The Happy Hooker

Hand it to this man for triumphing against all odds—a case study in gratitude and giving thanks.

"It is not what you have lost but what you have left that counts."

            Harold Russell had never acted before. He had never even been in a Hollywood movie before, yet he took home not one but two Academy Awards for his portrayal of sailor Homer Parrish in The Best Years of Our Lives. 

            This 1946 movie also won the Oscar for Best Picture, beating Jimmy Stewart's classic It's a Wonderful Life. It stars Frederic March, Dana Andrews, and Myrna Loy and depicts the difficult transition of three soldiers returning to civilian life after World War II. Film critic Roger Ebert called Best Years "lean, direct, honest about issues that Hollywood then studiously avoided."

            Russell won the Best Supporting Actor honor. Because the Academy thought he had no chance of winning that, it gave him an honorary Oscar for "bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans." He is the only person to ever win two Oscars for the same role.

            Like the character he portrayed, Russell lost both of his hands during the war. It wasn't a combat injury though. He had wanted to be a paratrooper, but Uncle Sam in his wisdom deemed he would better serve America as a demolitions (and parachuting) instructor. On June 6, 1944—D-Day—he was stateside preparing to train soldiers.

            Because of the day's events in Europe, an unusually long briefing kept Russell from his duties. "When [the meeting was] over, we've still got about a thousand troops to run through a live ammo, live explosives obstacle course," he said. 

"It's late in the day…"

            "I started helping the guys make up explosive charges…It's late in the day, and we have to hurry it up. What I didn't realize was those blasting caps had been sitting out in the sun on a blanket for two hours, and they were touchy. I put one in a quarter-pound of nitro-starch, and that was it."

A fuse malfunctioned. It detonated the TNT he was holding

            Russell had signed up the day after Pearl Harbor. He'd been a meat cutter and manager in a grocery store. He didn't enlist for patriotic reasons. He did so because he thought he was a failure—a loser, a nothing.

            Recuperating in Walter Reed General Hospital, Russell sank into depression. "I was one sorry sack [of sh*t]," he recalled. "If I had had the guts, I would have killed myself."

            Given a choice of steel hooks or plastic hands, he took the hooks. They were articulated; each tip had two gleaming prongs that allowed him to grasp objects. "I don't need to be beautiful," Russell said.

             While in the hospital, he saw the morale boosting film Meet McGonegal. It was about a World War I vet who had lost his hands. "Turns out he's also a millionaire, made it all selling real estate in Southern California after the war," said Russell. "One day I hear McGonegal is coming to Walter Reed to talk to the vets, and I tell the doctor, 'I have to meet that man. This is like Santa Claus coming!'

            "He was great. He told me the reason he was such a success as a salesman was that no one ever forgot him….He taught me to put the hook out and shake hands, break the ice, get it over with. If people can't cope, you're better of finding out right away."

            Russell learned how to use the hooks in six weeks. He became so deft with them the Army put him in the training film Diary of a Sergeant. It depicted how he went about life in an easy, graceful, even joyful way.

            At the time, William Wyler, the director of Ben Hur and Mrs. Miniver, was casting Best Years. He happened upon the training film, and Russell got an unexpected chance at stardom.  Wyler said he "gave the finest performance I have ever seen on the screen" because of his "true depth of feeling." (The war had also left Wyler handicapped. He lost all hearing in his right ear and lost some hearing in his left ear due to exposure to roaring bomber engines.)

"Dependent as a baby"

            In one of the film's many moving scenes, Russell's character Homer invites his fiancée Cathy O’Donnell to his bedroom. Cathy (Teresa Wright) is literally the girl who lives next door. He has no notion of seducing her. Instead he wants her to understand the stark reality of what living with him would be like. 

            Her asks her to remove the harness that straps his hooks to torso and arms. "This is when I know I'm helpless," Homer says. "My hands are down there on the bed. I can't put them on again without calling to somebody for help. I can't smoke a cigarette or read a book. If that door should blow shut, I can't open it and get out of this room. I'm dependent as a baby that doesn't know how to get anything except to cry for it." 

            At a time when people with physical disabilities were never seen in movies, except as monsters or freaks, Best Years showed Homer going through life as normally as anyone else plucking a cigarette from a pack, dialing the telephone, and, yes, gently sliding a wedding ring on his fiancee's finger.

            Russell married his real-life sweetheart in 1947. They remained together until her death in 1978. He became the national chairman of Amvets, a veterans' group, and founded the World Veterans Foundation. President Kennedy made him vice chair of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped. Presidents Johnson and Nixon reappointed him.

            Russell took life in stride (except when he learned that his pay of $6,000 for his work in Best Years was far less than the $100,000 the film's other stars pocketed). He rose far above what others might think was a dis-abling event. He joked that he was so good at using his hooks he could pick up anything—except the dinner check.

MORAL: Be like Homer—run the bases.

For more stories similar to this one, buy my book Courage 101: True Tales of Grit & Glory. To learn more about the movie The Best Years of Our Lives read my review of the new book Making The Best Years of Our Lives for Notre Dame’s alumni magazine.