They Also Served Quiz | Celebrities Mixture

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. This foreign-born gentleman, a band leader and early TV star, resigned his commission in the Cuban Army after Pearl Harbor and tried to enlist in the U.S. Navy. He wasn't allowed to enlist, but he was later drafted and served in the U.S. Army. Who was this?

Answer: Desi Arnaz

Desi Arnaz originally hoped to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps, but was injured while playing baseball and was unable to complete bombardier training. He was transferred to the infantry, but was then assigned to Special Services to entertain injured troops at military hospitals. He is best remembered for playing Ricky Ricardo on the popular TV show "I Love Lucy".

2. This multi-talented actor, singer and dancer served in one of the first racially integrated U.S. Army units in WW2. After experiencing harassment and prejudice, he served the rest of the war in Special Services. Who was this actor, who starred in the original "Ocean's Eleven" movie in 1960?

Answer: Sammy Davis Jr.

Sammy Davis Jr. was one of only two black men in the "integrated" infantry Company at Ft. Warren, Wyoming. Since he was already an experienced entertainer, he was transferred to Special Services and spent the remainder of the war writing and producing live entertainment for the troops.

3. This veteran starred in "Convoy" early in his acting career and in all three of the "Blade" movies later in life. Who is this actor, singer and former U.S. Army helicopter pilot?

Answer: Kris Kristofferson

Kris Kristofferson joined the U.S. Army after becoming a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He completed airborne jump school, Ranger school and flight school, becoming a helicopter pilot based in Germany in the early 1960s. He reportedly hated the Army but loved flying, but when he was scheduled to become an English Literature teacher at West Point, he resigned his commission and began his singing and songwriting career.

He appeared in more than 25 movies from the 1970s through 2013.

4. Already an international star, this actor and musician was drafted in 1958 and served for two years as a soldier in the U.S. Army Tank Corps. Who was this screen-star sergeant?

Answer: Elvis Presley

Sgt. Presley served in a front-line tank unit at a tense time in a Germany divided between Western and Soviet areas of control. He was discharged at the end of his enlistment with a Good Conduct Medal and resumed his successful career in film, television and live entertainment.

5. Best remembered for his role in a early rural TV sitcom, this U.S. Navy veteran was also twice nominated for Academy Awards for the movies "Roman Holiday" (1955) and "The Heartbreak Kid" (1972). Who was this actor, best known for playing the role of Oliver Wendell Douglas?

Answer: Eddie Albert

Eddie Albert played a big-city attorney turned failed farmer in "Green Acres" from 1965-1971. Before WW2, he helped U.S. military intelligence obtain information on Japanese and German activities in Mexico and later served as a Naval officer supporting landing craft putting Marines ashore at the invasion of Tarawa.

6. Which actor, who played a reluctant Korean War U.S. Army officer on TV, actually did serve in the U.S. Army as a gunnery officer?

Answer: Alan Alda

Alan Alda participated in the Army's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) while attending Fordham University. After graduating, he was commissioned as an Army officer and served for the minimum-required one year on active duty and six months in the Army Reserve.

7. This big-name iconic actor, an Academy Award winner, played a nervous Naval officer who experienced a mutiny aboard his ship. Who was this actor, who served as an enlisted man in the U.S. Navy in WWI?

Answer: Humphrey Bogart

"Bogie" won his Best Actor Oscar for "The African Queen" (1951), and also starred as the hapless Captain Queeg in "The Caine Mutiny" (1954). Heartbroken over the death of his mother in 1917, he escaped to the U.S. Navy in 1918, at the age of 19. He served for three years, but missed combat action as he reported to his first ship two weeks after the war ended.

The two leading stories explaining how he got that iconic scar on his lip both center on his Naval service: one is that a German prisoner being transported on his ship hit him in an escape attempt; another is that he took a bad splinter while doing shipboard carpentry.

8. Another Oscar-winning actor also played a role as a U.S. Navy officer in a 1960s TV sitcom. Which actor was this, who served both before and during WW2 as a Gunner's Mate in the U.S. Navy?

Answer: Ernest Borgnine

Ernest Borgnine earned an Oscar for 1955's "Marty", and is also remembered for playing the buffoonish Skipper of "McHale's Navy" from 1962-1966. Born Ermes Borgnino, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1935 and was discharged in October 1941. Re-enlisting after Pearl Harbor, he served aboard ship until late 1945, being discharged as a Gunner's Mate First Class.

9. Which Lithuanian-American actor, one of the few whose character survived the mission of "The Dirty Dozen", served as a B-29 tail gunner in WW2? His compact stature was no doubt a plus for serving in this cramped position.

Answer: Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson's military records, along with those of thousands of other WW2 veterans, were destroyed in a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis in 1973. There is some dispute over where he served, but reputable sources agree that he flew 25 combat missions as a tail-gunner in B-29 Superfortress bombers attacking Japan, earning a Purple Heart medal for being wounded in combat.

10. This actor and Army veteran won an Emmy for his role in a hilarious 1950s TV sitcom, and an Oscar for "Harry and Tonto" in 1974. His WW2 Army service left him with a limp that you can detect in his acting; who was this veteran of the armed services, small screen and silver screen?

Answer: Art Carney

"Ed Norton" (Art Carney) has made generations laugh for his role in the iconic "The Honeymooners" that originally aired for only one year, from 1955-1956. He was 26 years old when he was injured by a German mortar round near St. Lo, France in August, 1944.

After months of rehabilitation in a stateside hospital, he was discharged in April 1945 with a Purple Heart medal and a permanent limp from shrapnel wounds in his right thigh.

Source: Author wjames

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor skunkee before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

They Also Served Trivia Quiz

Many American actors/actresses served in the U.S. Armed Forces. Title of the quiz and some info from the book "They Also Served" by Scott Baron, MIE Publishing, 1998.

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