The author of The BFG and James and the Giant Peach was both a man of imagination and a man of the skies. He fought in WWII as a fighter pilot and later served as an intelligence officer in Washington DC. His writing career started when novelist C.S. Forester asked Dahl to submit an anecdote of his war experiences - Forester was so impressed by the account that he published it unchanged. This opened the gates for a literary legacy that has survived generations.

Iconic film actress Audrey Hepburn was rated the third greatest female screen actress by the American Film Institute, and her career started in WWII when she was just a teenager living in the Netherlands. She used to dance in secret productions to raise money for the Dutch resistance movement, using the name Edda van Heemstra to conceal her English identity from the German occupiers. 

Morgan Freeman was so keen to join the US Air Force he turned down a drama scholarship from Jackson State University so he could enlist. He initially served as an Automatic Tracking Radar Repairman, but he was in love with the idea of flying and wanted to be a fighter pilot. But when his chance finally came and he first sat in the cockpit of a fighter jet he had a dramatic change of heart: "I had the distinct feeling I was sitting in the nose of a bomb. I had this very clear epiphany - ‘You are not in love with this; you are in love with the idea of this’." And he promptly left the military before ever making it to war.

Even the ‘King of Rock n’ Roll’ had to join the army. He was conscripted as a private in 1958, despite being recognised as the biggest cultural icon of the twentieth century. He was offered the chance to enlist in the special services as an entertainer for the troops, but he chose instead to serve as a regular private. It was whilst serving in the army that Elvis was introduced to amphetamines - a drug that would later destroy him.