Farewell Mickey Rooney. RIP "sir" ;-)

Sprue-ce Goose

echolmberg

I enjoy seeing Rooney entertaining the troops in WW2.  Man was he short!  I had read that he was in the Army during the war but did he have other duties besides entertaining the troops?  

Eric

It is my understanding that many US entertainers were in the service wearing a uniform but only entertained US troops.

Some entertainers did, in fact, see combat. The two that come to mind are Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable with both flying in bombers over Germany. I am unclear about how many other entertainers saw actual combat.

The list is quite long actually. I do not know how many movie stars of that era were actors/entertainers beforehand, but many served and saw combat besides Jimmy Stewert. Off the top of my head, aside from the previously mentioned Jimmy Stewert and Glen Ford: Eddie Albert was a boat driver (LCVPs I believe) at Tarawa Richard Todd was a Para in Normandy and fought at Pegasus Bridge Lee Marvin was a Marine in the Pacific- in the "Big Red One" where he is shot, he based his acting upon when he was wounded in battle James Whitmore was another Marine in the Pacific Baseball Star Ted Williams was a Marine Fighter Pilot in WWII and Korea James Garner served (and I believe was wounded) in Korea David Niven and Julia Childs were in the OSS Charleton Heston was in the AAF Rod Serling was a paratrooper with the 11th Airborne in the Phillipines Dirk Bogarde was a Para at Arnhem Robert Montgomery was in the Navy I am fairy certain that there were many more

Yep,I looked up after I posted, don't remember where I heard that.shoulda done my homework first

Raualduke

Glenn ford was a rear admiral  if I'm not mistaken

He made Commander I know. I dont think that he made it up to flag rank.

Raualduke

Read an article this morning that said his entire estate was valued at 18,000. Combination of bad investments and too many ex wives

Read an article this morning that said his entire estate was valued at 18,000. Combination of bad investments and too many ex wives

Stik, I was going to mention him too in my favorite war flick but you beat me to it! I never get tired of watching that movie. Back in the mid 1970's I worked for a police Sergeant who served on the Oriskany when The Bridges at Toko Ri was filmed. He got to meet some of the cast. Sadly, he recently passed away. RIP Sgt. Jay Cuthbert, a sweetheart of a guy and a great cop. RIP Mickey, one heck of a fine actor.

Glenn ford was a rear admiral  if I'm not mistaken

Many thanks for posting those photos, Stikpusher. 

Mr. Rooney in that very memorable role was the first thing I thought of upon hearing of his death.

echolmberg

I enjoy seeing Rooney entertaining the troops in WW2.  Man was he short!  I had read that he was in the Army during the war but did he have other duties besides entertaining the troops?  

Eric

I enjoy seeing Rooney entertaining the troops in WW2.  Man was he short!  I had read that he was in the Army during the war but did he have other duties besides entertaining the troops?  One of my favorite pictures of him is when he's in a flight suit with a P-61 nearby.

Eric

Humm I always found him to be incredibly annoying, but he was a fine actor and a good person, RIP.

Thats a good movie too. Fonderie Miniature (warning) sold a kit of the H-5 with a fig wearing that silly hat.

While checking my facts, I came across this nice page:

en.wikipedia.org/.../Aircraft_in_fiction