Audie Murphy

Audie Murphy (1925 – 1971) was one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of the Second World War. This article appeared on the newsstands just in time to promote To Hell and Back, the Universal Studio movie based on Murphy’s 1949 wartime memoir of the same name. Some men fit quite comfortably into the public life of a celebrated hero, Audie Murphy was not one of them. He did not like being promoted into the officer class, he did not like talking about himself and he did not like being in movies. Having experienced bitter poverty growing up, he agreed to reenact his W.W. II exploits before the Hollywood cameras in order that his two children never know the hunger that he experienced. His status as a celebrity saddled him with a dependence on alcohol and put him in a sham marriage that ended painfully. He was a humble man; the journalist who wrote the attached piece made the following observation –

“Audie never hated anyone he fought: he believes the Germans were good soldiers and had a lot of guts. If they killed his friends, he killed theirs. It was something neither of them could help.”