Jack Hawkins, the star of so many great war films of the 1950s and 60s (The Cruel Sea, Bridge On the River Kwai, Zulu, Lawrence of Arabia, Waterloo) volunteered to serve in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in 1940, after ten years performing in films and theater. He spent most of his military career arranging entertainment for the British forces in India.

In the 1950s came the film that made Hawkins a star, The Cruel Sea. Suffering from life-long real life sea sickness, he played the captain of the Compass Rose.

Few people know that Hawkins was a mute. After surgery for throat cancer in the 1950s, Jack continued to make films. He mimed his lines and the voice was dubbed by either Charles Gray (who died in March, 2000) or Robert Rietti. He died in 1973 of cancer.