Band of Brothers: Real American Heroes

Band of Brothers is about this really tight group of soldiers during World War II. Kind of like G.I. Joe, without the black people, as segregation in the army was still in back then.

But unlike G.I. Joe, the men of Easy Company are NOT real American heroes. Don't believe me? See for yourself.

Maj. Richard D. Winters

Damian Lewis (English)

Cpl. Eugene Roe

Shane Taylor (English)

Pvt. Robert "Popeye" Wynn

Nicholas Aaron (Welsh)

Sgt. Wayne "Skinny" Sisk

Philip Barantini (English)

Sgt. Alton More

Doug Allen (English)

Ssgt. John Martin

Dexter Fletcher (English)

Sgt. Charles "Chuck" Grant

Nolan Hemmings (English)

Cpl. Joseph Liebgott

Ross McCall (Scot)

1st Lt. Harry Welsh

Rick Warden (English)

Pvt. Edward "Babe" Heffron

Robin Laing (Scot)

Sgt. Burton "Pat" Christenson

Michael Fassbender (German Irish)

Ssgt. Floyd "Tab" Talbert

Matthew Leitch (English)

Cpl. Alex Penkala

Tim Matthews (English)

Pvt. Roy Cobb

Craig Heaney (English)

Cpl. Donald Hoobler

Peter McCabe (British)

Pvt. Allen Vest

Kieran O'Brien (English)

1st Lt. Norman Dike

Peter O'Meara (Irish)

Pfc. John Janovec

Tom Hardy (English)

Sgt. Myron "Mike" Ranney

Stephen Graham (English)

1st Sgt. William Evans

Simon Pegg (English)

Pvt. James Miller

James McAvoy (Scot)

Pvt. Albert Blithe

Marc Warren (English)

There you have it. I think there are more British actors in this series than Americans. I didn't even include the lesser-known ones yet.

I listed Peter McCabe as "British" because I'm not quite sure if he's English, Scottish, Welsh, or Irish. That's because there is no bio of him on the major sites like IMDb or Wikipedia.

Isn't it amazing to see how many of the Band of Brothers alumni are actually familiar faces in Hollywood right now? I didn't even know Simon Pegg, Tom Hardy, and James McAvoy were in this flick. So I guess I'll just have to watch it again. For the nth time.

Now to answer the question: Why does Hollywood need to import non-American actors to play G.I.s? It's because they shot Band of Brothers in England. Just imagine how much it would cost to fly and billet the entire cast as opposed to letting some of them go home after work.


*some info from IMDb
pics from My Space; Flags.net; Project Britain; Photobucket here and here; Share TV here, here, here, here, here, here, and here; Band of Brothers; Aveleyman here, here, here and here; Band of Brothers: Where are They Now; Laproscopic Cholecystectomy; Flickr; Irish Flag, Radio Times, and Pink Paper