10 More War Movie Actors Who Were Actually There
1. Jimmy Stewart - The Flight Of The Phoenix
Perhaps the most famous actor-veteran of all, James Stewart was one of the most popular film stars of his day when he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps in 1941. The first of many Hollywood stars to serve in the military, Stewart - already a trained pilot - was attached to the 8th Air Force and flew multiple combat missions over Nazi-occupied Europe in a B-24 Liberator, earning multiple decorations in the process along with plenty of anecdotes of his skill and bravery.
However, unlike many of his acting colleagues (and this is the reason why he was omitted from the first list) Stewart didn't actually take on many World War II movies when he resumed his career. In fact, he only starred in two - 1949's Malaya, where he played a civillian, and The Mountain Road, which was set in China, and saw Stewart in the role of a U.S. Army officer. Others, like Strategic Air Command and The Flight of the Phoenix, played on Stewart's wartime record, with both seeing him in the role of characters who served as pilots in the Pacific and European theatres respectively, only now placed in a Cold War setting.
Contemporary accounts lay the reasoning for Stewart's absence in this genre post-war as a result of his combat experiences in WWII, which is said to have had a profound impact on the types of roles and performances the actor took on and gave. He may not have starred in many WWII features, but the conflict loomed large over his career after 1945 and his experiences feel reflected in some of his roles, whether that be George Bailey in Frank Capra's restorative Holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life, or Lin McAdam in Anthony Mann's brilliantly vengeful Winchester '73.
In any case, Jimmy Stewart was a fascinatingly talented and brave individual - a peerless movie star who, like countless others, put it all on hold to serve his country and fight the Nazis.