What happened to movie star Wayne Morris, who was a fighter pilot on an aircraft carrier in World War II?
—Raymond Griest, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa
Considered the last of the B-Western stars by many cowboy film historians, Morris died in 1959 at 45 after suffering a massive heart attack. He made about 65 movies from 1936 to 1957, including several aviation films, one of which—1940’s Flight Angels—prompted him to learn to fly. After joining the Navy Reserve, he was assigned in 1942 to the carrier Essex in the Pacific, where he flew 57 missions in an F6F Hellcat, shot down seven Japanese planes and helped sink five ships. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
