Remembering Harold Russell, Oscar Winner of ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’

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Shepherd Express editor Dave Luhrssen’s recent review of Alison Macor’s book about the making of The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), brought back poignant memories for me of an eventful day in Cleveland in 1967. 

As a young reporter for The Plain Dealer, I was assigned to cover the first luncheon of National “Employ the Physically Handicapped Week” at Hotel Sheraton-Cleveland. My city editor, aware of my love of movies, suggested that I try to interview Harold Russell—the film’s co-star and a Navy veteran who lost both hands during World War II. I was privileged to succeed.

To many in the crowd, Russell’s on-screen dynamism seemed well-known. In recognition of his work in the riveting film, he won two Academy Awards, one as Best Supporting Actor and one for bringing hope and courage to other veterans. He remains the only actor to win two Oscars for the same role in a movie.

In all, this post-war movie—a true American classic—also captured Oscars for Best Picture, Director (William Wyler), Actor (Fredric March) and screenplay, editing and musical score. To this day, I continue watching it on my DVD.

Several in attendance later told me they fondly remembered Russell for his nuanced, albeit shattering, work in the film. For me, it was like looking at a living legend. And I was blown away by his mere presence.

Scars of War

Harold Russell represented a stark reality that was coming home to families of veterans rendered limbless in the ongoing Vietnam War. It was a memory that still burned in the hearts of soldiers who watched their buddies get shot away before they, themselves, got it.

In 1967, Russell was chairman of the President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped—a job to which he was well-suited. And you had to be there with me in Cleveland to really appreciate the man.

You had to shake his hook—the hook he offered as you or I would offer our hand. You had to see him write, eat, dial a phone or smoke a cigarette. And when you’d seen these things, and talked to him as I did, you had to bite your lip to hold back your tears. 

Russell lost his hands in a training camp accident on June 6, 1944. D-Day. Two years later, he graciously accepted Academy Awards for his movie role as a severely handicapped serviceman—which he actually lived, and had been living, ever since. 

“Oh, yes, it took some getting used to,” he told me, after the luncheon. “In fact, I’m still learning to do things. Like typing. I’m getting pretty good, too,” he smiled. “Actually, I’m pretty self-sufficient. I mean I can do everything I have to.”

A resident of Wayland Mass., he had been named to his job in 1964 following the death of Maj. Gen. Melvin J. Maas, and was only the third head of this, the oldest of the presidential committees.   

Few Other Roles

In the wake of belated congratulations for his Best Years movie triumph, Russell recalled he later read a couple of scripts in the hope of continuing on the screen. “But you can guess how few movie roles there were for a bilateral amputee,” he said.

Finally, in 1980, Russell again appeared on screen in Inside Moves—the moving story of several upbeat, handicapped men who frequented a bar in Oakland, California. In it, he engendered strength, as well as sympathy—again proving to film lovers like me, that his acting chops were no fluke. 

I saw this moving film for the first time one afternoon in a small theater on Third Avenue in New York City. Watching, I flashed back to my interview of Russell, and his unforgettable role as Homer, in The Best Years of Our Lives.

Russell later had roles in two 1980s television series and a featured role in his final big screen movie, 1997’s Dogtown. He died at 88, in 2002. But his breath-taking film debut will always live on. And I will always fondly remember our touching, 1967 interview.