In 1941, when the United States entered the war, Wayne was already 34 years old, which was above the age limit for the draft. However, he expressed his desire to serve his country and tried to enlist in the military, but was rejected due to a football injury he had sustained earlier in his life.
Wayne was exempted from service due to his age (34 at the time of Pearl Harbor) and family status (classified as 3-A – family deferment). Wayne repeatedly wrote to John Ford saying he wanted to enlist, on one occasion inquiring whether he could get into Ford's military unit.
Military service. In March 1951, Eastwood was drafted by the United States Army and assigned to Fort Ord in California, where he was appointed as a lifeguard and projectionist of training films.
The actor John Wayne never served in the U.S. military, but the classic "John Wayne" served through World War II, the Korean War and in Vietnam, right up until the early 1980s.
Frank Sinatra never went to war, but he did in the movies. Classified as 4F (not acceptable for service in the Armed Forces) by his local draft board due to a pierced eardrum, Sinatra spent the war years at home achieving fame and success.
Martin was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II but was discharged after 14 months due to a hernia. In October 1941, Martin married Elizabeth "Betty" Anne McDonald in Cleveland, and the couple had an apartment in Cleveland Heights for a while.
Hitchcock was too young to enlist when the First World War started in July 1914, and when he reached the required age of 18 in 1917, he received a C3 classification ("free from serious organic disease, able to stand service conditions in garrisons at home ... only suitable for sedentary work").
Jack Nicholson retired from the US Army as a Brigadier General after 30 years active duty in Germany, Lebanon, Vietnam, Korea, Switzerland, and the USA.
When Clint Eastwood - and the spaghetti subgenre with which he was best associated – came along, the ideals of unambiguous morality, American Exceptionalism, and Manifest Destiny were torn apart.
Fonda served for three years, initially as a Quartermaster 3rd Class on the destroyer USS Satterlee. He was later commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in Air Combat Intelligence in the Central Pacific and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Navy Presidential Unit Citation.
In 1957, Nicholson joined the California Air National Guard, a move he sometimes characterized as an effort to "dodge the draft"; the Korean War era's Military Selective Service Act was still in force, and draftees were required to perform up to two years of active duty.
Air Force veteran Chuck Norris, a native of Oklahoma who learned martial arts while stationed in South Korea, went on to become a world-famous karate champion in the 1960s and 1970s. Norris eventually parlayed his fighting skills into an acting career that showcased his smooth voice and powerful roundhouse kicks.
Freeman, an Air Force veteran who was the literal voice of God in “Bruce Almighty,” popped by the Pentagon to share some words of inspiration about his service and what it means to pursue one's dreams.
Douglas joined the United States Navy in 1941, shortly after the United States entered World War II, where he served as a communications officer in anti-submarine warfare aboard USS PC-1139. He was medically discharged in 1944 for injuries sustained from the premature explosion of a depth charge.
On March 22, 1941, Jimmy Stewart was drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces. He was assigned to the Army Air Corps as an enlisted man and stationed at Moffett Field, Calif.
Mitchum got drafted into the Army and then got a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing a soldier. He served as a medic at Fort MacArthur, California. Mitchum was married with two sons when he was drafted, so the Army gave him a Dependency Discharge after eight months of service.
Who was JOHN WAYNE'S lifelong BUDDY AND BEST MAN, Ward Bond? A look into the great character actor and best friend of JOHN WAYNE, WARD BOND. How the friendship they shared was on a special level!
Did John Wayne know he was dying while shooting the Shootist?
It is unknown if John Wayne was aware that he was dying of cancer when he agreed to film The Shootist; whatever the case, the film is a powerful valedictory to a rem arkable man and a fabulous career.
Speaking with Peter Travers for Rolling Stone magazine in May 2007, Spielberg said he had two obsessions while studying at California State University Long Beach – making movies and getting good grades so he didn't have to join the US Army and head to the Vietnam War.
Dan is Forrest's platoon leader during the Vietnam War and comes from a military family with a time-honored tradition of dying in combat. During a Vietcong ambush, Lieutenant Dan is badly wounded, but Forrest ignores the command to leave him behind and instead saves his life.
KRON-TV news footage from February 16th 1967 featuring a press conference with actor Robert Mitchum, who has just returned from a 2 week tour of visiting U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. This was his second tour of Vietnam; the first being in 1966.
Errol Flynn did become a U.S. citizen in 1942, four years after filling out his declaration of intention. He attempted to join the U.S. military to serve in World War II, but health problems rendered him ineligible. The National Archives at Riverside holds the naturalization paperwork for many Hollywood stars.
World War II service. Murphy had always wanted to be a soldier. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he tried to enlist, but the Army, Navy and Marine Corps all turned him down for being underweight and underage.
Upon being drafted when he was 19, Springsteen failed the physical examination and avoided service in the Vietnam War because the concussion he had suffered in a motorcycle accident two years prior (and his behavior at induction) reportedly made him unacceptable for service.
