Spooky on screen.Soldiers for real.
Before they gave TV audiences the creeps, these two legends faced something far scarier: combat in World War II. Meet the Army veterans behind Uncle Fester and The Twilight Zone.
Uncle Fester of The Addams Family was “creepy,” “kooky,” “altogether ooky,” and an Army Veteran.
Did you know Jackie Coogan, who played ‘Uncle Fester’ on the 1960s sitcom The Addams Family, was a WWII U.S. Army veteran? Coogan enlisted in the Army in March 1941, but because of his prewar civilian flying experience, he requested a transfer to the U.S. Army Air Forces as a glider pilot.
After graduating as a flight officer, he volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group and was deployed to the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations in December 1943.
One of Coogan’s more dangerous missions occurred on 5 March 1944, when he piloted a British Army Long Range Penetration Group, better known as the Chindits, in his CG-4A Waco glider (like the one on exhibit in the ASOM), landing at night in a small jungle clearing a hundred miles behind Japanese lines to conduct covert operations.
Rod Serling: From the Drop Zone to The Twilight Zone.
Rod Serling, the creator and host of The Twilight Zone (1959–1964), spent three years in the U.S. Army during WWII in the 11th Airborne Division! After Serling’s airborne training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, his unit, the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 11th Airborne Division, left for the Pacific Theater of Operations.
In November 1944, Serling and the 11th Airborne Division first saw combat on the island of Leyte in the Philippines. Wounded twice during the fierce fighting on the island, Serling was still able to deploy with the 511th PIR to Tagaytay Ridge in 1945.
From there, the Paratroopers of the 511th marched on the Japanese stronghold of Manila, defended by 17,000 enemy troops. After roughly a month of brutal combat, Manila fell to the Allies.
By the time Serling was discharged in 1946, he had earned:
- Purple Heart
- Bronze Star
- Philippine Liberation Medal
The scariest stories aren’t always fiction.
This Halloween, whether you’re dressing up as Uncle Fester or settling in for a Twilight Zone marathon, remember the real courage behind the characters. Long before they played with fear for an audience, Jackie Coogan and Rod Serling faced it for real, landing behind enemy lines and fighting through the Philippines.
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