Neville Brand

While he rarely got to play the hero in any of his films which stretched over 40 years in real life he joined the US army as a boy soldier after dropping out of high school in 1936 and fought in the 2nd World War as a platoon sgt. and emerged as America's 4th most decorated serviceman.. His first attempt at acting was in a propaganda film for the US Army Signal Corps in 1946 in which he was with another unknown actor called Charlton Heston. Demobbed he took advantage of the GI Bill to study acting and was in a few off Broadway shows before making his film debut as a hoodlum in D.O.A.in 1949 since when he was hardly out if work but his cruel looking face led to his type casting as a 'Heavy'. An article in 1963 mentioned that in over 50 films he'd never been seen without a gun in his hand which was broken that year when he played a viking and changed the gun for a spear.Among his best known films are Stalag 17, Birdman of Alcatraz, Riot in Cell Block 11, and Tora! Tora! Tora!. He was cast as Al Capone 3 times and won the Sylania Award for his role of Willie Stark in the 1958 TV production of All the Kings Men.. He died of emphysema in hospital in California in May 1992 aged 70.survived by his wife and 3 daughters. He'd been born in Kewanee, Illinois13 August 1921