Audie Murphy
Sign in to saveAmerican soldier and actor (1925–1971)
Person
- Born
- 1925-06-20
- Died
- 1971-05-28
via Open Library + Wikidata
Film & TV
Acting · Kingston, Texas, USA
Audie Leon Murphy (June 20, 1925 – May 28, 1971) was a fifth grade dropout from an extremely poor family who became the most decorated American soldier of World War II. After the war he became a celebrated movie star for over two decades, appearing in 44 films. He also found some success as a country music composer. Murphy became the most decorated United States soldier of the war during…
Known for
- Audie Murphy, de Colmar à Hollywood — Himself (archives)2025
- A Time for Dying — Jesse James1969
- 40 Guns to Apache Pass — Capt. Bruce Coburn1967
- The Texican — Jess Carlin1966
- Gunpoint — Chad Lucas1966
- Trunk to Cairo — Mike Merrick1966
- Arizona Raiders — Clint Stewart1965
- The Quick Gun — Clint Cooper1964
- Bullet for a Badman — Logan Keliher1964
- Apache Rifles — Capt. Jeff Stanton1964
via TMDB
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 26
- Total plays
- 85
<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Audie+Murphy">Read more on Last.fm</a>
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- DeepLab: Semantic Image Segmentation with Deep Convolutional Nets, Atrous Convolution, and Fully Connected CRFs
· 2018 · cited 17,808x
- A modified single solution method for the determination of phosphate in natural waters
· 1962 · cited 16,370x
- Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
· 2016 · cited 11,419x
- The Sequence of the Human Genome
· 2001 · cited 10,177x
- <i>Planck</i>2015 results
· 2016 · cited 9,752x
via Crossref · CC0
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1925-06-20 ) June 20, 1925 , Kingston, Texas , U.S.
- Died
- May 28, 1971 (1971-05-28) (aged 45), 14 nautical miles northwest of Roanoke, Virginia , U.S.
- Buried
- Arlington National Cemetery
- Allegiance
- United States
- Branch
- United States Army Texas Army National Guard United States Army Reserve
- Service years
- 1942–1945 (active) 1950–1966 (National Guard) 1966–1969 (reserve)
- Rank
- First lieutenant (active) Major (National Guard)
- Service number
- 18083707 (enlisted) O-1692509 (officer)
- Unit
- 15th Infantry Regiment 3rd Infantry Division 36th Infantry Division
- Conflicts
- World War II Tunisia Sicily Naples-Foggia Anzio Rome-Arno Southern France Ardennes-Alsace Rhineland Central Europe
- Spouses
- Wanda Hendrix ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1949 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1951 ) Pamela Opal Lee Archer ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1951 )
Key dates
- Born
- 20 June 1925
- Died
- 28 May 1971
via Wikidata · CC0
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Family name
- Murphy
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of death
- Roanoke
- Spouse
- Wanda Hendrix
- Occupation
- soldier
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Native language
- English language
Article
Audie Leon Murphy (June 20, 1925 – May 28, 1971) was an American soldier, actor, and songwriter. He was widely celebrated as the most decorated American combat soldier of World War II, and has been described as the most highly decorated enlisted soldier in U.S. history. He received every military combat award for valor available from the United States Army, as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism. Murphy received the Medal of Honor for valor that he demonstrated at age 19 for single-handedly holding off a company of German soldiers for an hour at the Colmar Pocket in France in January 1945, before leading a successful counterattack while wounded.
Murphy was born into a large family of sharecroppers in Hunt County, Texas. His father abandoned the family and his mother died when Murphy was a teenager. Murphy left school in fifth grade to pick cotton and find other work to help support his family; his skill with a hunting rifle helped feed his family. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Murphy's older sister helped him to falsify documentation about his birthdate to meet the minimum age for enlisting in the military. Turned down initially for being underweight by the Army, Navy, and the Marine Corps, he eventually was able to enlist in the Army. He first saw action in the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily; then in 1944 he participated in the Battle of Anzio, the liberation of Rome, and the invasion of southern France. Murphy fought at Montélimar and led his men on a successful assault at L'Omet quarry near Cleurie in northeastern France in October. Despite suffering from multiple illnesses and wounds throughout his service, Murphy became one of the most praised and decorated soldiers of World War II. He is credited with killing 241 enemy soldiers.
Gallery (11)
Connections
Categories
1925 births1971 deaths20th-century American male actors20th-century American memoirists20th-century American songwritersAccidental deaths in VirginiaAge controversiesAmerican lyricistsAmerican male film actorsAmerican people of German descentAmerican people of Scotch-Irish descentAmerican recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France)