From 'The Halls of Montezuma' to the world: 21 famous Marines

Orville Richard “Shaggy” Burrell enlisted in the Marines at age 20 in 1988. Shaggy claims the Marines were where he perfected his unique singing voice. He was a Field Artillery Cannon Crewman, one of the most bombastic jobs in the Corps, during Operation Desert Storm, and eventually earned the rank of lance corporal. He was reduced in rank twice for various infractions, though he claimed it wasn’t him.

Born Bernice Frankel, the future Golden Girl spent World War II in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. She worked as a truck driver and a typist, because the Marines didn’t have any improv teams in the '40s. Later in life, she’d deny having been a Marine, like it was something shameful, like appearing in "The Star Wars Holiday Special."

It doesn’t take much investigation to learn that former FBI Director Robert Mueller won a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for heroism during the Vietnam War. Mueller was a rifle platoon leader in South Vietnam and survived an enemy gunshot wound to the thigh, so he knows all about having to dig deep to find damaging stuff. He left the Corps in 1970, worked as a U.S. Attorney get years and after his appointment by George W. Bush, became the longest-serving FBI Director since J. Edgar Hoover.

Buddy Rich had already been a child drumming prodigy and played with Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw when he joined the Marines in 1942. Rich served as a judo instructor, though since he famously claimed to never practice drums or get lessons, only perform, it’s possible they just did judo performances. Rich continued with his own big bands for years, but we can only imagine that his marching rhythm was impeccable.

Before he joined the Marines in 1952, Fred Haise was reportedly afraid of flying. You'd never know it from his career as a fighter pilot for the Marines and the Air Force, where he logged nearly 10,000 hours of flight time, and then as a NASA astronaut. Haise is the only Marine to ever fly to the moon, though he never walked on the surface after an oxygen tank exploded aboard Apollo 13, forcing them to abort the mission. Haise and his crewmates do hold the record for the furthest distance humans have flown from the Earth, thanks to their return trajectory. Plus he was played by the late, great Bill Paxton in the movie version — not bad!

The "worst director of all time" was working as a movie theater usher when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor; Wood was a Marine by 1942. A lifelong cross-dresser, Wood famously said he fought at the Battle of Tarawa while wearing women's undergarments and thus was more afraid of being wounded and discovered than outright killed. Reportedly, he got his two front teeth knocked out and bullet wounds in his legs during one battle. While recuperating from injuries, he became a lightning-fast typist, a skill that likely helped him crank out pulp novels and scripts for his films, including legendary turkey "Plan 9 From Outer Space." He was discharged in 1946 at the rank of corporal, and as far as we can tell, no one found out or cared what kind of underwear he wore.

Before he was Kylo Ren, Adam Driver was a Marine. He enlisted just after the September 11 attacks and spent nearly three years as a mortar man for the Corps, though he was never deployed. When Driver broke his sternum in a mountain biking accident, he received a medical discharge and then went to what may be the polar opposite of the Marine Corps: the Juilliard School performing arts conservatory in New York City. Driver clearly developed a work ethic from the Corps, as he's made over 20 films in his brief career and appeared in 49 episodes of "Girls." He also founded a non-profit called Arts in the Armed Forces, which "brings high-quality arts programming to active duty service members, veterans, military support staff and their families around the world free of charge."

Instead of playing winter ball in 1958-59, Clemente went to Parris Island, South Carolina, as a U.S. Marine reserve. He put on 10 pounds of muscle thanks to military training. Not coincidentally, his slugging percentage jumped 60 points in 1960, and he made the first of his 12 All-Star teams. In training, Clemente narrowly missed expert status for his sharpshooting, but if they’d just let him throw the bullets from the right field corner, he’d have gotten top marks and a promotion.

Jim Mora's NFL coaching career was appropriate for a former Marine. He was sent into desperate, devastated locations — New Orleans and Indianapolis — and asked to stabilize the situation and restore order. He did that in both places, going 12-3 with the Saints in 1987 for the first winning record in their history, eventually making the playoffs four times. In Indianapolis, the Colts went 13-3 in his second year in charge. Mora also won two titles in three years of coaching in the USFL. Mora was also an excellent tight end for his three years playing on Marine Corps teams, where he reportedly "played like Gronk," but it's not clear whether those service teams ever made the playoffs.

Thomas Delmer "Artimus" Pyle was Lynyrd Skynyrd's second drummer and survived the plane crash that killed the band's lead singer and guitarist in 1977. Ironically, Pyle had worked as an avionics mechanic after joining the Marines, planning to use the skills he learned to pursue a career in civil aviation. However, he was honorably discharged from the Corps after his father, also a Marine veteran, was killed in a plane crash. Pyle never saw combat, though he did get shot in the shoulder by a farmer when Pyle ran to the farmhouse for help after the plane crash. Pyle still continues to play music, touring with his Skynyrd cover outfit The Artimus Pyle Band, and recording his own original, extremely specific songs like "Blood Sucking Weasel Attorneys."

Hey oh! Ed McMahon is known for the nearly 30 years he spent alongside Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show," but he spent almost that long in the Marine Corps. Even in high school, McMahon wanted to be a Marine Corps pilot, and when World War II broke out, McMahon enlisted. He spent two years of WWII as a flight instructor, which no doubt doubled as vocal training for the future announcer, and later flew 85 combat missions in the Korean War. McMahon remained in the Reserves even as "The Tonight Show" became a hit, finally retiring from the Corps after 25 years as a colonel. He continued a commitment to service even after this, raising money for muscular dystrophy charities and serving as the co-host of The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon for 35 years.

Decades before joining O.J. Simpson's "Dream Team" of defense attorneys, F. Lee Bailey joined an even dreamier team when he dropped out of Harvard to enlist in the Marines. He served as a jet fighter pilot and a legal officer from 1952 until his discharge in 1956. Bailey immediately went to Boston Law School despite not finishing college and became famous when he got Dr. Sam Sheppard, the inspiration for "The Fugitive," a retrial and acquittal. In his career, Bailey defended the Boston Strangler, Patty Hearst, Captain Ernest Medina and of course, America.

Jerry Springer's head of security had a much more important defense job in the 1980's. From 1983 to '89, Wilkos was in the Marine Corps, serving in Japan and South Korea, before rotating back to the USA and joining, what else, Security Battalion. Contrary to what you might expect from watching him on "Jerry Springer" or "The Steve Wilkos Show," now in its 11th season, Wilkos was never a drill instructor.

Ken Norton began boxing after enlisting in the Marines in 1963. He went 24-2 overall, winning three All-Marine Heavyweight titles, which is impressive because he had to fight, you know, Marines. He left the Corps and turned professional in 1967, and by 1973 he was the world heavyweight champion, after becoming only the second fighter to beat Muhammad Ali. (Norton also broke Ali's jaw.) Norton would fight Ali twice more, losing both in controversial decisions to The Greatest. The Los Angeles Times voted Norton their Father of the Year in 1977; his son Ken Norton Jr. was a football star who is now the Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator, and his son Keith was a sports anchor and a Marine.

Arthur "Punch" Sulzberger's father was the publisher of the New York Times, but that didn't stop Punch from enlisting in the Marine Corps at age 17 in 1944. He credited the Corps from helping him grow up, saying "Before I entered the Marines, I was a lazy good-for-nothing." He quickly became an energetic good-for-something, serving as a radio man in the Philippines and a jeep driver at General MacArthur's headquarters in Japan. Later, he served as a public information officer during the Korean War, in both Korea and Washington D.C. He returned to civilian life with the rank of captain in 1952, and a decade later, he captained the Times as its youngest publisher ever. Punch was publisher for 29 years, and his signature moment? Publishing the Pentagon Papers.

Ted Williams may be the greatest hitter in the history of baseball, and he also may have the most distinguished military record in baseball history. After Williams hit .406 in 1941, he enlisted in the Navy in May 1942. Then he proceeded to win the Triple Crown and immediately enroll in the Navy's aviation program — not a surprise for someone who grew up in San Diego, but upon completion, he chose the Marines. Williams excelled as a pilot, with the vision and steadiness that made him such a formidable hitter. He spent most of WWII as a flight instructor, then returned to baseball and won the 1946 MVP. He returned to the military in 1952 due to the need for pilots in the Korean War and went on to fly 39 combat missions alongside his operations officer, future astronaut John Glenn. Williams played until 1960 and made six more All-Star Games, and he refused to go along with any complaints that military service hurt his baseball career: "The three years that I lost — hell, there were nine billion guys who contributed a lot more than I did."

The all-time king of improvisational comedy was the late Jonathan Winters, and it's fitting that he was a former Marine, where they live by the slogan "Improvise, Adapt and Overcome." Winters quit high school at age 17 to enlist in World War II, and he spent two-and-a-half years as a seagoing Marine in the Pacific Theater. At the end of the war, he was a gunner on the aircraft carrier, USS Bon Homme Richard, perfect for someone who thrived on provoking big reactions. Winters ended up having a comedy career that lasted six decades, winning the Mark Twain Prize For American Humor and making too many late-night television appearances to count. In addition, the first-ever color videotape was broadcast on "The Jonathan Winters Show," proving without a doubt he's one of history's most colorful characters.

After completing college at Kent State, Drew Carey spent six years in the Marine Corps Reserves. He still supports the troops, working with USO and regularly entertaining the troops overseas, and he still credits his time in the Marines for the short haircut and black wide-rimmed glasses that he still sports today. And as his time on "Who's Line Is It Anyway?" proved, he's another former Marine who believes in improvisation.

The story of Steve McQueen joining the Marines is not initially a patriotic one. As he tells it, "It was all very pleasant just lying in the sun and watching the girls go by, but one day I suddenly felt bored with hanging around and went and joined the Marines." McQueen was a problem Marine at first, getting busted down from Private First Class a whopping seven times and eventually ending up in the brig after going AWOL on a two-day pass. But McQueen credits the punishment for turning him around, and he later he became a hero, saving five men from drowning in a training exercise gone terribly wrong. After his discharge in 1950, he used the GI Bill to pay for acting lessons, and the result was a long and prolific acting career, though he might have stayed in the Marines indefinitely if they had a motorcycle racing team.

Though Rod Carew was incorrectly identified as Jewish in Adam Sandler's original version of "The Hanukkah Song" ("O.J. Simpson...not a Jew/ But guess who is? Hall of Famer Rod Carew!"), you'd be correct to identify him as a former Marine. After immigrating from Panama at age 15, Carew spent six years in the Marine Corps Reserves during the '60s, which he credits with helping him develop as a player when he made the majors in 1967. "After two weeks of war games every summer, I realized that baseball was not do-or-die. That kind of discipline made me the player I became." That player was the 1977 AL MVP, an 18-time All-Star and a seven-time batting champion. He won so many batting titles that the American League named the title after him in 2016.

Don and Phil Everly were already big stars when they enlisted in the Marines in 1961. The previous year, "Cathy's Clown" had been the No. 1 song for five weeks, and it went on to sell 8 million copies. They went through basic training in San Diego and were stationed at Camp Pendleton. The Everly Brothers performed on "The Ed Sullivan Show" wearing their Marine dress uniforms, and the same week, Don got married in his. They spoke fondly of their time in the Corps, but it's a shame they had to sacrifice that beautiful hair.