5 Hollywood Actors and Directors Who Served In World War I

In the early 20th century, the rise of Germany and the decline of the Ottoman Empire disturbed the long-standing balance of power in Europe, at the same time that unresolved territorial disputes and shifting alliances created rivalries and an arms race between the great powers. Growing tensions reached a breaking point on June 28, 1914, when the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was assassinated by an young Bosnian Serb revolutionary, who intended to free Bosnia and Herzegovina from Austro-Hungarian rule. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia, as the assassination team was helped by a Serbian secret nationalist group, and declared war in the following month. Russia immediately mobilised its troops in Serbia's defense, prompting Germany, who had an alliance with Austria-Hungary, to declare war on both Russia and its ally, France. The United Kingdom subsequently marched against Germany, leading to a widespread conflict.

 

Although the United States was a major supplier of war material to the Allies, it remained neutral in the first years of the war, in large part due to domestic opposition. However, due to Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare, most notably the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, which killed over a hundred American citizens, the U.S. declared war on the German Empire in April 1917. The United States entry into the war was a turning point in the conflict, as it provided the Allied Powers with a massive influx of resources and manpower, which ultimately created a decisive advantage against Germany. The war finally came to a close on November 11, 1918, with the signing of armistices between the Allies and their defeated opponents.

 

LEFT: Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, riding in a car in Sarajevo, just before their assassination, on June 28, 1914. MIDDLE: The front page of La Domenica del Corriere, the illustrated segment published with the Corriere della Sera newspaper in Milan on May 26, 1915, featuring the sinking of the Lusitania. RIGHT: President Woodrow Wilson asking Congress to declare war on Germany, on April 2, 1917.

As with any war, World War I prompted many men from all walks of life to join the armed forces and serve their countries in their hour of need. Some of these men actually became Hollywood movie actors and directors after the war, establishing long-lasting careers and making some of the most iconic films in cinema history. To commemorate Remembrance Day and honour their memory, let us take a look at the valiant efforts of 10 actors and directors who served during World War I.

 

 

Randolph Scott (1898-1987) | United States Army, 1917-1919

Primarily known for his work in Westerns in a successful career that spanned over three decades, Scott joined the North Carolina National Guard in July 1917, four months after of the U.S. declaration of war, and trained as an artillery observer at Fort Caswell. He was promoted to the rank of corporal in October 1917, and again to sergeant in February 1918. In May of that year, he was sent to Fort Monroe, Virginia, and assigned to Battery B of the newly-formed 2nd Trench Mortar Battalion of the United States Army. Later in the month, Scott and his battalion embarked aboard the HMS Cambridgeshire at Port of Embarkation in Boston, Massachusetts, arriving in Liverpool, England, in June. The battalion went to the recently-established American Army Trench Mortar School located at Fort de la Bonnelle, an old stone fortification near the city of Langres, Haute Marne, France. Between September and November 1918, they were in combat with the U.S. IV Corps in the Toul sector and Thiaucourt zone, in north-eastern France. Scott's friend, Andrew H. Hariss, who was also in Battery B, gave an account of what the two men went through during the war:

«As artillery observers, we went into position and on duty as a team. If one of us purposely napped during our 24-hour stretch, the other would cover, in our forward observation bomb-proof shelter, where we observed artillery overs and shorts, rights and lefts, and signaled data to guns as estimated corrections calculated by trigonometry. We were senior-line sergeants and served without interruption until late afternoon on Armistice Day.»

 

Following the Armistice of November 11, 1918, Scott and his battalion saw duty with the U.S. VI Corps, taking part in the Allied occupation of the Rhineland, in Germany. After the war ended, Scott enrolled in the Artillery Officers School in Saumur, in western France. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant of Field Artillery in May 1919, and departed for the United States soon afterwards, aboard the SS Pannonia. He arrived at the New York Harbor in June, and then reported to Camp Mills, where he was honorably discharged from active duty.

 

LEFT: Randolph Scott in Gung Ho! (1943). MIDDLE: American infantry troops in a trench in the Toul sector during World War I (January 1918). RIGHT: American troops crossing into Germany as part of the post-war Allied occupation of the Rhineland region.

  

Merian C. Cooper (1893-1973) | United States Army, 1913-1973

Famous for directing the critically acclaimed film King Kong (1933), Cooper began his military service with his admittance into the prestigious U.S. Naval Academy, but was expelled during his senior year due to his wild nature and disciplinary infractions. In 1916, he joined the Georgia National Guard and took part in the Pancho Villa Expedition in Mexico as a member of the troops led by Brigadier General John J. Pershing. Refusing a commission as a lieutenant, and wanting to participate in direct combat, he went to the Military Aeronautics School in Atlanta to learn to fly and graduated first in his class.

 

In October 1917, Cooper was shipped out to France and assigned to the 20th Aero Squadron of the United States Army Air Service. He flew both combat and reconnaissance missions as a pilot aboard British de Havilland DH-4 bombers powered by American Liberty engines. On September 26, 1918, the opening day of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive — which would lead to the end of the war less than two months later — his plane was struck during a dogfight with a group of German Fokker D.VII fighters and caught fire. With badly burned hands and using only his elbows and knees to control the stick, Cooper crash-landed the plane in a field. German soldiers soon arrived, and took him to a field hospital for treatment. He was presumed dead, and a death certificate signed by General Pershing — who was commander of the American Expeditionary Forces of which the Army Air Service was part of — was even dispatched to his family. A week before the Armistice, the Red Cross sent word that Cooper was alive and recovering from his wounds in a German hospital.

 

LEFT: Merian C. Cooper in his Army Air Service uniform. MIDDLE: A DH-4 bomber, such as Cooper flew, above the clouds in France. RIGHT: American gun crew from Regimental Headquarters Company, 23rd Infantry, firing a 37mm gun in an advance against German positions during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

After the Armistice of November 1918, Cooper decided to remain in the Army Air Service and soon volunteered for the United States Food Administration to provide aid to Poland, which was by now involved in the Polish-Ukrainian War. A staunch anti-communist, he later got permission from Poland's head of state, Marshall Józef Piłsudski, to organize a squadron of American pilots to fight alongside the Poles. The Kościuszko Squadron, as the group became known, was incorporated into the Polish military in December 1919, and then assigned to provide air support for the Polish Army in the Polish-Soviet War. Cooper was in combat daily, usually flying low-altitude missions against the Cossack cavalry.

 

On July 13, 1920, Cooper's plane was shot down behind enemy lines and he ended up being captured by the Cossacks, who sent him to a prisoner-of-war camp near Moscow, in Russia. On the night of April 12, 1921, after nearly nine months of imprisonment, he and two Polish officers managed to slip away unnoticed from a work detail in the forest and safely boarded a train to Latvia. Upon Cooper's return to Poland, Piłsudski awarded him with the highest Polish military decoration, the Virtuti Militari.

 

LEFT: Merian C. Cooper in his Polish Air Force uniform. MIDDLE: Members of the Kościuszko Squadron and their canine mascot preparing to board a train on the way to Poland. Pictured, left to right, are George Crawford, Carl Clark, Merian C. Cooper, Edwin Noble and Arthur Kelly. RIGHT: Merian C. Cooper (middle) and his two Polish compatriots after escaping to Latvia.

Cooper never left military service. When the United States entered World War II, he was commissioned as a colonel the Army Air Forces and worked as a logistics liaison for the Doolittle Raid. He later served as chief of staff for General Claire Chennault of the China Air Task Force, whose mission it was to ensure the safe transport of supplies over the Himalayan Mountains and offer air support to Chinese troops fighting on the ground against the Japanese forces. Between 1943 and 1945, he was the chief of staff for the Fifth Air Force's Bomber Command in the Southwest Pacific. Promoted to brigadier general at the end of the war, he was aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay to witness Japan's unconditional surrender, on September 2, 1945.

 

Walter Brennan (1894-1974) | United States Army, 1917-1919

A three-time Academy Award winner, Brennan enlisted in the U.S. Army in April 1917 and served as a private in the 101st Field Artillery Regiment in France. Sent to the Western Front, he experienced his fair share of trench warfare, confessing that he was «severely frightened 500 times.» On April 3, 1918, he was among the American troops who were gassed with high explosive projectiles northwest of the Toul sector, in the course of intense shelling that lasted through the night. The exposure to mustard gas caused Brennan to lose his lower front teeth and damaged his vocal chords, imbuing his voice with the wizened, reedy quality that became his trademark. In late May and early June 1918, he took part in the Third Battle of Aisne, which halted the German advance towards Paris. The following month, he saw action in the Second Battle of the Marne, the last major German offensive on the Western Front during World War I. In September, he fought in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, the first American-led offensive of the war, and later he was involved in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which culminated with the signing of the Armistice on November 11, 1918. Brennan returned to the United States in April 1919 and was demobilized shortly thereafter, following nineteen months of military service.

 

LEFT: Walter Brennan in his U.S. Army uniform. MIDDLE: Engineers of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division preparing to cross the Marne River near Mézy, France, in July 1918. RIGHT: A column of American troops advancing during the Saint-Mihiel offensive, in September 1918.

 

James Whale (1889-1957) | British Army, 1915-1918

Best remembered for directing the horror classics Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Whale enlisted in the British Army in October 1915, voluntarily joining the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps just before conscription was introduced. He was stationed in Bristol for basic training and billeted with the No. 3 Battalion at the former Deaf and Dumb Institute near Tyndall's Park. In July 1916, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and assigned to the 7th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment. He was subsequently sent to the Western Front, and saw action on the Somme, at Arras, and Passchendaele. On the night of August 25, 1917, while leading a frontal assault on a fortified farm in the Flanders region, Whale was captured by German soldiers, who had killed most of his platoon. After a few days in a camp at Karlsruhe, he was moved to the Holzminden Officers' Camp near Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. While imprisoned, he became involved in staging amateur theatrical productions, as well as painting and gambling. He was repatriated back to England in December 1918, after fifteen months as a prisoner-of-war.

 

LEFT: Portrait of James Whale, c. 1930. MIDDLE: A group of soldiers carrying a wounded comrade during the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. RIGHT: British officers in costume on stage at the Holzminden POW camp, in 1918 (James Whale is sitting at the front, dressed up as a gypsy woman).

William A. Wellman (1896-1975) | French Foreign Legion, 1917-1919

Notable for directing Wings (1927), the first ever film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, Wellman tried to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Service right after the American declaration of war in April 1917, but was rejected due to the lack of a high school diploma. He then decided to go to France and volunteer for the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps, whose mission it was to use motorized ambulances to quickly transport Allied wounded soldiers from the battlefields to hospitals on the Western Front. He departed from New York City on May 20, aboard the French ocean liner SS Rochambeau, arriving in Bordeaux, in southwestern France, on June 1. During a visit to Paris, he joined the French Foreign Legion and was sent to Avord, in the south of France, for aviation training, later going to advanced fighter school for aerobatics and gunnery. In December 1917, he was made a corporal and was assigned to the Nieuport fighter squadron Escadrille N. 87 of the Lafayette Flying Corps, stationed at Lunéville, in the Alsace-Lorraine sector of eastern France.

 

On March 21, 1918, while flying a reconnaissance mission into enemy territory, Wellman's plane was shot down by German anti-aircraft fire. He was found unconscious by a patrol of French soldiers, who took him to a field hospital for treatment. He had broken his back in two places, had shrapnel in his face, and was suffering from internal bleeding; his injuries would cause him to walk with a pronounced limp for the rest of his life. A week later, Wellman, having been promoted to the rank of the rank of sergeant, was discharged from the Lafayette Flying Corps. He was credited with four confirmed aerial victories and three probables, and dozen of enemy planes destroyed on the ground, which earned him the Croix the Guerre with two palms.

 

LEFT: William A. Wellman during training at Avord. MIDDLE: William A. Wellman (second from left) with his instructor to his right and mechanics in front of a Blériot trainer at Avord. RIGHT: William A. Wellman and his Nieuport 24 fighter, nicknamed Celia after his mother (c. 1917).

 

After more than a month of rehabilitation in France, Wellman returned to the United States and spoke at various war rallies in his French uniform. Yearning to return to the battlefront, he joined the U.S. Army Air Service, but failed his physical examination due to his injured back. An officer he had known in the Lafayette Flying Corps interceded on his behalf, and he was eventually commissioned as a first lieutenant and ordered to Rockwell Field, in San Diego, California, where he served as a flight instructor. He was mustered out of the Army following the Armistice of November 1918.

 

 

For more Hollywood personnel who served during World War I, read 10 Hollywood Actors Who Served in World War I. 

 

 

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SOURCES:

The Films of Randolph Scott by Robert Nott (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2015)

A Real American Character: The Life of Walter Brennan by Carl Rollyson (University Press of Mississippi, 2015) 

Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel by William Wellman, Jr. (Pantheon Books, 2015)  

«Before Creating 'King Kong,' He Fought the Soviets from the Air» by Tom Huntington at Historynet (July 27, 2022) 

«The Extraordinary Life of Merian C. Cooper» by Damian Lucjan at War History Online (September 12, 2016) 

«The History of the 2nd Trench Mortar Battalion, C.A.C. During WWI» by Joe Hartwell (January 30, 2004)

«James Whale» by Jonathan Rowe at OutStories Bristol (2021) 

«James Whale: The Monster Man» by Kris Somerville (The Missouri Review, February 1, 2018) 

«Merian Cooper, Conquering Hero» by Roger D. McGrath at Chronicles magazine (May 2022)

«Wild Bill Wellman's Hundred Lives» by Roger D. McGrath at Chronicles magazine (December 2024)