Audie Murphy

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Audie Murphy around 1948 with his signature

Audie Leon Murphy (born June 20, 1925 near Kingston , Texas , † May 28, 1971 in a plane crash in the mountains of Virginia ) was the most decorated US soldier of World War II . He then worked as a film actor and songwriter . In the 1950s and 1960s, he enjoyed success as an actor in westerns and adventure films.

Murphy received every military award his country had to bestow, some of them several times - a total of 33 awards and medals; among other things, he was a holder of the Medal of Honor . He received five of his awards from France and one from Belgium. During his three years of service, he served in the 3rd US Infantry Division , in which he rose from private to first lieutenant .

Life

Audie Murphy grew up in poor conditions as the son of a Texas farm tenant family. He was the sixth of twelve children, nine of whom were 18 years of age. He was a well-known war hero of World War II , which after 1945 on his military glory a career as an actor in Hollywood built. Murphy was also a rancher , entrepreneur, and bred American Quarter Horse . He owned ranches in Texas , Tucson ( Arizona ) and Menifee ( California ).

After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Murphy tried to join the armed forces at the age of 16 but was turned down as too young. After his 17th birthday in June 1942, with the help of his sister Corrine, he faked his age to 18 years. He first tried to be accepted by the US Marines and then by the Paratroopers , but was rejected both times as too small (1.65 m). On June 30, 1942, he finally joined the US Army . After completing basic training at Camp Wolters , Texas , Murphy came to Casablanca , Morocco on February 8, 1943 . His first combat mission was the landing in Sicily ( Operation Husky ) on July 10, 1943. Here he contracted a malaria infection , which led to several hospital stays. In the following years he took part in battles in Italy near Salerno , Anzio ( Battle of Anzio , January 1944) and Rome , in southern France ( Operation Anvil-Dragoon ) and in Alsace ( Alsace bridgehead ). He was promoted to corporal in July 1943 , sergeant in December 1943, and 2nd lieutenant in October 1944 . On September 21, 1945, at the age of 20, he retired from active service with the rank of First Lieutenant (because of his incorrect age when entering service, according to military documents, at 21) . Murphy killed more than 240 enemy soldiers and wounded or captured many more during his tenure. In addition, the destruction of six tanks by him has been proven.

After the war, Murphy suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which resulted in insomnia, nightmares and periods of depression. His first wife claimed that he slept with a Colt .45 under his pillow. He also threatened her with this weapon during his seizures. In the mid-1960s he became addicted to the sleeping pill ethchlorvynol , which his doctor had prescribed for him. He locked himself in a motel for a week to get off the drug.

Murphy campaigned for American military veterans . He was committed to the returnees from the Korean War and later from the Vietnam War . By drawing attention to his own PTSD, he broke the taboo to speak publicly about the connection between military operations and the resulting possible psychological damage, which are also known under the term “shell shock” or “ war tremors ”.

After the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, he enlisted in the Texas National Guard . He left the National Guard in 1966 with the rank of major .

Memorial stone in the mountains of Virginia near Catawba

Murphy married actress Wanda Hendrix in 1949 ; the marriage was divorced in 1951. His second marriage was to the former stewardess and military nurse Pamela Archer, with whom he had two children.

He wrote his autobiography To Hell And Back about his wartime experiences in World War II , which was published in 1949 and became a bestseller in the USA. In 1955 he made the film To Hell and Back , in which he played the leading role.

Audie Murphy has acted in a total of 44 films, including 33 westerns , in the 25 years that he spent in Hollywood .

His best roles are those in The Red Medal for Bravery (1951) as a soldier in the American Civil War who overcomes his fear, and as a rancher in the Indian West Who is Not Forgiven (1959). Both films were directed by John Huston . For his contribution to the film industry, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1601 Vine Street . Murphy's German dubbing voice often spoke Eckart Dux .

Audie Murphy wrote some poems and was very successful as a songwriter. He also worked with Guy Mitchell , Jimmy Bryant , Scott Turner , Coy Ziegler and Terri Eddleman . Dozens of Audie Murphy's songs have been recorded and interpreted by artists such as Dean Martin , Eddy Arnold , Charley Pride , Jimmy Bryant, Porter Wagoner , Jerry Wallace , Roy Clark , Harry Nilsson and many others. His biggest hits were Shutters and Boards and When the Wind Blows in Chicago .

The headstone in Arlington shows June 20, 1924 as the date of birth

Audie Murphy died on May 28, 1971 in a plane crash near Roanoke, Va. On the way to a business meeting. The private plane in which he was sitting hit a mountain in thick fog, killing all six occupants. Murphy was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. At the request he made during his lifetime, his tombstone was not decorated with gold leaf - as is usual for medal of honor holders - but kept in plain white. The tombstone names Murphys' birth date, which was brought forward by one year, as recorded in the records of the US Army. The grave is one of the most visited graves in Arlington after that of John F. Kennedy . For this reason, a path was specially created for the many visitors. Murphy, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp on May 1, 2000 after more than 100,000 people campaigned for it.

Orders and awards

Service number 01 692 509

Order Medal of Honor
American awards
French croix de guerre with palm branch
French awards
Belgian awards
  • Belgian croix de guerre with palm branch

Filmography

literature

  • Audie Murphy. To Hell and Back . H. Holt, New York 1949 (also: Owl Books, New York 2002, ISBN 0-8050-7086-9 , 'An Owl book').
  • Sue Gossett: Audie Murphy. Now Showing . Empire Publishing, Madison NC 2002, ISBN 0-944019-38-2 ('Western movie books').
  • Sue Gossett: The Films and Career of Audie Murphy . Empire Publishing, Madison NC 1996, ISBN 0-944019-22-6 .
  • Don Graham: No Name on the Bullet. A Biography of Audie Murphy . Viking Press and others, New York 1989, ISBN 0-670-81511-X .
  • Maria Hilz: Audie Murphy. A bio and filmography . Reinhard Weber, Landshut 1994, ISBN 3-9802987-2-8 .
  • Peter Kranzpiller: Audie Murphy . Verlag für Filmliteratur Kranzpiller, Vogt 1996, ISBN 3-89089-673-1 ('Stars der Kinoszene', 3).
  • Bob Larkins, Boyd Magers: The Films of Audie Murphy . McFarland & Company, Jefferson NC 2004, ISBN 0-7864-1761-7 .
  • Robert Nott: Last of the Cowboy Heroes. The Westerns of Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, and Audie Murphy . McFarland, Jefferson NC, and others 2000, ISBN 0-7864-0762-X .
  • Harold B. Simpson: Audie Murphy, American Soldier . Bi-centennial edition. Hill Jr. College Press, Hillsboro TX 1975, ISBN 0-912172-20-7 .
  • Charles Whiting: Hero. The Life and Death of Audie Murphy . Scarborough House, Chelsea MI 1990, ISBN 0-8128-3135-7 .

see also:

  • Gregor Hauser: Muzzle flashes: The 50 best B-Westerns of the 50s and their stars . Verlag Reinhard Marheinecke, 2015, ISBN 978-3-932053-85-6 .
  • Peter Schrijvers: The Crash of Ruin: American Combat Soldiers in Europe During World War II . University Press, New York 2001.
  • Adrian R. Lewis: The American Culture of War: A History of US Military Force from World War II to Operation Iraqi Freedom . 2006.

Web links

Commons : Audie Murphy  - album containing pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b "Historical Information - Audie Murphy" (bio), Arlington National Cemetery, webpage: ANC-AMurphy ( Memento from September 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).
  2. ^ A b Audie Murphy's Statement of Military Service, Audie L. Murphy Memorial Web Site, Statement of Military Service
  3. ↑ a b IMDb - Biography for Audie Murphy
  4. ↑ Autobiography, pp. 12f. ( Reading sample )
  5. ^ SGT Audie Murphy Club Fort Detrick, Maryland webpage
personal data
SURNAME Murphy, Audie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Murphy, Audie Leon; Murphy, Audie L.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film actor and highly decorated US soldier of World War II
DATE OF BIRTH June 20, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH near Kingston , Texas, United States
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 1971
Place of death near Roanoke , Virginia, United States