Actor Charles Durning has Died at age 89

"LOS ANGELES — Charles Durning grew up in poverty, lost five of his nine siblings to disease, barely lived through D-Day and was taken prisoner at the Battle of the Bulge.

"His hard life and wartime trauma provided the basis for a prolific 50-year career as a consummate Oscar-nominated character actor, playing everyone from a Nazi colonel to the pope to Dustin Hoffman’s would-be suitor in 'Tootsie.'”

Charles Durning, Oscar-nominated king of the character actors, dies at 89 in NYC - The Washington Post

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Durning

 

Sad to hear.

Rest in Peace.

 

I guess you did not beat Mr John Wayne in the number of roles but a very good try... R.I.P. Charles!

 

Thank you for your service, Mr. Durning. Be at peace. :S!

 

Thank you for your service to your country Mr. Durning. R.I.P.

 

I didn't realize he served in the Century Division (100th ID). I always liked him as an actor. It seems he was an even better soldier.

BTW, he didn't win any awards for it, but I loved him in O Brother, Where Art Thou? where he played a character named Pappy O'Daniel.

 

duplicate b- removed

 

While I am sure thatCharles Durning was a veteran of the NW Europe campaign. Theanecdotes about him don't add up. I was initially intrigued becausehe seemed to have been at both Omaha Beach on D Day and at theMalmedy massacre. The closer I looked the more implausible thestories seemed to be. If he landed with 1st Infantry then which bitof it? How is it that he does not appear in the many volumes of eyewitness accounts?

He may have beensomeone whose tales got taller the older he got and the later atnight he told them. In an address to veterans in 2007 he says helanded in the assault wave in Normandy - yet Burt Reynolds told astory in Durnings presence on a chat show about how Durning hadlanded by glider and fought his way back to the beach. Yet others sayhe served in an infantry Regiment in 100th Division but transferredto an AAA battalion - which was at Omaha beach - in July- August1944.

He seems to have beendeeply affected by the war and some accounts write of him receivingpsychiatric treatment. When this news broke over Christmas I had somefun comparing the different versions of the stories about him andblogged about it here . Who Checks the UK Newspaper Obituaries? | The Observation Post

 

If you're calling him a liar, he's fooled a lot of people.... He has a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, 3 Purple Hearts and he's buried at Arlington.

 

A few general comments:

-Its almost unanimous that Mr. Durning was not at Malmedy. The more likely scenario is that he was involved in one of the lesser-known massacres that occurred around the same time. Since Malmedy was the only commonly-known one, its likely that he somehow became associated with it.
-There is no doubt that he saw extensive action. He received three purple hearts in less than one year -- that's about one every 3 months. Its highly unlikely that he would not have got these in an anti-aircraft unit. His war record speaks for itself (and if the Army newspaper reported on this record, you know its accurate).
-Almost every story I've read said that he landed on Omaha with the 1st ID on D-Day. Its quite possible that Reynolds got confused, as I've never heard this claim anywhere else.
-RE, the AAA batallion: It was not 'a given' that a wounded soldier would be assigned to his own unit after being wounded. In fact (as far as I know), most were not. So its feasible that he served with the 1st ID until he was wounded, and then was assigned to a AAA battery.
-With his impressive war record, what need would he have to lie about his time in the service? His record is hardly one like those boot-camp-washout MoH recipient impersonators and 'paper warriors' whose claimed 'awards' look good on their resume.

 

There are real problems with accepting the testimony of veterans as a primary source. Memory is very faillible, which is why witness statements taken long after an event are worthless. As Richard Holmes pointed out vets sometimes tell the story they think the audience wants to hear, or muddle someone else's story with their own. One British Anzio veteran, captured at Anzio in Feb 1944 told me his eye witness account of the Polish flag being raised ovr Monte Cassino - which took place two months after he was a PW in the Reich.

I don't know how much of the Durning story is true, how much was Hollywood hype about a celebrity how much was the memories of an old man who had suffered in wartime. If the US Normandy veterans accepted him as one of their own, that's good enough for an obituary. I blame the obituary writers for printing lots of spurious detail that raises the questions. Perhaps those of us interested in detail of Omaha beach and the Bulge should ignore the nagging questions - at least omn the obituary page.

 

Sheldrake...

I looked into this subject a lot after your post. Regretfully, I see your point. Many questions regarding Mr. Durning.

From the man that stormed the beaches of Normandy, to the ones that unloaded freighters 3 months later, they're all hero's in my book. I would hope this subject gets put to rest, at least on this forum. The emphasis here is research.

Respectfully

 

I think it would be best to keep in mind that this is an obituary thread. I'm all in favor of pointing out inaccuracies, but it would be much more in the spirit of the thread to actually correct the record with facts. As Steve suggested, research needs to be done.

 

A fair point.