SIGforum
Old school actors who played tough guys who WERE tough guys.
August 13, 2018, 11:18 AM
parabellumOld school actors who played tough guys who WERE tough guys.
Lawrence Tierney
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_TierneyAugust 13, 2018, 11:58 AM
SigfestTom Neal
A jealous thug who severely beat Franchot Tone.
August 13, 2018, 12:03 PM
oddball
Steve McQueen.
Had a shitty childhood, stepdad beating the shit out of him. A juvenile gangster. Sent to a boys home. Finally joined the Marines, had a rocky start, but ended up straightening out his life. Was an honest to goodness auto and motorcycle racer. Learned martial arts from Pat Johnson (played a bit part in Enter the Dragon), and of course his friend Bruce Lee. The guy was no fluff muffin.
"I’m not going to read Time Magazine, I’m not going to read Newsweek, I’m not going to read any of these magazines; I mean, because they have too much to lose by printing the truth"- Bob Dylan, 1965
August 13, 2018, 02:44 PM
K0ZZZI want to say that I really like this list. Otherwise, it's a shame that you can point out as good a list of current actors/actresses that have similar backgrounds.
August 13, 2018, 05:20 PM
LS1 GTOEddie Albert
Prior to World War II, and before his film career, Albert had toured Mexico as a clown and high-wire artist with the Escalante Brothers Circus, but secretly worked for U.S. Army intelligence, photographing German U-boats in Mexican harbors.[8] On September 9, 1942, Albert enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and was discharged in 1943 to accept an appointment as a lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V" for his actions during the invasion of Tarawa in November 1943, when, as the pilot of a Coast Guard landing craft, he rescued 47 Marines who were stranded offshore (and supervised the rescue of 30 others), while under heavy enemy machine-gun fire.[9]
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
"If dogs don't go to Heaven, I want to go where they go" Will Rogers
The definition of the words we used, carry a meaning of their own...
August 13, 2018, 05:54 PM
TMatsquote:
Originally posted by K0ZZZ:
I want to say that I really like this list. Otherwise, it's a shame that you can point out as good a list of current actors/actresses that have similar backgrounds.
Obviously, you can’t; however, Rob Riggle served 23 years in the Marine Corps and retired as LTC. He had deployments to Liberia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. As a member of the Daily Show he
joked “that he could kill any other member of the show.” That’s probably a LTG.
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despite them
August 13, 2018, 07:21 PM
germandogsJames Arness
Whoever said you can't buy happiness forgot little puppies.
Gene Hill
August 13, 2018, 07:33 PM
casquote:
Originally posted by oddball:
..but ended up straightening out his life.
Only at the very very end.
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Sliced bread, the greatest thing since the 1911.
August 13, 2018, 07:35 PM
Ke Bo Liquote:
Originally posted by Orguss:
Nobody has mentioned Ronald Reagan?
https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/...ice-of-ronald-reagan
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I think the "check engine" light is burned out
August 13, 2018, 07:40 PM
NavyAgShooterPeter Ortiz. Not a movie star, but appeared in some John Ford and John Wayne movies based on his friendship with Ford from their OSS days in WWII.
Anything in a John Wayne or Schwarzenegger movie pales in comparison with Ortiz' real life exploits, from the French Foreign Legion as a teenager to German POW camps to working with the French underground as a U.S. Marine.
His biography is worth the time to read.
https://www.argunners.com/incr...tiz-in-world-war-ii/August 13, 2018, 09:00 PM
k5blazerLeo Gordon
August 13, 2018, 09:13 PM
andronicusJimmy Stewart. He didn't really play badasses but he chose to fly B17s into Germany for bombing missions when he could easily have gotten out of serving with his celebrity. That is a badass!
August 13, 2018, 09:13 PM
drew3630quote:
Originally posted by k5blazer:
Leo Gordon
I just read his bio in wikipedia. This guy actually served time in San Quentin for armed robbery. He also got a DD from the army but still managed to collect GI Bill benefits?
August 13, 2018, 09:20 PM
CoolRich59quote:
Originally posted by cslinger:
So I have recently watched a couple old flicks with Lee Marvin and it comes to me just how different some of these old guys were vs new / current tough guy actors.
You look at Lee Marvin and you really get that this dude WAS A REAL BAD ASS. He wasn’t acting.
Just musing about an observation. Some of these old Hollywood heroes really were been there done that bad asses.
Lee Marvin immediately came to mind. If I recall, he was in the USMC and fought in the Pacific in WWII.
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“One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.” – Thomas Sowell
August 13, 2018, 09:39 PM
marksman41Sterling Hayden - also a WWII Marine/OSS agent who went in harm's way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Hayden
August 13, 2018, 09:48 PM
NavyAgShooterquote:
Charles Durning.
U.S. Army. Normandy Invasion. CIB. Silver Star. Bronze Star. Three Purple Hearts.
Some accounts list Charles Durning as one of three survivors of the Malmedy massacre during the Battle of the Bulge. He helped identify the bodies afterwards.
August 13, 2018, 10:19 PM
mr kablammoLee Van Cleef was in WWII, in the Navy. I don't think that he was a tough guy in the 'get drunk and fight' pattern but he would sometimes be challenged to prove that he was as hard as in the movies.
Donald Pleasance, of the Great Escape, and the Halloween movies was in the RAF and an actual POW in a german Stalag. He seems like the kind of bloke that you would rather have on your side if you just could not escape from a bar fight.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye". The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, pilot and author, lost on mission, July 1944, Med Theatre.
August 13, 2018, 11:08 PM
Peanut71Clint Eastwood
Crashed in a Douglas AD Bomber in 1951 off the coast of California then swam 3 miles to shore.
August 14, 2018, 02:07 AM
CPD SIGquote:
Originally posted by oddball:
Steve McQueen.
Had a shitty childhood, stepdad beating the shit out of him. A juvenile gangster. Sent to a boys home. Finally joined the Marines, had a rocky start, but ended up straightening out his life. Was an honest to goodness auto and motorcycle racer. Learned martial arts from Pat Johnson (played a bit part in Enter the Dragon), and of course his friend Bruce Lee. The guy was no fluff muffin.
IIRC, He saved a few Marines from drowning in an Amtrac that sunk.
Eddie Albert (Yep, Mr Green Acres himself) is another one that comes to mind.
Was a spy working for OSS prior to WWII spying on Nazi subs, joined the Coast Guard or Navy Reserves, and was responsible for saving the lives of 40+ Marines at the Battle of Tarawa.
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"When its time to shoot, shoot. Dont talk!"
“What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It’s not good at much else.” —Author Tom Clancy
August 14, 2018, 02:30 AM
Texas Bob C.Lee Marvin, my favorite actor.