The Best Years of Our Lives/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Cast the Expert: Harold Russell, a man who had lost both hands in World War II, was cast as a man who had lost both hands in World War II. He did such a good job he won an Oscar (plus a second honorary Oscar), despite never having acted before.
  • Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Harold Russell, a drill sergeant during the war, lost his hands in a training accident involving a defective bomb.
  • Throw It In: Harold Russell, a real life veteran who never acted before, flubbed his lines during his character's wedding scene. William Wyler left it in, considering it natural.