(1924–1971)

I didn't realize how little I knew about this famous warrior and Medal of Honor winner and actor, as well as how young he was when he died. I also didn't know that he suffered from PTSD.


Audie Murphy became a national hero during World War II as the most decorated combat soldier of the war. Among his 33 awards was the Medal of Honor, the highest award for bravery that a soldier can receive. In addition, he was also decorated for bravery by the governments of France and Belgium, and was credited with killing over 240 German soldiers and wounding and capturing many more.

Audie Leon Murphy was born in Kingston, Hunt County, Texas, to Josie Bell (Killian) and Emmett Berry Murphy, poor sharecroppers of Irish descent. After the death of his mother and the outbreak of WWII, Murphy enlisted in the army in June 1942 after being turned down by the Navy and the Marines. After undergoing basic military training, he was sent first to North Africa. But the Allies drove the German army from Tunisia, their last foothold in North Africa, before Murphy's unit could be sent into battle. His first engagement with Axis forces came when his unit was sent to Europe. First landing on the island of Sicily, next mainland Italy, and finally France, he fought in seven major campaigns over three years and rose from the rank of private to a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant.

Part of Murphy's appeal to many people was that he didn't fit the "image" most had of a war hero. He was a slight, almost fragile-looking, shy and soft-spoken young man, whose boyish appearance (something he never lost throughout his life; he always looked at least 15 years younger than he actually was) often shocked people when they found out that, for example, during one battle he leaped on top of a burning tank--which was loaded with fuel and ammunition and could have exploded at any second--and used its machine gun to hold off waves of attacking German troops, killing dozens of them and saving his own unit from certain destruction and the entire line from being overrun. In September 1945 Murphy was released from active duty, promoted to 1st Lieutenant, and assigned to inactive status. His story caught the interest of superstar James Cagney, who invited Murphy to Hollywood.

Cagney Productions paid for acting and dancing lessons but was reluctantly forced to admit that Murphy--at least at that point in his career--didn't have what it took to become a movie star. For the next several years he struggled to make it as an actor, but jobs were few, specifically just two bit parts, in Beyond Glory (1948) and Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven (1948). He finally got a lead role in Bad Boy (1949), and starred in the trouble-plagued production of MGM's The Red Badge of Courage (1951), directed by John Huston. While this film is now considered a minor classic, the politics behind the production sparked an irreparable fissure within the ranks of the studio's upper management.

Murphy proved adequate as an actor, but the film, with virtually no female presence (or appeal), bombed badly at the box office. Murphy, however, had already signed with Universal-International Pictures, which was putting him in a string of modestly budgeted Westerns, a genre that suited his easygoing image and Texas drawl. He starred in the film version of his autobiography, To Hell and Back (1955), which was a huge hit, setting a box-office record for Universal that wasn't broken for 20 years until it was finally surpassed by Jaws (1975)). One of his better pictures was Night Passage (1957), a Western in which he played the kid brother of James Stewart. He worked for Huston again on The Unforgiven (1960).

Meanwhile, the studio system that Murphy grew into as an actor crumbled. Universal's new owners, MCA, dumped its "International" tag in 1962 and turned the studio's focus toward the more lucrative television industry. For theatrical productions, it dropped its roster of contract players and hired actors on a per-picture basis only. That cheap Westerns on the big screen were becoming a thing of the past bode no good for Murphy, either. The Texican (1966), his lone attempt at a new, European form of inexpensive horse opera, to become known as "the Spaghetti Western", was unsuccessful. His star was falling fast.

In addition to his acting career -- he made a total of 44 films -- Murphy was a rancher and businessman. He bred and raised thoroughbred horses and owned several ranches in Texas, Arizona and California. He was also a songwriter, and penned hits for such singers as Dean Martin, Eddy Arnold, Charley Pride and many others.

His postwar life wasn't all roses, however. He suffered from what is now called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but was then called "combat fatigue", and was known to have a hair-trigger temper. He woke up screaming at night and slept with a loaded M1911 .45 semi-automatic pistol nearby. He was acquitted of attempted murder charges brought about by injuries he inflicted on a man in a bar fight. Director Don Siegel said in an interview that Murphy often carried a pistol on the set of The Gun Runners (1958) and many of the cast and crew were afraid of him.

He had a short-lived and turbulent marriage to actress Wanda Hendrix, and in the 1960s his increasing bouts of insomnia and depression resulted in his becoming addicted to a particularly powerful sleeping pill called Placidyl, an addiction he eventually broke. He ran into a streak of bad financial luck and was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1968. Admirably, he campaigned vigorously for the government to spend more time and money on taking care of returning Vietnam War veterans, as he more than most others knew exactly what kinds of problems they were going to have.

On May 18, 1971, Murphy was aboard a private plane on his way to a business meeting when it ran into thick fog over Craig County, Virginia, near Roanoke, and crashed into the side of a mountain, killing all six aboard. He was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. According to cemetery records, the only grave site visited by more people than that of Murphy is that of assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

He was a hero in the true sense of the word. His courage was off the charts or it could be he got pissed off during battle and didn’t care about his own life when angry.

Audie Murphy enlisted in the TX National Guard. The unit was federalized (called up) for the war.

If you grew up in Texas in the 1940s and 1950s, Audie Murphy was the real deal in a vast expanse of make-believe heroes in movies, and later, in television. He was the first public figure that I actually mourned when he died.

He still occupies a prominent place in my roster of individuals that I count as "Real Heroes."

He was a wife beater.

Just for accuracy's sake, I believe that the action for which he received the Medal of Honor involved his firing the .50 from an M10 tank destroyer, not a tank.

If a truer American hero ever existed I dont know about him. Murphy was a man...a true man. Flaws and all. Proof that no hero is perfect...but still a hero. He makes me proud to be an American and proud to be a man. RIP Audie...God bless.

Nobody’s perfect and some wifes need beating

Mine says hit me if you want, You will have to sleep sometime.

LOL

AMEN!

Maybe he liked them better fried !

R O F

The Inspiration Network (satellite TV) is airing some of his Westerns on weekends starting this weekend.

https://www.insp.com/

I'm watching him now in "The Forgiven" - 1960

Lol, thats what mine says too and dumbfuqk me taught her to shoot.........

Audie was a bad ass warrior.

PTSD may cause a former warrior awaken suddenly from a rare deep sleep to kick the schit out of the person who woke them....So, I’ve been told. 😎

A no good bitch of a wife can cause the same phenomenon

No. Lightly battered is how the old joke goes.

Although teevee shows had "APPLAUSE!" signs which would flash to the attending audience, note the very genuine applause in the clip of Audie Murphy on What's My Line, many years ago.



I had the pleasure many years ago of meeting Audie Murphy at the old Kings Gun Shop in Los Angeles. That was about six or seven months before he was killed. He was a very nice person, We talked about guns and hunting.

EDIT. Whoops, the video wouldn't play. It is worth a serch however, as it is on You Tube.


L.W.

Only a fool pisses off the one who prepares his food.

OP, thanks for the information. I only recently started seeing films with Audie Murphy in the cast. I knew he served in WW II, but did not know the extent of his heroism.

One favorite Uncle saw some serious schitt in WW II. He and three or four buddies spent one entire winter behind enemy lines somewhere in France. They did not all survive the winter.

Fifty years later, we all knew better than to touch him or startle him while he was sleeping. If he needed to be awakened, you did so with a whisper from the doorway to his bedroom.

Audie’s second wife was a Saint. Hand Salute.

Pam Murphy By Dennis McCarthy 4/5/2018

...Pam Murphy had lived in Audie’s massive shadow for 20 years. She never complained publicly when his gambling took all their money, and his philandering stole their marriage.
After he died at age 46 in a 1971 private plane crash, we all learned of the demons the war-hero-turned-Hollywood-actor had still been fighting – the faces of buddies he lost and men he killed (an estimated 250 German soldiers) were returning now as nightmares, not medals.

Pam always defended him, even as she was forced to move from their sprawling ranch-style home in Van Nuys to a small, one-bedroom apartment near the VA in Mission Hills – taking a clerk’s job in the main reception area to support herself, and begin paying off Audie’s considerable debts.
It took her nearly 10 years, but she paid off every one – 100 cents on the dollar. Nobody would ever say Audie Murphy welched on a deal.

Men with tears in their eyes would walk up to her in the hallway, and ask for a hug when they learned who she was. “Thank you,” they said, over and over. The first couple of years, the hugs were more for Audie.
The last 30 years, they were for her.

She was the one who held their hand when they were in pain, the one cutting through the red tape to get her boys in to see the specialists they needed. She never looked for quitting time to arrive. She left when the last veteran on her clipboard had seen the doctor.
And if one was still sitting there an hour after his appointment time, she thought nothing of taking him by the hand, and marching him past the objecting receptionist, and straight into the doctor’s office.
She got reprimanded more than a few times, but she didn’t care. They were her boys, Audie’s war buddies, and she was going to take care of them. If that meant stepping on some toes, well, tough.
The VA was there to serve the veterans, not the other way around.
...
With all Audie had put her through, all the heartbreak, she still loved the guy.
Pam worked at the VA right up to her 87th birthday, and died three years later peacefully in her sleep in the same small apartment she took after Audie died.
It was standing room only at her memorial in a little chapel on the VA grounds. Old soldiers and Marines who had looked death in the face with her husband, and never blinked, couldn’t hold back their tears at her passing...

Laffin...Them types usually have no problem trying to tear your eyes out, or throw hot coffee and the whole fricken coffee maker across the kitchen at you. You must have married my ex wife....😎

PS
Mine went to jail for her BS. Fixed her wagon real quick...Then I divorced her. Sorry you met her. I should have warned you. My bad 😬

Choose carefully and you'll never have that issue or the statement of you have to sleep sometime.. things I've never heard.

Always heard to be really careful and not pick due to looks or sex or money, but for the person. Evidently I did fine. Carolyn agrees that we could not have chosen anyone better, than our pairing.

In fact she has offered to get a second job if we need it, so I can live my dream of working in Alaska.

But I'm way OT here...

I never read that Murphy beat either one of his wives.

The second Mrs. Murphy was awarded 2.5 million dollars in 1975 as a result of the plane crash that took her husbands life.

Audie Murphy was a no-shixt hero. It's a damn shame there aren't more like him here today. He'd be welcome at my house, ranch or campfire anytime, and that's a helluva lot more than I can say for many here.

I'll admit that I don't know a whole lot about him as a war hero. only what I've read. As far as an actor goes, he was never a favorite of mine. If I made up a list of my favorite Western actors, he's be so far down on the list that by the time you got to his name, you'd be tired of reading.

Having said that, I've watched a number of Westerns, when there was nothing else worth watching on, and I didn't have a good book to read at the time.

We visited his grave in Arlington.

My uncle saw action with him in the war. Most everything you hear about him was true. Guy had balls.

To Hell & Back was a classic. I also like most of his westerns as well as any filmed in the 50's.

-Ken

He had friends in Stephenville Tx. The Audie Murphy Rodeo Arena served the area for decades.

I have great admiration for the man.

my old man was a ww2 vet and didn't think much of the "hero" movie stars of the day. john wayne, etc. but he said murphy was a real hero.

He shot the cshit out of a bunch of Germans that day!

A true bad ass hero. 3rd ID, Rock of the Marne.

The story of Audi Murphy's crash.

http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Audie-Murphy-N601JJ.htm

For all of us who have worn the 3rd ID patch, "Nous Resterons La!"

"I wouldn't give a bean
To be a fancy pants Marine
I'd rather be a dog faced soldier like I am.
I wouldn't trade my old ODs
For all the Navy's dungarees
I'm just a fighting son of Uncle Sam.

On all the posters that I read
It says: "The Army builds men"
So they're tearing me down
To build me over again.

I'm just a dog faced soldier
With a rifle on my shoulder
And I eat raw meat for breakfast every day.
So feed me ammunition,
Keep me in the 3rd Division,
Your dog face soldier boy's OK!"

That was a good read, thanks.

My last assignment in the AF was as the liaison to the Idaho Civil Air Patrol, and, as such, I had several dealings with Bernie Fisher, the MOH winner from the A Shau valley. It seems that all the real heroes in life really do fit the "aw shucks, Maam, twarn't nuthin" picture. I was in awe of him every time I talked to him. May all our heroes RIP, and their memories never diminish.

No matter how great a person was,and Audie Murphy was a great hero.It always astounds me that some one goes out of their way to make a negative comment about them.

There’s been a few threads about Fire members Dad’s who were in W2, either in Europe or the Pacific.

Many came home with tonnage in medals earned on their chests...I Never read a thread where the man who was heroic in battle wasn’t described as a calm, kind, loyal and humorous person in life after the war.

It would seem there’s a commonality in the men who just did the job, because it had to be done...😎

RIP
Audie Murphy

My daughter in law has a little niece who is in the Air Force. Niece’s husband is in AF too. Last monday they were at Arlington. She sent this photo to her Uncle James (old son).

Thanks for posting that Bob!

In the mid 1950's Hollywood actors started holding fast draw contests and Hugh O'Brian claimed to be the fastest. There is an apparently true story repeated that on a movie set with Audie Murphy, O'Brian pestered Murphy to see who was the fastest. Murphy showed no interest and finally said, “OK, with live ammunition.” O'Brian wisely backed down.

Audie was from our area in Hunt County. We have a small museum in Greenville, Texas for him.

OrangeOkie,

Fwiw, there a few flaws in the article about MAJ Murphy (He made Major in the TXARNG) was that the ARMY, NAVY, USAAC & the Marines turned him down, as "unsuitable for military service". = He WAS allowed to join the 3/144th Infantry Regiment, TXARNG & when he attended basic training, he was allowed to enlist in the Active Army for a period "of the World War plus 6 months".
(After he received the MoH, I've wondered how embarrassed that all of the people must have been to NOT have accepted THE MOST DECORATED soldier of WWII into their branch of service because of "unsuitability".)

When he was released from AD with the US Army, 1LT Murphy returned to the TXARNG, was promoted to Captain & later to Major.
(He was a Major at retirement from the Texas Guard. - We of the 3/144th Infantry are VERY PROUD of his valor & service, whether AD or ARNG and that he was "one of ours".

Btw, my mother taught Audie (8th Grade English) & all of his sisters (Vocational Home Economics) when she taught school in Elysian Fields. - (After Mother passed away at age 99YO in SEP 2016, we found a long letter from 2LT Murphy in Mother's Bible, that he wrote her just before Christmas 1944 & while he was hospitalized in an Army hospital with a severe bullet-wound to his hip. = 2LT Murphy said in the "Christmas letter" that he had received an appointment to WEST POINT & that he was eager to be a WPMA cadet & looked forward to being a Career Army Officer. - As his luck would have it, his wound never healed sufficiently to allow him to attend West Point & in early 1945 he was released from active Army service for "disability" BUT he never received a service-connected disability check, as far as I can find out.)

yours, tex

“Murphy went to elementary school while growing up around Farmersville, Greenville and Celeste finally dropping out of school in fifth grade. He got a cotton picking job to support his family”

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/audie-murphy-3650.php

“Audie grew on farms in the area and attended school in Celeste. His education was cut short in 1936 when his father abandoned the family. Left with only a fifth-grade education, Murphy began working on local farms as a laborer to help support his family.”

https://www.thoughtco.com/first-lieutenant-audie-murphy-2360163

“Murphy left school in fifth grade to pick cotton and find other work to help support his family”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy

Posts like yours is why I'm thoroughly enjoying the campfire. Thanks, Tex.

Had a friend of mine who was at odds with his wife & on the verge of divorce. He awoke one night to the sound of her loading the gun. Never went back.

Who was the fastest gun in Hollywood?

Ron Bolza
Slatington, Pennsylvania

Some of the names might surprise you. How about Sammy Davis Jr. and Jerry Lewis?

The first fast draw competition took place at Knott’s Berry Farm in 1954.

Hugh O’Brian claimed his 0.25 of a second was the fastest, but Davis Jr. and Lewis were reportedly faster. O’Brian challenged Audie Murphy to a contest, but when Murphy requested live ammunition, O’Brian wisely declined.

Others who were good at fast draw during the 1950s and 1960s, says Firearms Editor Phil Spangenberger, included Wally “Mr. Peepers” Cox, Hugh Downs (a host of the early Today show), dancer Donald O’Connor, singers Marty Robbins and Frankie Lane, and actors Glenn Ford, Clu Gulager, Ernest Borgnine, Jock Mahoney and Clint Eastwood.

always thought Glenn Ford was about the fastest movie gunslinger........

Murphy himself said there was only one thing wrong in any of his movies.......
“I can’t act........”

Morewood,

I was HONORED to have actually talked twice for a few minutes to MAJ Murphy by phone when I was assigned to HQ, 3/144th in MAR 1971. = LTC Cobb told me to call him & see if there was any possibility that he could appear at the Greenville or Terrill armories for a ceremony in his honor.

Shortly thereafter he was killed in the plane crash.

ADDENDA: Speaking of his affection for our TXARNG unit, MAJ Murphy gave his personal Model of 1917 US Army Rifle (the so-called American Enfield rifle of WWI) to one of our company's EM in Summer 1970.
(I believe that the SM who received the rifle was some sort of relative, but I'm NOT sure of that.)

yours, tex

The Fastest Gun Alive

Murphy would not pull his punches during fight scenes. He'd fight for real.

Ethan Edwards,

I'd bet that TOM MIX was one of the fastest "draws", if not the FASTEST. =- Tom Mix was a REAL cowboy, as well as an actor & was said to be DEADLY quick/accurate with his .38-40 Colt's SA.

Once on a set of an early "talkie", Tom Mix shot the head off of a rattlesnake with real bullets, when that snake threatened to delay continuing the "film shoot".
(I'd bet the FACT that Tom Mix was carrying real ammo in his revolver "got everyone's attention".)

yours, tex

Doing what needed doing at the time.

+1!

Absolutely true. Heard that he could come to full draw from his hip in .25 second.

-Ken

None of them could do this...

Here,here. Preach it.

I’m surprised that some on this forum didn’t know of Audie Murphy. Folks of my age his courage is common knowledge. Hasbeen

Think that title belongs to Hugh OBrian and (Shock) Sammy Davis Jr.

Who was the fastest gun in Hollywood?

Ron Bolza
Slatington, Pennsylvania

Some of the names might surprise you. How about Sammy Davis Jr. and Jerry Lewis?

The first fast draw competition took place at Knott’s Berry Farm in 1954.

Hugh O’Brian claimed his 0.25 of a second was the fastest, but Davis Jr. and Lewis were reportedly faster. O’Brian challenged Audie Murphy to a contest, but when Murphy requested live ammunition, O’Brian wisely declined.

Others who were good at fast draw during the 1950s and 1960s, says Firearms Editor Phil Spangenberger, included Wally “Mr. Peepers” Cox, Hugh Downs (a host of the early Today show), dancer Donald O’Connor, singers Marty Robbins and Frankie Lane, and actors Glenn Ford, Clu Gulager, Ernest Borgnine, Jock Mahoney and Clint Eastwood.

12344mag,

MAJ Audie Murphy is a classic case of what the late Paul "Bear" Bryant (FB coach at The University of AL) always said: "It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog."

At 16YO (YES, Audie lied about his age to join the TXARNG.), and according to his official Army service record, he was about 65 inches tall & weighed 120 pounds, as of the date of enlistment.

ImVho, MAJ Audie Murphy was as pure of a warrior as modern America is ever likely to see again. = We GIs of the 3/144th Infantry, TXARNG still/will forever HONOR his service/valor/memory.

Yours, TMN78247