![]() His Irish immigrant father, who lost a leg in World War I, died from the effects of mustard gas exposure when Durning was 12. Five of his sisters died of smallpox and scarlet fever. 28, 1923, in Highland Falls, N.Y., Durning was one of 10 children. “I do a play a year … somewhere.”īorn Feb. “You make the money in movies and TV so you can do theater,” said Durning. “If I had my druthers, I would do only stage work,” he told the Asbury Park Press of New Jersey in 2000 during a break in rehearsals for “Glengarry Glen Ross” in Princeton and only two months after completing a tour of “The Gin Game” with Julie Harris, with whom he starred in the 1997 Broadway revival. © 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc.More recently, Durning played the father of Denis Leary’s New York firefighter in the TV series “Rescue Me” - a recurring role that earned him the last of the nine Emmy nominations he received since his first for “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom.”ĭurning’s first love was the stage, which included his Tony Award-winning performance as Big Daddy in the 1990 Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” The writer later fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was among the American troops who liberated the Dachau concentration camp - an experience, some say, that haunted such stories as “For Esmé – With Love and Squalor.” It later came out that he was carrying the first six chapters of what became “The Catcher in the Rye.” Salinger was an Army sergeant who hit the bloody shore at Utah Beach on D-Day. Salinger worked on the novel during the war. Salinger, US Army “Catcher in the Rye” author J.D. ![]() ![]() The Yankee Hall of Famer manned a 50-foot rocket-launcher boat at Normandy that sat some 60 feet from the beach. Yogi Berra is a star from a different field - the baseball field - who risked his life on D-Day. Niven later starred in the Oscar-nominated WWII film “The Guns of Navarone.” Seaman Second Class Yogi Berra, US Navy Former Yankee slugger Yogi Berra manned a 50-foot rocket-launcher boat at Normandy on D-Day. As part of the Phantom Signals Unit, he helped locate and report enemy positions. Niven took part in the invasion of Normandy, landing there a few days after D-Day. Everett Collection (2)ĭavid Niven, working with his country’s Army Film Unit, made two movies during the war - “The First of the Few” (1942) and “The Way Ahead” (1944) - with an eye on helping to gain support for the war effort. David Niven, British army David Niven played the part of a soldier both on screen and off. One bullet hit him in the chest, but was stopped by a silver cigarette case he was carrying.īefitting his future role keeping the Enterprise flying, Doohan was also a pilot with a wild reputation that earned him the nickname “craziest pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force.” Lt. The Royal Canadian Artillery Regiment soldier caught several rounds on the first morning of the landing and lost a finger. Getty ImagesĬanada’s James Doohan, best known as Scotty from “Star Trek,” landed on Juno Beach on D-Day. James Doohan, 13th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division “Star Trek’s” James Doohan served in Royal Canadian Artillery Regiment. Ironically, he netted an Oscar nomination for playing a Nazi officer in the 1983 remake of “To Be or Not to Be,” with Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft. He earned three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star for his service. Later on, in Belgium, he was stabbed by a German soldier whom he killed with a rock.ĭurning then fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was captured with his company - he was among the few to escape the German massacre of the prisoners. He was the only member of his unit to survive a machine gun ambush. ![]() 20th Century Fox/Everett Collection (left) Getty Images (right)Ĭharacter actor Charles Durning - Jessica Lange’s besotted father in “Tootsie” - enlisted in the Army and was among the first wave of American soldiers to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Charles Durning, US Army Though Durning played a Nazi in “To Be or Not to Be” (left), he served his country proud on D-Day. Looking back at D-Day on Friday’s 70th anniversary of the Allied invasion, many of us know the event that changed the course of WWII only through such great films as “The Longest Day.” But a number of Hollywood stars - as well as stars in other fields - were actually part of the forces that stormed the beaches of Normandy.
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