Skip to main content

🇺🇲WWII uncovered: Corporal Aristotelis Savalas From the US Army to The Dirty Dozen.

 ðŸ‡ºðŸ‡²WWII uncovered: Corporal Aristotelis Savalas From the US Army to The Dirty Dozen.


The 1967 film "The Dirty Dozen" sported an All Star cast of World War II veterans. One of the most popular films of its time, "The Dirty Dozen" still holds as one of the most successful war films ever made. The cast included: Lee Marvin, Robert Webber and Robert Ryan (US Marine Corps); Telly Savalas and George Kennedy (US Army); Charles Bronson (US Army Air Forces); Ernest Borgnine (US Navy) and Clint Walker (US Merchant Marine) as major players. 

Please take a moment to learn a little more about US Army veteran Telly Savalas who portrayed Private Archer Maggott.

According to Together We Served: "Telly joined the Army in 1941. He was a member of Company C, 12th Medical Training Battalion, 4th Medical Training Regiment at Camp Pickett, Virginia. 

Although Telly received a Purple Heart for his service in World War II, little is known about his time with the armed forces. 

Telly did not talk about his experiences as an enlisted man, and most of his records were destroyed in a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in 1973. 

He was released from the Army in 1943 after suffering serious injuries in a car accident. While on authorized leave from Camp Pickett, Telly and eight friends were involved in a head-on collision. Telly sustained a broken pelvis, sprained ankle and concussion. He spent over a year in the hospital recovering."

Telly was not the only Savalas brother to serve in World War II. His older brother Constantine was a survivor of Pearl Harbor and his younger brother, and fellow castmate of the series "Kojak," George, served in the Pacific Theater with the US Navy.

After the war, Telly worked for the US State Department as host of the "Your Voice of America" series, then at ABC News. 

He began as an Executive Director and then as Senior Director of the news special events at ABC. 

He then became an Executive Producer for the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, where he gave Howard Cosell his first job in television.

Savalas began a television career in 1959 and expanded to film in the early '60s with his debut film "Mad Dog Coll." One of his most acclaimed roles came early in his career with the film "The Birdman of Alcatraz" in 1962 where he was nominated for the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. In 1967 came the role of Archer Maggott in "The Dirty Dozen."

Telly would go on to play James Bond's nemesis, Ernst Stavro Blofeld in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in 1969. 

In 1970 he would join Clint Eastwood in the film "Kelly's Heroes" and reunite with "Dirty Dozen" co-star Charles Bronson in the film "Violent City."

"The character of New York City Detective Theodopolus "Theo" Kojak would be one of his greatest successes. 

Kojak aired on CBS for five seasons from October 24, 1973, until March 18, 1978, with 118 episodes. 

The role won Savalas an Emmy and two Golden Globes for Best Actor in a Drama Series. Telly's younger brother George played the part of Detective Stavros. 

After the series wrapped  an addition of several television movies were made reprising the character."

Telly Savalas passed away on January 22, 1994 one day after his 72nd birthday. 

He lies in rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park  Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles California. 


don't forget to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A great story about a little bit of 'humanity' during a terrible war.

A great story about a little bit of 'humanity' during a terrible war.                                                                                      In April 1945, 2nd Lt. Peter During was a South African fighter pilot (N.7 Squadron) running missions over Italy when his Spitfire was shot down by German AA fire. He managed to crash land his plane behind enemy lines where he was immediately captured.   Whilst been escorted to a German Lufwaffe Prisoner of War (POW) camp (he was a pilot and thus his interrogation and imprisonment was the responsibility of the German airforce), he opened a conversation with his captors. He was quickly able to establish that they could already see the writing on the wall, that the war was at an end and Germany would lose it. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

French woman accused of sleeping with Germans during the occupation has her head shaved by vindictive neighbors in village near Marseilles.

French woman accused of sleeping with Germans during the occupation has her head shaved by vindictive neighbors in village near Marseilles.  Antony Beevor wrote: "... In Paris, there were cases of prostitutes kicked to death for having accepted German soldiers as clients. (...) A large number of the victims were prostitutes who had simply plied their trade with Germans as well as Frenchmen, although in some areas it was accepted that their conduct was professional rather than political, others were silly teenagers who had associated with German soldiers out of bravado or boredom.  In a number of cases, female schoolteachers who, living alone, had German soldiers billeted on them, were falsely denounced for having been a "mattress for the boches. (...) Women accused of having had an abortion were also assumed to have consorted with Germans.  Many victims were young mothers, whose husbands were in German prisoner-of-war camps. During the war, they often had no means of supp...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.

The Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.  Engelbert Dollfuß (4 October 1892 – 25 July 1934) was an Austrian Fatherland Front politician who served as Chancellor of Austria between 1932 and 1934.  Having served as Minister for Forests and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government.  In early 1933, the so called "Selbstausschaltung des Parlaments" happened, which made the Austrian parliament unable to govern.  Suppressing the Socialist movement in February 1934 during the Austrian Civil War and later banning the Austrian Nazi Party, he cemented the rule of authoritarian conservatism through the First of May Constitution.  Dollfuss was assassinated on 25 July 1934 by a group of Austrian Nazis, who entered the Chancellery building and shot him in an attempted coup d'état.  During mass trials which took place after the coup, Hudl was sentenced to li...
Post a Comment
Read more