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shoshiwrites · 10 months

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Band of Brothers Ages: IRL vs. Actors

Did you know that according to a 1947 study, almost half the men who served in WWII were still under age 26 by the end of the war?

What this is : A (very long) post comparing the ages of the actors in Band of Brothers vs. the IRL figures they are portraying.

Background: Did I need to do this? No. Did anyone ask for this? Also no. Did I do it anyway? Yes.

Disclaimers: This is SUPER approximate for the most part. I based IRL ages off of D-Day unless otherwise noted, and actor ages off of January 1, 2000, the year filming took place (the latter is where the most variation will be because I didn't try to figure out what month filming started). I also didn't fact-check birthdays beyond googling. Most are sourced from the Band of Brothers and Military Wikis on fandom.com, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

I broke them up into rough categories, which are, again, approximate. I know I often forget how young the real life people were here, and this was a good reminder of that. I also found it interesting to see which actors were actually younger than their roles!

Check it all out under the cut ⬇️

~10+ years older

Dale Dye (55) as Col. Robert F. Sink (39) (~16 years)

Michael Cudlitz (35) as Denver "Bull" Randleman (23) (~12)

Marc Warren (32) as Albert Blithe (20) (~12)

Rocky Marshall (33) as Earl J. McClung (21) (~12)

Frank John Hughes (32) as William J. Guarnere (21) (~11)

Neal McDonough (33) as Lynn D. (Buck) Compton (22) (~11)

Dexter Fletcher (33) as John W. Martin (22) (~11)

~5+ years older

Simon Schatzberger (32) as Joseph A. Lesniewski (23) (~9)

Richard Speight Jr. (30) Warren H. (Skip) Muck (22) (~8)

Jason O'Mara (30) as Thomas Meehan (22) (~8)

Ron Livingston (32) as Lewis Nixon (25) (~7)

Donnie Wahlberg (30) as C. Carwood Lipton (24) (~6)

Matthew Settle (30) as Ronald C. Speirs (24) (~6)

Nolan Hemmings (28) as Charles E. "Chuck" Grant (22) (~6)

Douglas Spain (25) as Antonio C. Garcia (19) (~6)

George Calil (26) as James H. "Mo" Alley Jr. (21) (~5)

Rick Gomez (27) as George Luz (22) (~5 year)

Scott Grimes (28) as Donald G. Malarkey (23) (~5)

Stephen Graham (26) as Myron "Mike" Ranney (21) (~5)

~less than 5 years older

Shane Taylor (25) as Eugene G. Roe (21) (~4)

Tim Matthews (23) as Alex M. Penkala Jr. (19) (~4)

Matthew Leitch (24) as Floyd M. "Tab" Talbert (20) (~4)

Peter O'Meara (30) as Norman S. Dike Jr. (26) (~4)

Tom Hardy (22) as John A. Janovec (18) (~4)

Rick Warden (28) as Harry F. Welsh (25) (~3)

Kirk Acevedo (28) as Joseph D. Toye (25) (~3)

Eion Bailey (25) as David Kenyon Webster (22) (~3)

Craig Heaney (26) as Roy W. Cobb (29) (~3)

Damian Lewis (28) as Richard D. Winters (26) (~2)

Robin Laing as Edward J. "Babe" Heffron (~2, 21/23)

Ben Caplan (26) as Walter S. "Smokey" Gordon Jr. (24) (~2)

David Schwimmer (32) as Herbert M. Sobel (33) (~1 year)

Michael Fassbender (22) as Burton P. "Pat" Christenson (21) (~1)

Colin Hanks (22) as Lt. Henry Jones (21) (~1) (age around Bastogne)

Bart Ruspoli (23) as Edward J. Tipper (22) (~1)

~Same age

Peter Youngblood Hills as Darrell C. "Shifty" Powers (21)

Mark Huberman as Lester "Les" Hashey (19)

Younger

Lucie Jeanne (23) as Renée Lemaire (30) (age around Bastogne) (~7)

Ross McCall (23) as Joseph D. Liebgott (29) (~6)

Simon Pegg (29) as William S. Evans (~33) (~4)

Philip Barantini (19) as Wayne A. "Skinny" Sisk (22) (~3)

James Madio (24) as Frank J. Perconte (27) (~3)

Stephen McCole (25) as Frederick "Moose" Heyliger (27) (~2)

Matt Hickey (~16) as Patrick S. O'Keefe (18) (~2)

Incomplete/not found

Phil McKee as Maj. Robert L. Strayer (34)

Rene L. Moreno as Joseph Ramirez (30)

Doug Allen as Alton M. More (24)

David Nicolle as Lt. Thomas A. Peacock (24)

Rebecca Okot as Anna (Augusta Chiwy) (24) (age around Bastogne)

Alex Sabga-Brady as Francis J. Mellet (23)

Mark Lawrence as William H. Dukeman Jr. (22)

Nicholas Aaron as Robert E. (Popeye) Wynn (22)

Peter McCabe as Donald B. Hoobler (21)

Marcos D'Cruze as Joseph P. Domingus (not found)

#ty mercurygray for that sweet sweet jstor access #band of brothers #uhh one more disclaimer it's entirely possible that i mistyped stuff here and that i switched ages/etc.#i did try to proofread though!#anyway. i apologize if anyone has already done this.#shoshi.txt #sort of #it's also very possible that i spent too much time online today

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shiftyskip · 5 years

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Robert James Rader

Rader was not portrayed in Band of Brothers

The real Robert Rader

Robert James Rader was born October 9, 1923 in Manchester, Ohio. His parents were Walter and Bessie Rader. They had already had two kids, Walter Jr. and Charles William, when they Robert. After Robert was born, they had three more kids: Richard, Mary, and Ralph.

His father had previously served in World War 1, in the All-American Division. Which I believe is the 82nd Airborne. Correct me if I’m wrong on that. His father had fought in 5 major battles. He had been wounded and gassed. When his father returned he works as a stone cutter for a cemetery. Due to all this, Walter’s health was never the best.

Money was very, very tight. Robert’s family was very poor. Poor enough to eat road kill when circumstances allowed it. To make sure everyone got food, Robert made a difficult choice. Walter Jr., Charles William, and Robert all enlisted in the Ohio National Guard. Robert did so illegally, because he was underage. He was 16 at the time. This was so they’d get fed by the National Guard and their servings would go to those at home, instead. He got paid around $0.72 a day.

Robert lived in the same town as Donald Hoobler. They were close friends throughout their childhood. They played sports, swam in the nearby Ohio River, and even stole some watermelons. His love of sports continued in High School, and he started playing a few.

Pearl Harbor occurred while Robert was still in the National Guard. He was not in the National Guard for long after that, because they found out his real age and kicked him out. They gave him an honorable discharge, which would allow him to sit the war out. Once out of the National Guard, Robert went back to high school and graduated in 1942. He was the first in his family to ever graduate high school.

Donald Hoobler was the one who talked him and another friend William Howell into enlisting in the paratroopers. They enlisted a few short months after Robert’s graduate on August 22, 1942 at Fort Thomas Newport, in Kentucky.

Robert was one of the original Toccoa men. He got the lovely joy of training under the blessing that is Sobel.

Training under Sobel was tough. Sobel made a lot of boys in Easy hate him. And although Robert did not like Sobel, he respected Easy for making them tough enough to survive the war.

Guarnere gave him the nickname Rook. Although no one knows quite why he was given that nickname since he didn’t play chess. His family thinks it might have been a very loose Italian version of his last name Rader. But they never confirmed this idea.

Robert, Howell, and Hoobler went by a different nickname all together. Although this one was self given. They called themselves the “three hillbillies”. They were country boys and the rest of the company believed their “Appalachian” accent was weird. The trio made a friend named William Dukeman, who was from Colorado.

While the physical training had been hard, Robert loved Jump School. He really likes the higher jumps, making more jumps than he was required to get his wings. Although his love of jumps did not always go in his favor. During one jump, an ammunition holder (a large box made out of a type of metal) came loose (a common thing during jumps but not normally a typical form of injury) and hit him in the head. It caused a detached retina, which can result in vision problems. I do not know if Robert himself had any.

Robert made the trip across the sea with the rest of Easy Company. They arrived in Aldbourne, England. Where they remainded until it was time for the Normandy jump. During his free time, Robert played basketball and baseball.

When D-Day arrived, Robert was with Easy Company. His plane had Johnny Martin in it. He was sitting next to Martin when a shell burst through the plane and between their heads. Their plane took 250 hits altogether.

His pilot had been hit in the foot, causing a panic and miscommunication occurred. The pilot believed all the men had jumped and his plane was clear to go back to England. He turned the plane back towards England. The men realized they had to jump and they had to jump NOW. And they all quickly got out of the plane.

Robert, like most of Easy, lost all of his weapons in his jump. His landing in a pasture, was not a great one either. He landed hard, fracturing 3 vertabrae in his back. He ignored the pain and continued, he never did get this injury checked or fixed.

The first person he saw in Normandy was Burr Smith. Burr gave him a few weapons, so he finally had something. They were near Ste. Mère-Église when they engaged in minor combat against Poles and Russians who were fighting for Germany.

Robert played a small part in a Brecourt Manor with Richard Winters. He was between the guns and the beach front, making sure that the Germans didn’t flee back and recruit help.

Around the area of Carentan, Robert was in charge of a small squad. His squad engaged a group of Hitler Youth in combat. When the boys stated they’d die for Hitler, Robert knew they’d have to kill them. When they stopped firing, he saw boys, both his own and the Hitler Youth, laying out dead on the ground. At that moment, Robert promised that he’d focus the rest of his life on helping children.

Easy Company withdrew to Aldbourne. They rested there until it was time for the Holland jump. September 17, 1944, Robert and Easy jumped into Holland. For 79 days, Robert has nearly everyday contact with the Germans and fighting.

In Holland, he was injured during combat. Not by a German gun though. While hiding in a barn, a man next to Robert started cleaning his gun. It went off and hit Robert in the elbow. Robert was sent to the nearby aid station but they couldn’t send him back to England, there was no way for him to get a ship home at that moment. Without a way to England, Robert went back to Easy Company. When he arrived, he performed a bayonet charge shortly after. Injured arm and all.

His friend, Dukeman from Colorado, was hit and killed October 5, 1944. His son’s middle name was Dukeman in honor of this man, his friend and fellow brother in arms.

After returning from Holland, the boys were taken to Mourmelon. On their journey to Bastogne, they were given hot chocolate. But whoever drank it, ended getting horribly sick. Robert was one of the boys who drank it and spent his trip feeling awful.

Bastogne was cold. They had very little supplies and ammo and no winter weather gear. They were in the middle of a terrible winter and were completely unprepared for fighting during it. The cold was so bad, Robert’s eyelids froze open. He soon lost the feeling in his legs and arms. He even got shot in the hip at Bastogne and didn’t notice until 1987, more than 40 years later, during a CAT scan that had picked up his injury.

But the men did have some relief. Robert and Hoobler, the two best friends, took Christmas Eve night post, leaving the rest of the men to relax. It was their version of a Christmas present to everyone, sparing them the struggle.

Hoobler died shortly afterwards on January 3, 1945. Robert was deeply upset and affected by the death of Hoobler, his friend from childhood. Like Dukeman, who died in October, he later named his son after Donald Hoobler. His son’s name was Donald Dukeman Rader, in honor of his close friends.

In Bastogne, Howell, another friend, was injured. He survived his injury and retuned home. Bastogne left Robert nearly without any friends.

Near Foy, Robert instructed his men to dig their foxholes out in the open field, farther away from the shelter of the trees. This would let his men be exposed, causing some panic among his squad. But they listened anyways. Robert was proven right when shelling went over the heads of Robert’s squad and into the forest around them, shattering trees and anything in its way. His squad was fine, without any major injuries.

Robert was discharged November 1945. He had earned a Purple Heart but turned it down, saying,“How could I receive it when do msnt others were wounded so badly?” He was awarded the Broze Star for his service.

He arrived back home at night. He went inside and went to sleep without waking anyone. His mother had been boarding soldiers, always coming and going, and when she saw her son, she didn’t recognize him. The war had changed him so much.

Throughout the war, he had saved all his money and sent it home to his mother. While he had wanted her to spend it, she had not and instead had saved it for his return.

He returned to school and attended Morehead State College on his GI Bill and sports scholarship. His legs had suffered tremendously in Bastogne and his sports career never got far and he lost his scholarship.

Robert transferred over to Cedarville College, a Baptist school. He was not religious but his friends attended so he went. The school was a dry school, meaning he couldn’t drink, but he found a way to sneak alcohol in. He would use a pulley system to get it up to him and would freeze it outside during the winter months. He still played baseball and basketball, but not on a scholarship. Somehow, even though he was a wild child, he received his bachelors degree in education.

He used his degree to become a teacher and in the 1950s he moved from Ohio to California, following the move of several of his friends. In California , he met Lucille, a nurse. They had been set up on a blind date and began dating. They were married on February 14, 1953, Valentine’s Day.

Robert got a job at the California School for Boys. After that job he got another teaching job in the Paso Robles school district. He worked at this school until his retirement, 25 years later. During his first few years teaching at this school, he worked 2 jobs. He was a teacher and an assistant manager at the Paso Robles airport, where he fueled airplanes. His reasoning behind these two jobs was that the airport job earned him social security, the teaching did not.

Lucille remained a nurse, taking a short time to be a stay at home mom when two kids were born. He didn’t get much time off for hobbies, since he was working so much. But he did play softball and go fishing. He continued to love sports till his final day, even buying two TVs to put in one room so that he could watch two events at the same time.

His children, Donald and Robin. Robin was born in October 1953. Donald was born in May of 1958. As a family, they traveled to National Parks together and went to Easy Company Reunions. At one Easy Company Reunion, Donald Dukeman was allowed to shoot a gun at the age 7, and Robin, even though she was older, was not allowed. No matter how much she begged.

Robert also volunteered with the local fire department for 10 years. As he volunteered, he once experiences a huge fire that burned all night. When he came home, he got ready and just went to school to teach.

He was a strict teacher, there was no nonsense in his call room. All the wild children were sent to him so he could deal with them. He would get his students attention by throwing an eraser at his chalkboard and one time even picked up and threw a rowdy kid out the door of his room.

But he started teaching handicapped kids and his eraser and kid throwing days were over. He became a bit softer.

He also coached basketball and cross country for his school. In his 10 years coaching cross country, 7 of his teams went to the finals. He had two All-American runners as well. He was very proud of his team.

He did keep in touch with men from Easy Company. He wrote letters and had Bull Randlemen and Mike Ranney visit a few times. He was extremely close with Bull. He also was visited by Leo Matz, a squad member of his. He signed his letters to Easy Company: “Robert J. Rader, here. Be good. Be carful. Sleep Warm.”

He adjusted fairly easy to normal life, but like every Easy Company man, seemed to struggle with the winter months. Bastogne and Hoobler’s death hit him hard. Whenever the holidays came around, he got quiet for days at a time. When his daughter asked, he explained Christmas reminded him of Hoobler.

Robert struggled with health problems all of his life. He retired in 1981 due to health problems. In total, he has 2 heart surgeries with 9 bypasses, lost a kidney, had an aortic aneurisms, as well as stomach ulcers and an bladder problem. Doctors ended having to cut half of his stomach away. He carried on, even going golfing one time immediately after a surgery.

After his retirement, he and Lucille continued to travel to Paris and Holland. They took long walks and went golfing together. They continued to travel as his health failed, although they had to watch his diet.

His health did not last long though, his always active lifestyle changed toward the end of his life. He had to lay down a lot and couldn’t sit up much. He lost weight and his heart was failing. His last few months were spend writing letters and watching sports. He eventually lost his appetite and his other kidney failed.

Within the last week of his life, he didn’t want to get out of his pajamas, which was the real sign something was wrong. He had always gotten dressed and ready to go. Within a few days after this, his blood pressure dropped and his family took him to the hospital.

On his final day in the world, Lucille went home early. She was really tired and needed to rest. After she left, Robert asked his kids: “Is she okay?” Concerned about his wife even when he was in the hospital.

Later that day, he went to sleep and passed away. He died April 7, 1997. He was buried under trees in a cemetery.

A bridge was dedicated in his memory, a sign of all the lives he had touched. The project was led by citizens of Paso Robles, started by a former student of his. It is named the Robert J. Rader Memorial Bridge. At the dedication of his bridge, several Easy Company men attended including Buck Compton, Bill Manyard, Rod Bain, Ed Joint, Bill Wagner, Don Malarkey, Jack McGrath, Earl McLung, and Shifty Powers.

Be good. Be careful. Sleep Warm.

#band of brothers #profiles #real life band of brothers #real band of brothers #robert rader

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