To observe Veterans Day, here’s a Mark Felton piece on World War II veterans who not only became celebrities, but are still alive:
They are:
He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and began as a child actor on BBC radio’s Children’s Hour initially recruited as a Bevin Boy, that is a conscripted mine worker, towards the end of the war he was recruited into the Seaforth Highlanders, and with this unit went to India and then to the war in Burma. Being promoted to Corporal and acting as a headquarters company typist, he then wrangled a transfer to the British Army’s Combined Services Entertainment Unit, serving alongside other future British stars such as Kenneth Williams, actor Peter Vaughan, and director John Slesinger. For his war services, Baxter received the 1939 to 45 star, the Burma star, and the usual War medals. He is currently 97 years old.
Born Melvin Kinsky in 1926, the son of Jewish immigrants to New York City, he started out as a drummer and comedy act with Sid Caesar before the war. In 1944, while in college, Brooks was sent to the US Army specialist training program at the Virginia Military Institute, and later inducted into the US Army. He received basic training as a radio operator and was sent to Europe in February 1945. He served in the campaigns following the Battle of the Bulge as a combat engineer with the 1104 Combat Engineer Battalion, and was part of teams clearing German booby traps and abandoned ordinance in towns in Western Germany, his specialism being the location of landmines. His unit also placed the first Bailey bridge over the Ruhr river, and would go on to build several bridges across the Rhine, serving through to May 1945 when they reached the Harz mountains following the end of World War II. Brooks joined special services as a comic, being promoted to Corporal, and ran the US Army’s entertainments in Wiesbaden in Germany. Brooks was himself honorably discharged in June 1946 as a Corporal. Mel Brooks is currently 97 years old.
Born in 1926 in Toronto of British immigrant parents, Jewison served in the Royal Canadian Navy between 1944 and 45. He was a signaler aboard a Canadian corvette escorting merchant ships up the East Coast from Maine to Newfoundland, from where the freighters and tankers would gathered to cross the Atlantic to Britain. Though German U-boats remained a serious threat until war’s end, he never saw any action, his only contact with the enemy being escorting German uboatman who had surrendered in May 1945. For his war service, Jewison received the 1939 to 45 star, the defense medal, the Canadian volunteer service medal and the war medal. Norman Jewison is currently 97 years old.
Born in 1925 in West Plains, Missouri, he left school in his senior year to enlist in the United States Army Air Force, hoping to train as a pilot. But being underweight, Van Dyke instead became an army radio announcer, then transferred, like Mel Brooks, to the special services as a troop entertainer. Van Dyke did not serve overseas, and was discharged with the rank of Staff Sergeant in 1946, receiving the army Good Conduct Medal. Dick Van Dyke is currently 97 years old.
Born in New Haven Connecticut to Russian and Ukrainian Jewish parents, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Force in September 1942. He served in the Fifteenth Air Force in the Mediterranean theater as a radio operator and air gunner aboard Boeing B-17 flying Fortresses, completing 52 combat missions and reaching the rank of Technical Sergeant. His service earned, him amongst other honors, the Air Medal with Four Oakleaf Clusters, and he was discharged in 1945. Norman Lear is currently 101 years old.
Lear’s liberal politics are not to my taste, but we thank him, and all the other gentlemen on this list, for their service.
Tags: Air Force, army, B-17 Flying Fortress, Dick Van Dyke, Mark Felton, Mel Brooks, Mike Nussbaum, Military, Normal Jewison, Norman Lear, Roger Corman, Stanley Baxter, Veterans Day, video, William Daniels, World War II
I remember seeing Cold Turkey in a double feature with Follow That Dream. Incredible cast, great song by Randy Newman. I’m also skeptical about films I liked in childhood but I’d tty this one again. You can’t go wrong with Bob and Ray.
52 combat missions on a B-17 is nothing to sneer at, Loony Liberal or not. I hadn’t known that about him and respect him more for it.
My father served in World War II, not in combat. He was in the Army Air Corps (the predecessor of the Air Force), in the UK, servicing the B-17s. My dad didn’t say much about it, he didn’t beat his chest or anything. It didn’t occur to me until after he went to his reward that, even though he wasn’t in combat, he must have seen some badly injured airmen coming back on ripped up airplanes.
He entered eternity in 2005, and now it’s almost 20 years later, and there aren’t many WWII veterans left. When they’re gone, it will feel strange.
I saw that video, didn’t know the Brits.
My favorite “celebrity” WWII vets are Jimmy Stewart and Yogi Berra.
Mr Stewart falling apart in the bar scene in It’s a Wonderful Life was not just acting, he was bad off after so many missions over Germany.
Yogi Berra was a radioman on D Day, running between troops, getting it organized.
Bet it was the fastest he ran. What brave men, who did not dwell on the horrors of war but the joys of peace and their careers.
Lesson to all of us.
Don’t dwell on the worst of your life, excel at what you are best at.
So glad to have known so many of the Greatest Generation. A treasure I’m not sure we can pass on adequately.
Daniels was, of course, well known for his work as Dr. Craig on St. Elsewhere, but here’s a little known clip showcasing his talents just a few years earlier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iSD31ToSC8
I grew up watching the work of most, if not all, of theses guys.
Thank you!
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