Marine hero, turned deserter, turned film star fails to win hearts of Government
HE was feted as a war hero and actor, but Ireland didn’t exactly roll out the red carpet when Terry Whitmore sought to come here to film his latest movie.
The American former marine was a deserter from the US Army living in Sweden where he had got refuge after smuggling himself along a perilous route from Vietnam, across Asia, the then USSR and into Scandinavia. Whitmore settled in Sweden and became a poster boy for the anti-war movement when he starred in a documentary about his experiences. In March 1971, John Jeremy, a producer with Silver Screen Productions, wrote to the Government with plans to make a film at Ardmore Studios about the adventures of US soldiers on a tour of duty at an air force base in Britain. Whitmore was the preferred lead actor but Jeremy sought assurances his deserter status would not run him the risk of being arrested or turned over to the US authorities.
