
baseball player who played catcher in the Major Leagues in 1939. He
would play for the Philadelphia Athletics. O'Neill was one of two Major
League Baseball players to die during WW2. The other was Elmer
Gedeon.
Served in WW2 as a lieutenant with the 4th Marine Division and was
killed by a sniper during the battle of Iwo Jima. |
Henry O'Neill
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Unknown
|
American film actor known
for playing gray-haired fathers, lawyers, and similarly dignified roles
during the 1930s and 1940s. He began his acting career on the
stage, after dropping out of college to join a traveling theatre
company. After serving in the military returned to the stage.
In the early 1930s he began appearing in films, including
The Big
Shakedown (1934) with Bette Davis, the Errol Flynn Western
Santa Fe Trail (1940), the Frank Sinatra/Gene Kelly musical
Anchors Aweigh (1945),
The Green Years (1946), and
The Reckless
Moment (1949). His last film was
The Wings of
Eagles (1957), starring John Wayne. He appeared in over 70
films from 1933 to 1957, and 25 Broadway plays.
Served in WW1. |
George Oppen
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U.S. Army
|
American poet, best known as
one of the members of the Objectivist group of poets. He abandoned
poetry in the 1930s for political activism, and later moved to Mexico to
avoid the attentions of the House Un-American Activities Committee.
He returned to poetry and to the United States in 1958, and received the
Pulitzer Prize in 1969.
Served in WW2. Saw active service on the
Maginot Line and the Ardennes; he was seriously wounded south of the
Battle of the Bulge. Shortly after he was wounded, his
division helped liberate the concentration camp at Landsberg am Lech.
He was awarded the Purple Heart. |
