Actors you never knew served in the military

MORGAN FREEMAN
Morgan Freeman declined a partial drama scholarship and joined the Air Force in 1955. He would serve four years as a radar technician, and left the service in 1959.

“I took to it immediately,” he once said of his time in the Air Force. “I did three years, eight months, and ten days in all, but it took me a year and a half to get disabused of my romantic notions about it.”

HUGH HEFNER
In 1944, Hugh Hefner enlisted in the Army as an Infantry Clerk. He earned a sharpshooter badge, and got through “Killer College,’ where troops performed maneuvers while throwing grenades.

As a preview of things to come, while in the Army, Hefner contributed cartoons to an Army newsletter.

ICE T
Ice T joined the United States Army and served four years in the 25th Infantry. He and some friends were charged with stealing a rug, and he deserted while awaiting a hearing. After the rug was recovered, he returned and received a non-judicial punishment.

It was in the Army that Ice T managed to make a little extra money and afford some musical equipment, beginning his rap career.

DR. RUTH
Dr. Ruth isn't just handy with a vibrator, she also knows her way around a sniper rifle. As a teenager in Israel, she trained as a sniper.

During our recent Interview With Dr. Ruth, we asked if being a sniper was more difficult than finding the clitoris. She answered: “I think people who read your site and listen to me are sexually literate, so they'll have no problem finding the clitoris. However, this I want to tell you: The woman has to take the responsibility to find her clitoris. She has to help the man.”

MC HAMMER
After his attempt at a baseball career didn’t take off, Stanley Kirk Burrell —who would later become rapping sensation MC Hammer—joined the Navy and served three years as a Store Keeper.

![Clint-Eastwood-Military-Service.png]
()
Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood was drafted into the Korean War, but lucked out with a job as a swimming instructor. Eastwood didn’t see much action, and served at Fort Ord, while working nights and weekends as a bouncer at the NCO club. During a trip home to see family Eastwood flew aboard a Navy plane at Moffett Field. On the ride back aboard a Navy torpedo bomber, the plane developed engine trouble and was forced to make a water landing off San Francisco. Eastwood swam to safety for more than a mile.

James Earl Jones
When James Earl Jones received his commission as a second lieutenant during the Korean war, he believed an immediate assignment overseas was on the horizon. While waiting for his orders he worked as a part-time stage crew hand at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, Michigan, where he had earlier performed. Jones was commissioned in mid 1953 and reported to Fort Benning to attend Infantry Officers Basic Course. He followed up that assignment at the Ranger School and received his Ranger Tab, although he later claimed to have washed out of the Rangers during training. His unit was eventually sent to establish a cold weather training command at the Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado. His battalion eventually became a training unit in the Rocky Mountains and Jones was promoted to first lieutenant prior to his discharge.

Dennis Franz
Before “NYPD Blue,” Dennis Franz served in the Army’s 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions in Vietnam. In an interview with Cigar Aficionado in 1995, Franz revealed, “It was the loneliest, most depressing, frustrating time. It was life-altering. I came back a much different person than when I left, much more serious. I left my youth over there.”