As fans of the Indiana Jones series of movies know, Indiana Jones as portrayed by Harrison Ford spent much of his time fighting Nazis in some of the films. However, in real life, it was his co-star, the late Denholm Elliott, that actually fought the Nazis in World War II. Elliott played the role of the bookish archeologist and museum curator Dr. Marcus Brody in two of the films.
On September 24th, 1942, Elliot was part of the crew of a RAF Hadley Page Halifax bomber in route to bomb a U boat pen in Flensburg, Germany. The plane was hit by German flak and was forced to ditch in the North Sea between the Danish island of Romo and the German island of Sylt. Elliott and three of his fellow crewmen survived and were captured. He spent the remaining part of the war as a POW, primarily at Stalag Luft VIIIB in Silesia, Poland. During his time of captivity he performed in a theatre group and honed his acting skills. These skills served him well after the war. The prolific actor had an award winning career that spanned 43 years. In 1988 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. He died in 1992.
