Gene Wilder
Drafted into the Army in 1956, Jerome Silberman (Wilder’s real name) trained for service in the medical corps. He was working as a paramedic at Valley Forge Army Hospital in Pennsylvania when he began taking acting classes. After his honorable discharge in 1958, Jerome Silberman changed his name to Gene Wilder and went on to star in a number of comedies, notably teaming up with director Mel Brooks in “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein.”
Sidney Poitier
You may know him as the first black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Sidney Poitier moved to the US at age 16 from the Bahamas. He lived in New York City and desperately wanted to escape the bitter winters of the northeast. He lied about his age so he could enlist in the United States Army where he served as a medical attendant in a mental hospital. Still a kid, he soon grew tired of that role, but instead of just admitting his age, he decided to try and get discharged by faking insanity. With the threat of shock treatment, he came clean. After talking to a psychiatrist for several weeks, he was eventually granted release from the Army.
Richard Pryor
Funny man Richard Pryor did not have what you’d call a typical stint in the Army. Pryor spent most of his time behind bars for stabbing a white soldier who got a little too enthusiastic over a racially charged scene in a film they were watching. However, compared to his childhood this may have seemed like a walk in the park. As a young child, Richard was the victim of sexual abuse. Left by his alcoholic mother at the age of ten, he was raised at his grandmother’s brothel. During that time he was also expelled from school.