Stage, screen and TV actor Charles Durning passed away last December.  A few thoughts on the man.

Some of you knew him as Lt. Snyder from "The Sting."  Maybe it was Les Nichols in "Tootsie."  In later years you remembered him as Pappy O'Daniel in "O Brother, Where Art Thou."

Charles Durning played hundreds of stage, screen and TV roles during a long, illustrious career.  My favorite Durning role was him as an actual GI who landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944.  Nine days after that ordeal, Durning was severely wounded by a German mine and evacuated to England to recover. 

Charles returned to his unit in time to participate in the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944.  There he was captured and narrowly escaped a troop massacre that may or may not have been the one at Malmedy.

When Charles Durning was honorably discharged from the US Army in 1946 he had been awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for wounds sustained in battle.  In 2008, Durning was awarded the National Order of the Legion of Merit by the French consul in Los Angeles for serving with distinction in France during World War II.

The Greatest Generation... for a reason.