Junetta wilcoxson brashear biography books
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Brashear, Carl Maxie 1931–
Former Navy diver
Chose Diving
Nearly Died in Accident
Returned to Diving
Sources
When an Academy Award-winning actor signs on to play you in the movie of your life story, you truly are a unique individual with an amazing past. So it is with retired Navy diver Carl Brashear. Brashear, the subject of the film, Men of Honor, endured racism in the deep South and in the military, as well as surviving a crippling accident, in order to obtain his lifelong goal.
Born on January 19, 1931 in Larue County, Kentucky, to McDonald and Gonzella Brashear, Carl Brashear was one of eight children. According to an interview found at www.innercitynews.com, Brashear said he and his siblings endured the stereotypical upbringing of a large, but impoverished family in the South. “We didn’t have electricity or running water, but we were happy,” he told interviewer Kam Williams of innercitynews.com. “The entertainment in the evening was my f
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54: Men of Honor
The movie begins with Robert DeNiro’s character, U.S. Navy Master Chief Leslie William Sunday. Although we don’t know his name is Leslie until much later—most people just call him Master Chief Billy Sunday. Anyway, in the film a badly beaten Billy is being held by military police for going AWOL.
And right away we’re hit with the first major inaccuracy in the film. Master Chief Billy Sunday never went AWOL because Master Chief Billy Sunday never existed. Robert DeNiro’s character in the film is a composite character that the filmmakers used to characterize a number of U.S. Navy trainers and servicemen who worked with Carl Brashear.
Speaking of Carl, after this first scene in the movie with Robert DeNiro, we’re whisked back 25 years earlier to meet a very young Carl Brashear who’s played by the young Chris Warren, Jr. This younger version of Carl watches his dad, Mac, who’s played by Carl Lumbly, plow on their farm. In a ve
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"Sometimes I would come back from a run, and my artificial leg would have a puddle of blood from my stump. I wouldn't go to sick bay. In that year, if I had gone to sick bay, they would have written me up. I didn't go to sick bay. I'd go somewhere and hide and soak my leg in a bucket of hot water with salt in it--an old remedy. Then I'd get up the next morning and run." - Carl Brashear |
Questioning the Story:
Was Robert De Niro's character, Billy Sunday, a real person?
No, he was not a real person. According to the film's press kit, the character of Billy Sunday, who was a Master Chief Navy Diver and instructor at the diving school in the movie, was "a composite of various Navy men."
In the film's press notes, screenwriter Scott Marshall Smith wrote, "This isn’t a connect-the-dots biography. I follow Carl’s life and career, but my go