It was one of the great faces of the western: what did he really arrive at Audie Murphy, war hero who became a movie star?

Discover the tragic fate of actor Audie Murphy, star of “the victorious charge” and died at only 45 years old.

It was not tall in size, but was by courage. Audie Murphy is a film star widely forgotten these days, but on the atypical journey. His premature death helped to make him disappear from the list of actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood, but he nevertheless filmed 50 films in 31 years.

Most decorated American actor and military

If he was a limited actor, Murphy had before that excelled … to wage war. When entering the United States during the Second World War, he volunteered when he was barely 18 years old. His shooting skill (inherited from the year to hunt to feed his family) and his bravery on the battlefield earned him to become the most decorated American soldier of the whole conflict. He does it prestigious Time Magazine cover On July 16, 1945 and received the highest military distinction in the United States.

We owe him in particular, to avenge a female soldier friend, to have devoted a hill with a machine gun in one hand and grenades in the other, killing 13 German soldiers alone, allowing the rest of his regiment to be able to get out of a dead end. But once the war is over, Audie Murphy finds himself, at 20, without a prospect of the future. It was then that an actor reaches out to him.

Spotted by James Cagney

James Cagney, known for his gangster roles in Hollywood, asks to meet him and decides to make him an actor. The adventure runs short, the two men separate, but Murphy keeps the idea and decides to take some acting lessons and get started.

Audie Murphy is not a good actor and from the top of his 1.65 m, is not in the standards of the time of Hollywood actors. However, he is young, has a baby face and a determined look that seduce the Universal studio, which gives him a chance with the Western the Kid from Texas (1949), in which he plays Billy The Kid.

He is then “Typecast”, and only turns westerns, either in the role of the Cowboy without fear and without reproach, or in the role of the soldier without fear and without reproach. The best is undoubtedly the victorious charge of John Huston, and most work very well at the box office.

Hero demons

On the sets, Audie Murphy does not have a good reputation. In addition to his lack of self -confidence as an actor and a serious impostor’s syndrome, he made himself known for access to anger as sudden as it is violent. Those who work with him understand that the war, which he has always lived in the front row since he refused any progress to stay at the front and risk his life, has left indelible traces.

It was not until 1955 that Murphy could abandon the western to bring his autobiography to the screen, To hell and backwhich will be released in France under the title The Hell of Men. He plays his own role there and saw his war facts, transformed by the dream factory that is Hollywood. The experience is traumatic and devastating for the actor.

The problems accumulate

In the early 1960s, Audie Murphy was ruined because of game debts, her private life was dissolved and her film career was declining.

Murphy in parallel develops an addiction to sleeping pills, which he absorbs as ticking to find sleep, and if possible without reliving his war years in nightmares. From 1958 to 1966, he was under the influence of this medication which made him half comatose, and which would lead people to think that he is an alcoholic. He will declare at the time (quoted in the book No name on the bullet By don Graham): “I was a zombie. (…) Nothing interested me. If a bus was on my way (…), I forced it to line up on the aisle “.

Decline and premature death

Forced to accept roles in Westerns without relief, Murphy signs in 1969 the western who shoots the first? Budd Boetticher, also in the hollow of the wave, and of which he himself finds funding. Audie Murphy appears in a supporting role, and it is her last appearance on the screen.

In 1970, he was arrested for attack with the intention of killing but was recognized innocent. The following year, while traveling on a private plane over Virginia, bad weather conditions lead to the plane crash. With the other four flight passengers, Murphy died, at only 45 years old.

He is buried with military honors and In 2014his grave was always one of the most visited of the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, just behind that of John F. Kennedy.

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