Kid Who Played ‘Forrest Gump’ is All Grown Up. Since He Missed the Oscars, He Got a Bigger ‘Role.’

The boy who played the young Forrest Gump in the multi-Oscar award winning movie is all grown up. But he didn’t stay in the acting game after his most famous role. He joined the Army.

Michael Conner Humphreys spent four years serving in the U.S. Army — which he said was inspired by his time working on the film.

Humphreys told Daily Mail UK:

Where we were filming was very close to Parris Island, the Marine Training Camp in South Carolina where all the helicopters that were used in the Vietnam scene came from. I would often tell the director and producers how cool I thought all the helicopters were and then one weekend they actually arranged for some of the Marine Corps to take me over to Parris Island and show me the fighter jets.

I remember we weren’t allowed to take photos of the F18s and all that stuff. It was basically all the stuff that regular kids my age would never have got the opportunity to do, and I can honestly say that experience directly motivated me to join the military later. It was definitely one of the little perks of working on the movie.

The Marine captain who flew the jet in the movie, had just got back from the Gulf War and I still have the patches from his shoulders, which he kindly gave to me.

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