SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lair    Old school actors who played tough guys who WERE tough guys.
Page 1 2 3 4 5 
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Old school actors who played tough guys who WERE tough guys. Login/Join 
Live Slow,
Die Whenever
Picture of medic451
posted Hide Post
Victor McLaglen

Wiki-
Military service
McLaglen left home at 14 to join the British Army with the intention of fighting in the Second Boer War. However, much to his chagrin, he was stationed at Windsor Castle in the Life Guards and was later forced to leave the army when his true age was discovered.

Four years later, he moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where he became a local celebrity,[8] earning a living as a wrestler and heavyweight boxer, with several notable wins in the ring.[9]He also briefly served as a constable in the Winnipeg Police Force in 1907.

One of his most famous fights was against heavyweight champion Jack Johnson in a six-round exhibition bout.

This was Johnson's first bout since winning the heavyweight title from Tommy Burns. Between bouts, McLaglen toured with a circus, which offered $25 to anyone who could go three rounds with him.

He returned to Britain in 1913 and during the First World War served as a captain (acting) with the 10th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment. Later, he claimed to have served with the Royal Irish Fusiliers. He served for a time as military Assistant Provost Marshal for the city of Baghdad.[12] He continued boxing, and was named heavyweight champion of the British Army in 1918.[10]

After the war, he continued boxing.



"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I require the same from them."
- John Wayne in "The Shootist"
 
Posts: 3513 | Location: California | Registered: May 31, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Live Slow,
Die Whenever
Picture of medic451
posted Hide Post
And also Jack Palance...



"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I require the same from them."
- John Wayne in "The Shootist"
 
Posts: 3513 | Location: California | Registered: May 31, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Ayatollah of Rock 'n' Rollah
Picture of Replacement Tommel
posted Hide Post
quote:
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.


Adam Driver was a Marine. He enlisted after 9/11 and was a 81mm Mortarman. Got a medical discharge after he broke his sternum.



Wes Studi served in Vietnam.



-Tom


__________________________

"For the cause that lacks assistance/The wrong that needs resistance/For the Future in the distance/And the Good that I can do" - George Linnaeus Banks, "What I Live for"
 
Posts: 10567 | Location: Boyertown, PA USA | Registered: July 17, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
For you older than dirt people like me John Russell from "The Lawman" and later Pale Rider.


Whoever said you can't buy happiness forgot little puppies.

Gene Hill
 
Posts: 626 | Registered: July 12, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Charmingly unsophisticated
Picture of AllenInAR
posted Hide Post
I find it interesting how the "old school" guys tended to keep quiet about their service and/or not use it to their advantage.

Class acts.


_______________________________

The artist formerly known as AllenInWV
 
Posts: 16253 | Location: Harrison, AR | Registered: February 05, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Semper Fi - 1775
Picture of Ronin1069
posted Hide Post
LOL

How the hell has the ultimate ‘tough guy’ not made this list.

Chuck Norris. Honorably serviced in the Air Force and has won a metric shit-ton of martial arts competitions.


___________________________
All it takes...is all you got.
____________________________
For those who have fought for it, Freedom has a flavor the protected will never know

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
 
Posts: 12427 | Location: Belly of the Beast | Registered: January 02, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
SIGforum's Berlin
Correspondent
Picture of BansheeOne
posted Hide Post
I hesitate to bring up Alain Delon, because he is probably not a good role model; either his early life was too close to his screen persona as a stone-cold killer/gangster/renegade for comfort, or it is a carefully constructed image. He did however enlist in the French Navy at age 17, was trained as a radioman, then caught stealing stuff, and given a choice between prison and extending his term from three to five years. Taking the latter, he was sent to Indochina as a marine. He latter said learning to kill there was the best time of his life; a superior allegedly called him a sadist who enjoyed killing entirely too much. I have some doubts about this; per French Wiki, he served in a company protecting Saigon, and while the fusiliers marins conducted riverine operations in Indochina, they are a small corps frequently used as security troops for naval shore installations, with little opportunity for free-ranging killing sprees.

Anyway, Delon spent the last eleven months of his service in military prison before being dishonorably discharged for ditching a stolen jeep in an arroyo after a joyride. While drifting from job to job afterwards, he allegedly made friends in the criminal scene of Marseilles, and remained close to the head of a Corsican mob clan. Two of his bodyguards and ex-/present lovers of his then-wife Nathalie wound up dead in the 60s; one got shot at a party at Mickey Rooney's house in Hollywood both men attended, the other was found wrapped up with his head bashed in at a Paris dump. The latter left a note saying "if something happens to me, it's the fault of Alain Delon and his gangster friend Marcantoni". It was a major affair because the guy had allegedly been taking pictures at high society sex parties including Delon and the wife of French prime minister Georges Pompidou, but was never resolved; suspiciously like a French crime movie.
 
Posts: 2464 | Location: Berlin, Germany | Registered: April 12, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Get Off My Lawn
Picture of oddball
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Ronin1069:
LOL

How the hell has the ultimate ‘tough guy’ not made this list.

Chuck Norris.


Mentioned on the first page.



"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
 
Posts: 17469 | Location: Texas | Registered: May 13, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Stupid
Allergy
Picture of dry-fly
posted Hide Post
My vote too!



quote:
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.


"Attack life, it's going to kill you anyway." Steve McQueen...
 
Posts: 7101 | Location: TEXAS | Registered: July 18, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
I once read that Dennis Franz was a combat infrantyman in Vietnam. According to wiki he served with the 82nd and 101st. Retired from acting.
 
Posts: 1623 | Location: Texas Hill Country | Registered: April 07, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
I've often wondered what some of those who later acted in War movies thought about while making the movie after their real experiences in War.
 
Posts: 4472 | Registered: November 30, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Captain Morgan
posted Hide Post
R. Lee Ermey
Mr. T



Let all Men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly: Men freely ford that see the shallows.
Benjamin Franklin
 
Posts: 3975 | Location: Sparta, NJ USA | Registered: August 16, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
E tan e epi tas
Picture of cslinger
posted Hide Post
Wow thanks for all the reading.

Not a role model to be sure but Danny Trejo comes to mind. Prison, boxing etc. this all makes his role in A Very Harold and Kumar a Christmas even funnier to me.

Never knew about David Niven.


"Guns are tools. The only weapon ever created was man."
 
Posts: 7981 | Location: On the water | Registered: July 25, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Leave the gun.
Take the cannoli.
posted Hide Post
Bad-ass old school actors?

Steve McQueen
Lee Marvin
 
Posts: 6634 | Location: New England | Registered: January 06, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Banned
posted Hide Post
Jack Palance. ++1
 
Posts: 21829 | Registered: October 17, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Not exactly an actor/actress, Queen Elizabeth was a military truck driver during WW2. At the time she was only a Princess.
 
Posts: 2164 | Location: south central Pennsylvania | Registered: November 05, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Leave the gun.
Take the cannoli.
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Chris42:
Not exactly an actor/actress, Queen Elizabeth was a military truck driver during WW2. At the time she was only a Princess.


Someone didn’t read the cslinger’s original post Wink
 
Posts: 6634 | Location: New England | Registered: January 06, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lost
Picture of kkina
posted Hide Post
Robert Conrad (Wild, Wild West) was considered a legitimately skilled boxer. William Conrad (Cannon) was a fighter pilot in WWII.



ACCU-STRUT FOR MINI-14
"First, Eyes."
 
Posts: 17128 | Location: SF Bay Area | Registered: December 11, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
SIGforum's Berlin
Correspondent
Picture of BansheeOne
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by PD:
quote:
Originally posted by Chris42:
Not exactly an actor/actress, Queen Elizabeth was a military truck driver during WW2. At the time she was only a Princess.


Someone didn’t read the cslinger’s original post Wink


If we're doing Brits from the general entertainment field, I nominate singer James Blunt. Actual family name Blount, from a military family that goes back to about when the Danes invaded England in the 10th century. Followed in the footsteps of his father who was a cavalryman and helicopter pilot, went to Sandhurst Military Academy and served in the Life Guards Regiment of the Household Cavalry. Volunteered to deploy to Kosovo with the Blues and Royals sister regiment in 1999 as a Scimitar reconnaissance vehicle troop leader. Apparently his unit was point in the NATO drive on Pristina airport that was eventually taken by the Russians in a surprise move, resulting in a tense stand-off.

He later stood guard at the Queen Mother's coffin and got out as a captain in 2002 before launching his musical career. "No bravery" was written while he was in Kosovo, and the video features footage from the video diary he did during his deployment.

 
Posts: 2464 | Location: Berlin, Germany | Registered: April 12, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Poacher
posted Hide Post
James Garner. Marine during Korea, wounded twice and didn't receive his second PH until 1983.

Pretty much the whole cast of The Great Escape it seems.




NRA Life Member

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Teddy Roosevelt
 
Posts: 2256 | Location: Newnan, GA USA | Registered: January 24, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata Page 1 2 3 4 5  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lair    Old school actors who played tough guys who WERE tough guys.

© SIGforum 2024