A Myth in Action: The Heroic Life of Audie Murphy

Audie Murphy, the son of an itinerant Texas farmhand, was born in 1925. The teenager enlisted in the US Army in 1942. At that time, he stood 5' 6 tall. By the time he reached twenty, he had seen action in the WWII European Theater in Sicily, mainland Italy, France, and Germany. He held a battlefield commission, and when the war in Europe ended, he returned home wearing more medals for valor than had any other soldier in his country's history. This living legend became a Hollywood actor, and starred in more than forty movies before his tragic death in 1971, at the age of 45. He had become a living myth. Comparative mythologist, Joseph Campbell (Hero with a Thousand Faces) along with psychologists like Rollo May (The Cry for Myth) and Carl Jung, agree that all true heroes lives follow the same archetypal pattern. Homer's Perseus, the Arthurian Percival, Luke Skywalker, and the real life hero, Audie Murphy all lived lives that resonated with that pattern.