10 More War Movie Actors Who Were Actually There

Tyrone Power had one of the most intense gazes to have ever graced the big screen - never mind just Hollywood's Golden Age. Synonymous with the adventure genre pre-war for his starring turns in The Mark of Zorro and The Black Swan, Power's most iconic post-war roles were in film noir, namely as Stanton Carlisle in Edmund Goulding's Nightmare Alley (later remade by Guillermo del Toro with Bradley Cooper in the same role) and as Leonard Vole in Billy Wilder's peerless courtroom drama, Witness for the Prosecution. Power also starred in the occasional war picture, both of which revolved around the threatre in which he served during World War II - the Pacific.

Already an established screen presence by the time the United States declared war on Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Power enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1942, advancing to the rank of Second Lieutenant after completing flight training. Power, a civilian pilot before the war, soon found himself in the cockpit of a Curtis Commando, delivering supplies and extracting wounded servicemen in the battles of Iwo Jima and Saipan. He ended the war with three campaign medals, and resumed his film career in 1946.

Prior to his deployment, Power had actually starred in two World War II pictures. The first, A Yank in the R.A.F., saw Power portray an American volunteer fighter pilot in the British military before the United States' formal entry into the war. The second was Crash Dive, a navy picture where Power played an officer aboard a submarine hunting Japanese targets in the Pacific. Neither truly reflected the actor's coming wartime experience, but it is intriguing to see him in that pilot role years before he enlisted.

The final World War II film Power starred in (and arguably the strongest) was American Guerilla in the Philippines, directed by the legendary Fritz Lang. Power again plays a torpedo boatman, only this time the action takes place during the Japanese invasion of the Philippine islands and Power's character (Chuck Palmer) joins the Filipino Resistance. Again, it doesn't come close to reflecting Power's actual wartime activities, but it remains an intriguing if not forgotten effort in the actor's filmography.