Rob Riggle had hopes of building a military career back in the day. His initial plan was to become a naval aviator, so he joined the service in 1990, with the intention of pursuing a pilot’s license to kickstart his long-term goal.
Riggle also liked acting and did some of it on the side. Then he was faced with a choice between his two big dreams. In the end, he decided to drop out of the military when his acting career took off to greater heights than he’d expected. Still, he actually became a member of the United States Marine Corps reserve, and did a tour of duty to Iraq in 2007. However, his tour was purely to entertain troops as part of the USO.
Audie Murphy
Audie Murphy’s military career was not a mere reroute, or an afterthought from his glamorous life as an actor. He was as popular a soldier as he was a movie star, and for very good reasons. By the time he was 20 years old, he’d raked in all the combat awards for valor the army could give at the time. He’d served nine campaigns in WW2.
The US Army had to hold him back during the Korean War, using his image as a marketing tool instead, to boost their recruitment service. Audie Murphy retired from service with the rank of major.
Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon was a famous American actor who, in the course of his career in the entertainment industry, won two Academy Awards. HIs very first movie is titled The Lady Takes a Sailor, where he appeared alongside the ever-beautiful Jane Wyman. Lemmon looked the part, becauser, unbeknownst to many, he was also a sailor for a brief period prior to being an actor.
During WW2 he had enlisted in the navy and worked as a communications officer on an aircraft carrier. He never saw combat though, and his service was very brief.
George Reeves
George Reeves’ major break in his acting career came when he played the role of the man of steel in The Adventures of Superman. With his popularity fast on the rise, Reeves still decided to put his acting career on hold to take on bigger world issues, joining the US Army.
He wanted to be more than just a fictitious man of steel, and hoped to be a real man of action in the armed forces during WWII. However, the army put him on acting duties instead of on the battlefield. He joined in a special theatrical unit that produced several training films on the dangers of venereal diseases. He resumed his career as an actor in 1946.
Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford became the 38th president of the United States when he replaced the scandal-stricken Richard Nixon. Ford was active in the navy reserve until 1963, before deciding to move into politics where he went on to reach the highest office possible.
Ford’s work in the military was more behind the scenes. He was a navy pre-flight instructor, assigned to teach elementary navigation skills to new recruits. He also taught first aid for survival, gunnery, and military cadence drills. He requested to see more action and almost died aboard the USS Monterey, when his ship came close to tipping during a typhoon.