Movie Stars Medals

[mcderms]

Just watched an old Sherlock Holmes movie on TV and it occurred to me that most of the British stars of the 30s served during WW1. I know that Rathbone and Bruce did - Basil was gassed and Nigel machine-gunned (they pulled 11 bullets out of his legs).

Does anyone know who else served, what they did and what happened to their medals (i.e. are they on show anywhere). Also how many stars of the early screen met their end during WW1? I am sure many must have fought in WW1 as David Niven did in WW2.

[mutley]

I'm sure a similar topic has been raised before but not being clever enough I cant remember how to search for it, I'm sure another pal will know. I remember two or three of the "Dads Army" characters being mentioned, the actors who played Fraser, Sgt Wilson and Godfrey I think.

[PhilB]

The thread was called Charles Laughton. Phil B

[DirtyDick]

I'm sure a similar topic has been raised before but not being clever enough I cant remember how to search for it, I'm sure another pal will know. I remember two or three of the "Dads Army" characters being mentioned, the actors who played Fraser, Sgt Wilson and Godfrey I think.

I think John Le Mesurier was in a cavalry/tank regiment in WW2 and served in India: he was seemingly only in his late-fifties/early sixties during the filming and thus far too young to have served in WW1, but would have been in his late-20s/30s during WW2. Clive Dunn was younger (only now in his 80s) and was captured (at Dunkirk?) and spent most of the War in a POW camp.

John Laurie, who played Fraser, served in France in 1917-18, I think in an infantry regiment.

I suppose very few film stars - if any - were killed in WW1 since the science was in its infancy in the pre-War years (omitting those real soldiers who starred as themselves in propaganda/anti-war films in the last years of the War); and since Hollywood predominated in this field and the US call-up was so much less widespread (and desperate) than in Europe, this is not too surprising. However, many of the film stars of the 1920s -30s must have seen service.

I suppose Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel didn't want to return to UK during the War in case they were called-up for service.

Richard

[priv]

I remember this thread from before too:

Private Fraser - was in the H.A.C. Infantry and if I recal he was invalided out due to sickness or TB or something like that.

Private Godfrey - Arnold Ridley, who if I recall also wrote the play "The Ghost Train" (though I may be wrong) won the MM - the online MIC's show one William Arnold Ridley who was with the Som L I

Sorry for the scraps......

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

Michael Caine{Maurice Micklewight} was in Korea~ Not a Lot of People know that!

[eviltaxman]

Private Godfrey - Arnold Ridley, who if I recall also wrote the play "The Ghost Train" (though I may be wrong) won the MM - the online MIC's show one William Arnold Ridley who was with the Som L I

Priv,

I think you're right about the MM. In one episode Mainwaring saw a photo of Godfrey wearing it...... from what I've read (can't remember where - probably the "official" BBC Dad's Army site) that it was Ridleys own photo.

Les.

[mcderms]

I'm not sure what Stan Laurel was up to during WW1 but he may have been too young? Most of the British character actors that fill out the films of the 1930s served though...

In the Adventures Of Robin Hood, you have Basil Rathbone, Donald Crisp, Herbert Mundin who all served. I wonder where there medals ended up given all the estate sales in the 60s and 70s before memoraqbili became such big business.

[DirtyDick]

I think Stan Laurel was born 1889/90, so he would have been the perfect age for a New Army recruit; Chaplin was born a year or so earlier.

However, one cannot (with hindsight and modern values) blame either for not doing so - and no doubt they were of far more value, Chaplin especially during this period, working on the Home Front. In fact, had either taken American citizenship by this stage (or ever)?

Richard

[kingsman64]

Basil Rathbone was a officer in the 10th Battalion the King's Liverpool Regiment The Liverpool Scottish. I think?

[brownag]

Clive Dunn was younger (only now in his 80s) and was captured (at Dunkirk?) and spent most of the War in a POW camp.

Clive Dunn was captured in Greece. He ended the war as a p-o-w on a farm in Austria.

[Will O'Brien]

I think Stan Laurel was born 1889/90, so he would have been the perfect age for a New Army recruit; Chaplin was born a year or so earlier.

However, one cannot (with hindsight and modern values) blame either for not doing so - and no doubt they were of far more value, Chaplin especially during this period, working on the Home Front. In fact, had either taken American citizenship by this stage (or ever)?

Richard

Both Stan Laurel & Charlie Chaplin were in the states during WWI................. Arthur Stanley Jefferson (didn't use the name Stan Laurel until 1918) went to the USA in 1910 as part of the Fred Karno troupe with a certain Charles Spencer Chaplin who co-incidentally he had understudied for in England. Stan left the troupe in 1916 but stayed in the states working with Alice & Baldwin Cooke. He got a contract with Universal Studies in 1917 & met Oliver Hardy a couple of years later. The rest as they say is history.

Charlie Chaplin as I already mentioned also went to the US in 1910 with the Fred Karno troupe. By 1913 he is contracted to Keystone Studios (makers of the Keystone Cops films) & was heavily involved in the US film industry whilst the Great War was being fought.........................See I did learn something from my schooling in Ulverston, the birth place of Stan Laurel .............incidentally when I left home at the tender age of 18 my first bachelor pad flat was a 1 room abomination smack bang above the Laurel & Hardy Museum.............I grew to hate that catchy little musical ditty which can be heard at the start of each one of their films...............The museum opened early on a Sunday morning & played that tune in a continuous loop to attract the punters........ I had usually only been in bed an hour or so after a hard night out on the tiles

[markinbelfast]

http://myweb.lsbu.ac.uk/~stafflag/jimmyedwards.htmlnot WW1 but worthy of note all the same-

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

Michael Caine{Maurice Micklewight} was in Korea~ Not a Lot of People know that!

Royal Fusiliers no less.

And what not a lot of other people know is that he trained with no less than the Krays.

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

Ronald Coleman's attestation paper is used in that well known book on researching the soldiers of WW1.

[Terry_Reeves]

I can say for sure that Arnold Ridley, of Dad's Army fame , did not win the MM. I carried out research into Ridley, and others, who were to become famous in the entertainment world a few years ago for an article on a similar subject. Educated at Bristol University, and a pre-war schoolmaster, he enlisted in 1915. Severely wounded on the Somme in 1916 he was discharged the following year as the result of his wounds. In Oct 1939 he rejoined, serving on the PR staff in France with the BEF in the rank of Major.

Terry Reeves

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

Unfortunately it would appear that a storyline in one of the episodes has transposed itself into an urban myth - a brave man nonetheless.

[Guest Hill 60]

The episode concerning Godfrey's MM involved him being accused of cowadice and/or being a contientious objector by a member of a rival platoon. The rest of his own platoon took objection to him until it transpired he had served as a stretcher bearer and won the MM.....I think

[ArmyOfficer]

And what not a lot of other people know is that he trained with no less than the Krays.

Ian: Did the Krays go to Korea as well?

Also, I heard Oliver Reed was in Korea too....

Kevin

[DirtyDick]

I think the Krays spent much of their National Service (2 yrs) in a Military Prison and therefore never left the UK.

Michael Caine took part in several engagements in Korea, where I believe he was a machine gunner.

Oliver Reed was in the RAMC and served with BOAR in Germany: he may have served in Korea, but I don't think so.

Roger Moore did his national service in the Intelligence Corps and Sean Connery joined the Royal Navy in 1946/7, but only served a year or so before being discharged after having been diagnosed with a duodenal ulcer.

Richard

"Thy Name is Trivia"

[doogal]

I think the Krays spent much of their National Service (2 yrs) in a Military Prison and therefore never left the UK.

The Tower of London no less (briefly anyway)

doogal

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

I did actually say training - I know they did their basic together cos they also did it with my old Drill Instructor

[doogal]

I don't know how long he was in the army, but would Billy Bragg have qualified for a service medal?

doogal

[NIGEL]

David Niven--Will Smith--Audey Murphy--there are hundreds, i saw that Marlene Dietrich was supposed to be a spy dont know if that was true. I know that John Wayne never served.

[Jonathan Saunders]

Not a movie star himself but the father of David Niven is buried on Gallipoli.