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40 Insights into the Lives of Famous War Veterans

Khalid Elhassan July 13, 2019 26 min

31. Kirk Douglas ended up in the navy after getting rejected by the Air Force

Born Issur Danielovitch, the future star caught the acting bug in kindergarten, when he recited a poem, and reveled in the audience’s applause. Unable to afford college, he talked a dean into letting him attend St. Lawrence University’s drama program, in exchange for working on campus as a janitor and gardener. After graduation, he got into stage acting, and had barely started getting himself established in the theater, when WWII broke out. He tried to join the Army Air Forces, but when the airmen turned him down, he joined the Navy in late 1941.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.