Summary

• Band of Brothers was a miniseries created by Spielberg and Hanks, based on the real-life experiences of soldiers from Easy Company during WWII.
• The real soldiers of Easy Company, including Richard Winters, continued to live extraordinary lives after the war, recording their experiences and staying connected.
• The cast of Band of Brothers, although not physically resembling their real-life counterparts, delivered powerful performances that captured the emotional journey of the soldiers.

For Band of Brothers real soldiers and their stories were used by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks to create a truly authentic narrative for the 2001 miniseries. Band of Brothers follows the paratroopers of Easy Company, 506th Infantry Regiment, and their leader, Richard D. Winters, from their early training days at Camp Toccoa through to the end of World War II. But for Winters and the other members of Easy Company who survived the war, their stories didn't end there. The real Band of Brothers soldiers lived through some of the most intense fighting of the conflict, and the stories of the real-life Easy Company after World War II are just as fascinating.

The miniseries was created by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and was based on the book of the same name by Stephen A. Ambrose, who interviewed the real Band of Brothers soldiers of Easy Company extensively to learn about their experiences. Band of Brothers depicts their greatest triumphs and most terrible hardships, including the deaths of several members of Easy Company. Those veterans of Easy Company who survived World War II went on to record their experiences in a number of memoirs and historical accounts, especially after the book and miniseries spurred interest in the 101st Airborne and E Company and the true story of Band of Brothers.

What Happened To Dick Winters After Band of Brothers

The Real Damian Lewis Band Of Brothers Soldier's Story Explained

Richard Winters, the real soldier played by Damian Lewis, was the lead character in Band of Brothers. Though in the show he may seem like a born military leader, the real Richard Winters originally had no aspirations to serve in the US Army. His decision to enlist was driven by the Selective Service Act of 1940, which required men between the ages of 21 and 35 to serve on active duty for 12 months if they were drafted.

In 1941 the real Richard Winters had just completed a business degree, but with the war going on and the possibility of America becoming involved, he was concerned that he might begin a career only to have it interrupted by the draft and compulsory military service. The real Band of Brothers soldier Richard Winters recalled in an interview featured in the documentary Dick Winters: Hang Tough that he put himself forward because he saw military service as an inevitability.

"I made a decision, 'Look, I'm going to volunteer, take care of this military obligation, and then when I have that taken care of, then go get a job. Then I don't have to worry about interrupting my livelihood."

Just a few months after he enlisted, however, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese military, prompting America's entry into World War II. Winters realized he was "in for the duration." As depicted in Band of Brothers, Winters' accomplishments and his rise through the ranks meant that he was faced with a choice as World War II came to an end: stay in the military, or return to his original plan of a career in business.

The real Richard Winters opted for the latter, going to work at his friend Lewis Nixon's family company, Nixon Nitration Works. In 1948 Winters married a woman named Ethel, and they had two children together. Winters had never planned to return to the military, but the draft meant that he was still in the army reserves, and when the Korean War began in 1951 he was called to service again — much to his dismay.

"I had seen enough of war," Winters wrote in his autobiography, Beyond Band of Brothers. In lieu of active duty, he agreed to report to Fort Dix in New Jersey in a training role, but quickly grew frustrated by the quality of the officers he was supposed to be turning into battalion commanders. "Compared to my wartime experience, training at Fort Dix was simply terrible," Winters wrote. "Training new officers who couldn’t care less about attending classes exceeded my patience."

Shortly before Winters was set to be deployed to Korea a change of orders permitted him to resign from his commission — an opportunity he took gladly. In 1951, he had purchased a farm in Pennsylvania, in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, and by 1960 he was able to move himself and his family out there permanently. "Here, I finally felt I had found the peace and quiet that I had promised myself on D-Day," wrote Winters. He didn't return to Europe until 1987, when he revisited Normandy where he and the other members of Easy Company had captured the German guns targeting Utah Beach on D-Day:

"Walking across the field that housed the German 105mm howitzer battery created an eerie feeling. In the recesses of my mind, I could see 'Popeye' Wynn, 'Buck' Compton, Bill Guarnere, Joe Toye, Don Malarkey, Carwood Lipton, and the other members of our small band who had conducted an assault against overwhelming odds. Words simply escaped me as I traversed the area from every conceivable direction. The hedgerows and drainage trenches had largely disappeared, but the tree lines and the locations of each gun remained very distinguishable."

Throughout his life, Winters maintained contact with the other real Band of Brothers soldier of Easy Company . In 1980, he was finally able to take time away from running his business to attend one of the company's annual reunions. In 1990, he met Band of Brothers author Stephen A. Ambrose for the first time, and became involved with the writing of the book that would make Easy Company's exploits famous. In 2002, he attended the Primetime Emmy Awards and joined Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg onstage as they collected Band of Brothers' award for Best Miniseries. Winters passed away in January 2011, at the age of 92.

What Happened To Lewis Nixon After Band of Brothers

The True Story Of Ron Livingston's Band Of Brothers Character Explained

The real Lewis Nixon III, the real Band of Brothers soldier played by Ron Livingston, first became friends with Dick Winters during their time in Officer Candidate School, and the two of them remained close throughout the war and after its end. The series shows the toll that the war took on Nixon, compounding his dependence on alcohol which led to Nixon's demotion seen in Band of Brothers, but in spite of these struggles, he distinguished himself many times in combat. In his book Beyond Band of Brothers Winters wrote:

"I still regard Lewis Nixon as the best combat officer who I had the opportunity to work with under fire," "He never showed fear, and during the toughest times he could always think clearly and quickly."

Winters remarked that it was a sign of their close bond that, during their training, Nixon trusted Winters enough to keep his precious stash of Vat 69 whiskey in Winters' footlocker. After the war ended, the real Lewis Nixon III had several difficult years during which he struggled with alcoholism and his two failed marriages. That changed in 1956 when he married his third wife, Grace Umezawa, a Japanese-American woman who had been placed in an internment camp in 1942 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Dick Winters was the best man at their wedding.

With Grace's support, Nixon was able to overcome his demons. "Until Lewis met and married Grace, he had never found or experienced true love," wrote Winters. "It was only after his marriage to Grace that he found true happiness, peace within himself." The couple traveled extensively around the world, but the real members of Easy Company from Band of Brothers always kept in touch. When Lewis Nixon passed away in January 1995, Winters delivered the eulogy at his funeral.

What Happened To Buck Compton After Band of Brothers

The Real Band Of Brothers Soldier Played By Neal McDonough Explained

Portrayed by Neal McDonough in Band of Brothers, the real Lynn Davis Compton adopted the name "Buck" when he was still a child because he thought Lynn would always be a girl's name. According to the New York Times, Compton got work as an extra in films during his youth in Los Angeles and actually got kicked off the set of Modern Times after he angered its star, Charlie Chaplin.

The real Band of Brothers soldier played by Neal McDonalgh was commissioned as a second lieutenant after completing the ROTC program at UCLA and underwent parachute training at Fort Benning before joining Easy Company. He was wounded during Operation Market Garden in Holland, but returned to active duty and spent a brutal winter holding the line in Bastogne.

In Band of Brothers, Compton leaves the front line after seeing his friends Joe Toye and Bill Guarnere get caught in the artillery shelling that left both of them amputees. In his memoir, Call of Duty, Compton praised Band of Brothers for using McDonough's portrayal of him to depict the shell shock that many soldiers were afflicted by in the war. However, he also said the scenes were largely fictionalized, and that "although I was affected by the horrors of Bastogne, I do not believe I was clinically shell-shocked."

According to Compton, the main emotion he felt after seeing Toye and Guarnere mutilated was abject fury at the fact that Easy Company's leader, Lieutenant Norman Dike, was nowhere to be found. When Compton vented his frustrations to Colonel Robert Sink, commander of the 506th, the colonel seemingly observed how physically and emotionally exhausted he was and said, "I think you need a rest, Lieutenant." Sink used the pretext that Compton was limping (nothing unusual - "hell, we all were limping," wrote Compton) to relieve him from active duty on medical grounds.

After the war, the real Lynn Davis Compton from Band of Brothers attended law school, joined the LAPD in 1946, and married a woman called Donna Newman in 1947. He became a detective and then a district attorney, and then was appointed Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal by Ronald Reagan, serving on the bench from 1970 to his retirement in 1990.

When the Band of Brothers TV miniseries went into production, Compton had lunch with McDonough and the two of them bonded over their shared background as college athletes. The two of them "got along great," according to Compton, and they kept in touch over the years. "He says I made his career," Compton wrote in Call of Duty. "I think that's bunk. He's highly capable in his own right." Compton died in February 2012 at the age of 90, following a heart attack. He is survived by his two daughters and four grandchildren.

What Happened To Bill Guarnere and Joe Toye

The True Stories Of The Real Frank John Hughes And Kirk Acevedo Band Of Brothers Soldiers

Band of Brothers episode 7, "The Breaking Point," delivers a profoundly devastating depiction of the artillery shelling that Easy Company endured in the woods of Bastogne. Alex Penkala and Warren "Skip" Muck were killed instantly when a shell directly hit their foxhole, and Bill Guarnere and Joe Toye were hit simultaneously while Guarnere was trying to drag Toye to safety. Both men lost their right leg in the shelling and had to be evacuated from the front lines.

The remainder of Toye's leg was initially amputated below the knee, but later had to be amputated again above the knee after gangrene set in. He also had shrapnel embedded in his back until the day he died, and suffered nerve damage that left him with limited use of his right hand. Toye and Guarnere spent about a year recuperating together at hospitals in Atlantic City.

"They flew around in their wheelchairs, raising hell all over the boardwalks and bars," said Toye's son, Steve Toye, in an interview for Marcus Bretherton's book A Company of Heroes. It was in Atlantic City that Toye met his wife, Betty. They married in 1946 and Toye had four children and seven grandchildren by the time of his death in September 1995.

The real Bill Guarnere married his sweetheart, Frances, after returning from Europe, and together they had two sons. "Wild Bill" played a very active role in organizing and documenting Easy Company's annual reunions over the years. In the Band of Brothers documentary We Stand Alone Together, Guarnere and Edward "Babe" Heffron returned to the woods of Bastogne where Guarnere had lost his leg and their friends had lost their lives.

Guarnere and Heffron also collaborated with writer Robyn Post on a book, Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends, which laid out their version of the Band of Brothers story and what happened in their lives after the war. By the time of his death in March 2014 at the age of 90, Guarnere had nine grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren.

What Happened To The Rest Of Easy Company

The Stories Of The Real Band Of Brothers Soldiers After World War II Explained

Starting in 1946, Sergeant Mike Ranney, Sergeant Bob Rader, and Corporal Walter Gordon began the tradition of annual Easy Company reunions for the surviving real Band of Brothers soldiers. Bill Guarnere took over organizing the reunions in 1947 and ran them for almost 60 years thereafter. "He made it so the men didn't have to lift a finger," said Babe Heffron in Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends. "It's because of Bill that we've all stayed so close."

In his own memoir, Winters wrote that initially the reunions were only attended by a few veterans of Easy Company, but over the years more and more former paratroopers began attending. There typically weren't many commissioned officers in attendance at these events, but Winters, Nixon, Compton, Moose Heyliger, Harry Welsh, Clarence Hester, and Bob Strayer all attended the 1980 reunion.

Of the Easy Company paratroopers depicted in Band of Brothers, only two are still alive today: 1st Lieutenant Ed Shames, who was played by Joseph May in the miniseries, and PFC Bradford Freeman, who was played in a non-speaking role by James Farmer. Freeman celebrated his 96th birthday in September 2020. Shames was promoted to the rank of colonel after World War II, and will celebrate his 100th birthday in June 2021.

The Band Of Brothers Cast Vs. Real Life Soldiers

How The Cast Of The Miniseries Compare To The Real Easy Company

The Band of Brothers cast is filled with terrific actors, some of whom were just at the beginning of what would turn out to be very successful careers. When it came to bringing the members of Easy Company to life in the miniseries, there was not too much attention paid to finding actors who physically resemble the soldiers, but rather those who could capture their character.

Looking at prominent members of the cast, like Damian Lewis as Dick Winters, Roy Livingston as Lewis Nixon, and Neal McDonough Buck Compton, they don't look much like their real Band of Brothers soldier counterparts. However, there are some actors who do share an uncanny resemblance such as Ross McCall as Joseph D. Liebgott, Jason O'Mara as Thomas Meehan, and Donnie Wahlberg as Carwood Lipton.

There will also be a lot of different opinions in terms of the best performances in Band of Brothers, but while the series was a huge award winner, only a few actors were recognized for conveying the emotional journey the real Band of Brothers soldiers went on. Both Damien Lewis and Ron Livingston earned Golden Globe nominations for their performances as Winters and Nixon. Lewis was nominated for a couple of other awards, including the Golden Satellite while David Schwimmer won the Golden Satellite for his memorable Band of Brothers performance as Herbert Sobel.