22 Actors Who Served In The Armed Forces

A post on Reddit about David Niven being “the only British star in Hollywood to enlist during World War 2” recently went viral, seemingly because people nowadays assume all actors are powdered prima-donnas, however this just isn’t true for all of them.

These are the Hollywood stars that stepped up to the plate when it mattered most and joined the armed forces, including some who even got injured in the line of duty.

David Niven

Niven was a huge Hollywood star when World War II broke out. He put his movie contract with Samuel Goldwyn on hold to return home and enlist in the British Army where he served as a Commando and took part in the Normandy invasion.

Brian Blessed

Gordon’s Alive! Blessed served in the parachute regiment as part of his national service, completing 46 jumps before joining the Bristol Old Vic to train as an actor.

Adam Driver

Best known for the sitcom ‘Girls’, but soon to hit megastardom as Kylo Ren in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’, Adam Driver joined the US Marine Corps shortly after 9/11.

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He never saw active service though as he was discharged for medical reasons following a mountain biking accident.

Alec Guinness

Another ‘Star Wars’ to serve in the armed forces is Obi-Wan Kenobi himself, Sir Alec Guinness. He was a jobbing Shakespearean stage actor working alongside John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier when he was called up for service in the Royal Navy in 1941 where he served as seaman until 1946.

Charlton Heston

The ‘Ben Hur’ star flew as a radio operator and aerial gunner aboard a B-25 during the Second World War while stationed in Alaska, reaching rank of Staff Sergeant.

Tom Selleck

Before Tom Selleck deployed his moustache into active service as ‘Magnum PI’, he served as a soldier in the California Army National Guard from 1967-1973.

Steve McQueen

McQueen’s tough guy movie persona wasn’t an act - he was the real deal. During 3 years of service in the US Marine Corps he saved the lives of five other marines when their tank fell through ice into the freezing cold sea.

Jimmy Stewart

Stewart was an Oscar-nominated actor with 28 films under his belt when he was drafted into the military during WW2. He became a highly-decorated pilot with the US Airforce eventually reaching the rank of Brigadier General before officially retiring from the reserves in 1968.

Sean Connery

Connery acquired two tattoos while serving in the Royal Navy before he went into acting. One reads ‘Mum and Dad’, the other ‘Scotland Forever’. He was later discharged for medical reasons, became a body builder, then a Hollywood icon thanks to 007.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

The future ‘Terminator’ served one year in the Austrian Army in 1965 to fulfill his national service. He went AWOL during basic training to participate in the Junior Mr. Europe contest, which he won, earning himself a week in military prison.

Chuck Norris

Norris served as an Air Policeman in the USAF in 1958. It was during his service in South Korea that he earned the nickname Chuck and gained an interest in martial arts.

Charles Bronson

The ‘Magnificent Seven’ star flew 25 missions while serving in the USAF during WW2. He was an aerial gunner on a B-29 that flew combat missions over Japan, earning a Purple Heart.

Paul Newman

Before he dominated the world of salad dressing and movies, Newman served in the US Navy in the Pacific theater as a turret gunner. He should have been on the USS Bunker Hill when it was the target of a kamikaze attack, but his plane had been grounded after the pilot got an ear infection.

Clint Eastwood

The Western legend was drafted into the US Army in 1951 where he served as a lifeguard and swimming instructor on Fort Ord, California. During his time in the army, he survived a plane crash when the plane he was travelling on ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. He and the pilot swam 3 miles to the shore.

Michael Caine

When he was just plain old Maurice Micklewhite, Caine served in the Royal Fusiliers during his national service from 1952-1954. He was stationed in Germany before seeing active service in the Korean war.

Denholm Elliot

The actor who’s fondly remembered as Marcus Brody in the ‘Indiana Jones’ served as radio operator and gunner in the RAF during WW2. His plane was shot down in 1942 and he served the remainder of the war in a German prisoner of war camp in Poland.

Christopher Lee

Lee had a busy military career during WW2 serving first in the home guard before joining the RAF where he worked in Intelligence and a precursor to the SAS in North Africa, Italy, and Austria.

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His fluency in Russian, French, and German made him very useful in helping to track down Nazi war criminals.

Rob Riggle

American funnyman Rob Riggle found fame on ‘SNL’ and the ‘The Daily Show’ before becoming a regular in the US comedy movie scene with appearances in ‘Step Brothers’, ’21 Jump Street’, ‘Dumb and Dumber To’ and more. Before that though he saw service in the US Marine Corps Reserve in Liberia, Kosovo, Albania, and Afghanistan.

Harvey Keitel

‘Pulp Fiction’ and erstwhile insurance ad star Harvey Keitel served as a US Marine in Lebanon in the 1950s where he took part in Operation Blue Bat as a fire team leader. He later said: “For me the Marine Corps was a spiritual journey. It’s not about war.”

Gene Hackman

Hackman is another veteran of the US Marine Corps. He served four and a half years as a field radio operator and was stationed in China before the Communist Revolution in 1949.

Lee Marvin

Before he became an Oscar-winning actor famous for playing grizzled hard-boiled military types, he was a real military man serving as a Marine in the Pacific during WW2. He was injured during the Battle of Saipan when he was cut down by machine gun fire before being shot in the foot by a sniper. He was later medically discharged.

Mel Brooks

Funnyman Mel Brookes spent WW2 as a corporal with the 78th Infantry Division where he specialized in defusing land mines.

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Image credits: Getty Images/Rex Features