The son of poor Texas sharecroppers, Audie Murphy became a national hero during World War II as the most decorated combat soldier of the war. Among his 33 awards was the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award for bravery that a soldier can receive. In addition, he was also decorated for bravery by the governments of France and Belgium, and was credited with killing over 240 German soldiers and wounding and capturing many more.

Murphy had tried to enlist in the army in his native Texas, but was rejected because he was too young. When he became old enough, he tried again and was accepted this time. After undergoing basic military training, he was sent to Europe, where he fought in nine major campaigns over three years and rose from the rank of private to a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant. Part of Murphy's appeal to many people was that he hardly fit the "image" of a war hero. He was a slight, somewhat skinny, shy and soft-spoken young man, whose boyish appearance (something he never lost throughout his life; he always looked at least 15 years younger than he actually was) often shocked people when they found out that, for example, during one battle he leaped on top of a wrecked, burning tank--which was loaded with fuel, ammunition and cannon shells and could have exploded at any second--and used its machine gun to hold off waves of attacking German soldiers, killing dozens of them and saving his unit from certain destruction and the entire line from being overrun.

In September 1945 Murphy was released from active duty and assigned to inactive status. His story caught the interest of actor James Cagney, who invited Murphy to Hollywood. For the next several years Murphy struggled to make it as an actor, but jobs were few and far between, mostly bit parts. He finally got a starring role in Bad Boy, and was eventually signed by Universal Pictures, which put him in a string of westerns, a genre that suited his easygoing image and Texas drawl. He starred in the film version of his autobiography, To Hell and Back, which was a huge hit, setting a box-office record for Universal that wasn't broken for 20 years (it was finally surpassed by Jaws). One of his better pictures was Night Passage, a western in which he played the kid brother of James Stewart. He received critical acclaim for his role in director John Huston's The Red Badge of Courage and again in Huston's The Unforgiven. In the mid-'60s Universal dropped the concept of contract players and hired actors on a per-picture basis, and Murphy, among others, was dropped by the studio.

In addition to his acting career--he made a total of 44 films--Murphy was also a successful rancher and businessman. He bred and raised thoroughbred horses and owned several ranches in Texas, Arizona and California. He was also a songwriter, and penned hits for such singers as Dean Martin, Eddy Arnold, Charley Pride and many others.

Hist postwar life wasn't all roses, however. He suffered from what is now called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but was then called "combat fatigue", and was known to have a hair-trigger temper. He was acquitted of attempted murder charges brought about by injuries he inflicted on a man in a bar fight, and director Don Siegel said in an interview that Murphy often carried a pistol on the set of Gunrunners and many of the cast and crew were afraid of him. He had a short-lived and turbulent marriage to actress Wanda Hendrix, and in the 1960s his bouts of insomnia and depression resulted in his becoming addicted to a particularly powerful sleeping pill called Placidyl, an addiction he eventually broke. He ran into a streak of bad financial luck and was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1968. He campaigned for the government to spend more time and money on taking care of returning Vietnam War veterans, as he more than most others knew exactly what kinds of problems they were going to have.

On May 18, 1971, Murphy was aboard a private plane on his way to a business meeting when it ran into thick fog near Roanoke, Virginia, and crashed into the side of a mountain, killing all six people aboard. He was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. According to cemetery records, the only gravesite visited by more people than Murphy's is that of former President John F. Kennedy.