Bill Cosby:
Cosby has been in the news a lot of late, for the wrong reasons, so it’s easy to forget that he once bravely served his country. The comedy veteran served in the Navy for four years, after enlisting in 1956.
Johnny Carson
It certainly won’t surprise you to hear that Mr. T also served in the Army. In the mid-1970s the A-Team star was in the Military Police. He became A squad leader and received a letter of glowing recommendation.
Before becoming an acclaimed director, Mel Brooks was drafted into the Army. He actually had a pretty scary role working in an Engineer Combat Battalion, defusing land mines in World War Two.
Who’d have thought that jazz legend John Coltrane had a military career?! The saxophonist enlisted in the Navy, served some time at Pearl Harbor, and was discharged as a Seaman First-Class.
Before shooting to fame as host of The Price is Right, Bob Barker was a Navy man. He became a fighter pilot for the Navy, but he never went to sea. He was ready to go, but the war came to an end.
Before The Man in Black, Johnny Cash, changed the world of music he served in the Air Force. It’s widely documented that he began writing songs there. Many of his songs were influenced by his experiences in the service.
Reggae fusion singer Shaggy is a former military man. The singer of It Wasn’t Me singer enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, and served in the 10th Marine Regiment during the Gulf War.
Mister T wasn’t the only famous T to serve in the military. Legendary rapper Ice-T served for four years in the 25th Infantry Division. He then accepted an honorable discharge and went home to his daughter.
How different could the history of entertainment have looked had Sammy Davis, Jr. been KIA?Luckily, he survived his stint in the Army, but was met with racial prejudice during his time in the service.
Before he was a Hollywood icon, Steve McQueen was a member of the United States Marine Corps. He joined in 1947 and saved the lives of five Marines during an Arctic expedition. (He's also one of Rico's favorite actors.)
We bet you had no idea that MC Hammer joined the Navy, seeing this as a way out of a life of crime, and spent three years here; he was a petty officer when he was discharged three years later.
Legendary author Ernest Hemingway was an ambulance driver during World War One. The author wrote about the experience in his book Death in the Afternoon.
Another of the Hollywood elite to serve their country in its hour of need was Paul Newman. The legendary actor served in the Navy during the Second World War. He wanted to be a pilot but couldn’t fly, as he was colorblind!
Comic legend Richard Pryor developed a reputation for his black comedy, but there was nothing funny about his two-year stint in the Army; he spent almost all of it in the stockade for stabbing someone.
Rapper Nate Dogg also spent some time in the military. He served as an ammunition specialist in the Marine Corps for three years. After his stint in the Corps, he went on to have success in music.
You probably know Vincent Pastore best as a gangster in the Sopranos, but, once upon a time, he enlisted as a sailor in the Navy right out of high school. H he served from 1964 to 1967.
Legendary actor James Earl Jones is most famous as the voice of Darth Vader. He joined the Reserve Officers Training Corp at a young age, and was due to serve in Korea, but joined a training unit instead.
Montel Williams is an American actor and television personality who had a fifteen-year service career, during which he served in the Navy and the Marine Corps, and climbed as high as the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
Jimmy Stewart has always been a man of honor, so it’s no surprise that he was a veteran of World War Two and Vietnam. He attained the rank of Brigadier General, and is the highest ranked actor in the military.
Mister T wasn’t the only famous T to serve in the military. Legendary rapper Ice-T served for four years in the 25th Infantry Division. He then accepted an honorable discharge and went home to his daughter.
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