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Movies and TV shows portraying the military have been popular for decades (who remembers that record-breaking M*A*S*H finale?). But some actors have done more than just act like they were in the military; they actually did it. In honor of Memorial Day, here are five celebrities who served in the U.S Armed Forces.<\/p>\n
Today, he\u2019s better known for his roles in \u201cGirls,\u201d \u201cStar Wars: The Last Jedi,\u201d and \u201cMarriage Story.\u201d But at 18 years old, Adam Driver wasn\u2019t thinking about his future acting career; he was thinking about the military. The 9\/11 attacks happened just two months before his 18th birthday, and Driver was \u201cfilled with a sense of patriotism and retribution and the desire to do something,\u201d according to his TED Talk.<\/p>\n
That something was joining the Marines. \u201cIt’s one of the things I’m most proud of having done in my life,\u201d he said. \u201cI loved the Marine Corps the most for the thing I was looking for the least when I joined, which was the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Driver served for almost three years before he was medically discharged, after which time he attended Juilliard and was eventually nominated for two Academy Awards.<\/p>\n
Bob Ross was a master sergeant in the United States Air Force, and if it weren\u2019t for that experience, he may not have become the painter we know him as today. Ross grew up in Florida, so he hadn\u2019t seen the snowy mountains he later became famous for painting. It wasn\u2019t until the Air Force sent him to Alaska that he began putting the beautiful scenery he saw on canvas.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Ross was making more money selling his paintings than he was from the Air Force, and he was happy to have a backup career that didn\u2019t involve being \u201cmean.\u201d \u201cI was the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work. The job requires you to be a mean, tough person. And I was fed up with it. I promised myself that if I ever got away from it, it wasn\u2019t going to be that way anymore,\u201d he told the Orlando Sentinel<\/a> in 1990.<\/p>\n Freeman realized the version of the Air Force he wanted was just a fantasy. \u201cWhat I wanted was the movie version,\u201d he said. \u201cSo that was the end of the whole idea of doing anything other than acting for me. I\u2019ve never had any other vocation.\u201d<\/p>\n After her service, Arthur won Emmys for \u201cMaude\u201d and \u201cGolden Girls,\u201d the latter of which still airs reruns today.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, Chuck Norris passed away<\/a> in March at 86 years old.<\/p>\n Follow us on Instagram @WeArePauseRewind<\/a> for all your pop culture obsessions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nMorgan Freeman<\/h2>\n
Morgan Freeman comes from a military family, and he wasn\u2019t going to be the exception. I joined the Air Force. I took to it immediately when I arrived there. 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,\u201d he told Interview Magazine in 2016.<\/h2>\n
Bea Arthur<\/h2>\n
Though she didn\u2019t see combat, Bea Arthur played an important role in World War II. The actress enlisted as one of the first members of the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve in 1943, serving as a typist and truck driver. She was honorably discharged after two years at the rank of staff sergeant.<\/h2>\n
Chuck Norris<\/h2>\n
We have Chuck Norris\u2019s time in the Air Force to thank for his martial arts film career. The \u201cWalker, Texas Ranger\u201d star served as an Air Policeman in South Korea in 1958. There, he began training in Tang Soo Do and developed his love of martial arts, later becoming a black belt in not only Tang Soo Do, but also karate, taekwondo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and judo.<\/h2>\n