After the war, in which I served as a pilot in the Air Force, I took up films.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
It was very clear to me I wanted to be an actor when I got out into civilian life.
I went into the Air Corps from 1943 through 1945.
During the war, I saw many films that made me fall in love with the cinema.
I did pilots here and there but mostly I was doing little bits in movies.
I grew up during a time of peace, and my friends weren't joining the military - it wasn't something on my radar. But if you asked me whether I could go back and do it all over again now, and it meant I wouldn't go into filmmaking, there's a part of me that would have loved to try to be a Navy SEAL.
I had seen the films out of World War II, the great 82nd Airborne, the 101st, and all of those of you in the greatest generation and the service that you had provided.
I grew up in Hollywood during WWII, and my mother was afraid that my father was going to be drafted because she didn't think we were going to be able to live on army pay. She didn't want to have to get a job, so she decided to put me to work, and that's how I got started in the movies.
When I was commissioned in the Air Force, I was committed to the institution for a career.
I had been working early in my life in films - since I was 11.
I was a child of World War Two . I saw films of pilots taking off from aircraft carriers and decided that was the only thing I wanted to do. And it had to be flying from sea carriers. Airfields were not enough.