Hollywood Movie Legend George O’Brien Left Everything to Serve His Country in WWII
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 8 July 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, long before Hollywood had sound, George O’Brien was a leading man in the silent era. But when WWII called, this famous silent film actor left the red carpet behind and joined the fight. His story reveals how one of the most recognizable male silent movie stars became an American war hero. As part of our ongoing "Hollywood Goes to War" series, Roger McGrath, author of Gunfighters, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes: Violence on the Frontier, shares the story.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:04.5 | Adventure should never come with a pause button. |
| 0:07.1 | Remember Movie Pass? |
| 0:08.4 | All the movies you wanted for just nine bucks? |
| 0:11.1 | I'm Bridget Todd, host of There Are No Girls on the Internet. |
| 0:13.9 | And this season, I'm digging into the tech stories we weren't told. |
| 0:17.4 | Starting with Stacey Spikes, the black founder of movie pass who got pushed out of the company |
| 0:21.6 | he built. |
| 0:22.8 | Everybody's trying to knock you down and it's not going to work and no one's going to like it. |
| 0:27.3 | And then boom, it's everywhere. |
| 0:29.3 | And that was that moment. |
| 0:30.7 | Listen to there are no girls on the internet on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. |
| 0:34.7 | Music or wherever you get your podcast. |
| 0:50.6 | This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. |
| 0:53.2 | And we love your stories, our listeners' stories. Send them to |
| 0:55.9 | Our American Stories.com. They're some of our favorites. Here to tell another Hollywood Goes to |
| 1:01.6 | war story is Roger McGrath. McGrath is the author of gunfighters, highwaymen, and vigilantes, |
| 1:08.2 | Violence on the Frontier. He's a U.S. Marine and former history professor at UCLA. |
| 1:14.3 | McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries, |
| 1:17.6 | and he's a regular contributor for us here at Our American Stories. |
| 1:22.2 | Here's McGrath. |
| 1:24.0 | World War I veteran George O'Brien became a star in Hollywood with his breakout performance |
... |
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