123 Fun Facts About Band of Brothers

Which two filmmakers executive-produced the Band of Brothers miniseries?

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks executive-produced Band of Brothers for HBO, reuniting after their 1998 film Saving Private Ryan; Hanks also co-wrote the opening episode.

Whose 1992 book was the miniseries based on?

Stephen E. Ambrose built the 1992 book from interviews with the surviving veterans of Easy Company.

The series follows Easy Company of which regiment and division?

506th PIR, 101st Airborne was Easy Company's home, and the 101st are the Screaming Eagles; the series follows the men from Camp Toccoa through Normandy and Bastogne to the war's end.

The title Band of Brothers comes from a speech in which Shakespeare play?

Henry V: the title comes from the St. Crispin's Day speech ('we few, we happy few, we band of brothers'), which veteran Carwood Lipton recites in the finale.

Who plays Major Richard Winters?

Damian Lewis, an English actor, plays Richard Winters with an American accent; he later narrated the 2012 documentary Dick Winters: Hang Tough.

How many episodes does Band of Brothers have?

Ten episodes aired on HBO from September to November 2001, each opening with interviews of Easy Company veterans who are named only at the end of the finale.

On which network did the series first air, from September to November 2001?

The premiere drew nearly ten million viewers; two days later came 9/11 and HBO pulled its marketing.

Where did Easy Company do its initial training?

Camp Toccoa, Georgia, is where Easy Company trained under Herbert Sobel; the conditioning was so severe the regiment skipped the physical phase of jump school at Fort Benning.

What is Currahee?

The trail ran 'three miles up, three miles down' and became the regiment's motto.

Who plays Easy Company's hated first commander, Herbert Sobel?

David Schwimmer, then famous as Ross on Friends, plays Captain Herbert Sobel, the demanding, resented first commander of Easy Company.

How did Easy Company's NCOs force Sobel's removal before D-Day?

They threatened to surrender their stripes: Easy's sergeants each submitted a letter resigning as NCOs; Colonel Sink busted Harris and Ranney and moved Sobel to the Chilton Foliat jump school.

Which retired Marine, the show's military adviser, also plays Colonel Robert Sink?

Dale Dye, a retired Marine captain and the show's military adviser, plays Colonel Robert Sink; he also ran the cast through a ten-day boot camp before filming began.

Why did Winters take command on D-Day?

Commander Meehan's plane was lost: Lieutenant Thomas Meehan's C-47 was shot down over Normandy on D-Day, leaving Winters the senior Easy officer; Meehan's death was confirmed only later.

What did Winters' men destroy at Brécourt Manor on D-Day?

A battery of four 105 mm howitzers was firing onto the causeways that served as the principal exits from Utah Beach until Winters' men destroyed it at Brécourt Manor on D-Day.

Which decoration did Winters receive for Brécourt Manor, having been recommended for the Medal of Honor?

The Distinguished Service Cross: Winters was recommended for the Medal of Honor for Brécourt Manor but received the Army's second-highest valor award; later congressional efforts to upgrade it did not succeed.

Which general presented Winters with his Distinguished Service Cross in Normandy?

Omar Bradley, commanding the US First Army, pinned the Distinguished Service Cross on Winters at a ceremony in Normandy weeks after the Brécourt Manor assault of 6 June 1944.

Who plays Captain Lewis Nixon, Winters' closest friend?

Ron Livingston, best known as Peter Gibbons in Office Space, plays Nixon; he also shot the boot-camp video diary included on the DVD.

Nixon was famous for always having a supply of which whisky?

Vat 69 Scotch was Nixon's constant companion through the war, and his hunt for a bottle is a running thread of the series; the wealthy Nixon came home to run his family's New Jersey business.

Which town, held through the siege of Bastogne, was Easy Company ordered to capture in January 1945?

Foy: Easy Company's 13 January 1945 attack on the village north of Bastogne bogged down under Lieutenant Norman Dike until Ronald Speirs took over and finished it.

What did Ronald Speirs famously do during the attack on Foy?

Ran through the German lines and back again: at Foy, Speirs sprinted through the Germans to link up with I Company, then ran back; Lipton recalled the Germans were too stunned to shoot.

Who plays Ronald Speirs?

Matthew Settle plays Ronald Speirs, who took over Easy Company at Foy and commanded it for the rest of the war; Settle later starred as Rufus Humphrey in Gossip Girl.

What post did the real Ronald Speirs hold from 1958?

American governor of Spandau Prison: in 1958 Speirs became the US governor of the Berlin prison where Rudolf Hess and other Nuremberg convicts were held.

Which New Kids on the Block singer plays First Sergeant Carwood Lipton?

Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids on the Block plays Carwood Lipton, the steady first sergeant who holds Easy together at Bastogne and earns a battlefield commission at Haguenau.

How did 'Wild Bill' Guarnere get shot in the leg in Holland?

He later lost the same leg at Bastogne trying to help Joe Toye.

Who plays Guarnere?

Frank John Hughes plays 'Wild Bill' Guarnere; he went on to play FBI agent Tom Fox alongside Tom Hanks in Catch Me If You Can (2002).

Which ER and American Dad! actor plays Donald Malarkey?

Scott Grimes, later ER's Archie Morris and the voice of Steve on American Dad!, plays Donald Malarkey, the mortar sergeant whose best friends Skip Muck and Alex Penkala die in a Bastogne shell burst.

The real Lynn 'Buck' Compton later served as lead prosecutor in the trial of whom?

Sirhan Sirhan: Compton was chief prosecutor in the 1969 trial of Robert F. Kennedy's assassin, years after leading Easy's 2nd Platoon in Normandy and Holland.

Who plays Buck Compton?

Neal McDonough plays Buck Compton, the popular lieutenant sent home from Bastogne after the shelling that maimed his closest friends; McDonough later played Dum Dum Dugan in Captain America: The First Avenger.

Which British actor plays medic Eugene 'Doc' Roe, the focus of the Bastogne episode?

Shane Taylor plays Eugene 'Doc' Roe, the Cajun medic from Louisiana whose rounds through the frozen foxholes are the spine of episode 6, 'Bastogne'.

David Kenyon Webster, whose memoir the writers used, had left which university to enlist?

Harvard: Webster left his English studies there to enlist as a private; he vanished at sea off Santa Monica in 1961, and his memoir Parachute Infantry was published in 1994.

Which future X-Men star made his screen debut as Burton 'Pat' Christenson?

Michael Fassbender made his screen debut as Burton 'Pat' Christenson, the Toccoa man who is among the few to serve from training camp to the war's end.

Which actor was pulled out of drama school early after winning the part of Private John Janovec?

Tom Hardy was a student at Drama Centre London when he was cast as Private John Janovec, his first screen role; he went straight from school to the set.

Tom Hanks's son Colin appears in episode eight as which officer?

Jones is the fresh West Point graduate who joins for the Haguenau patrol.

What was the series' budget, then a record for a TV miniseries?

That worked out at about $12.5 million an episode, plus $15 million for promotion.

How many Easy Company veterans were flown to Normandy for the premiere at Utah Beach in June 2001?

They went to Paris and then by chartered train to the beach where the landings had happened.

Where was most of the series filmed?

Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, the former British Aerospace site, hosted most of the shoot; several European towns, including Carentan, Eindhoven and Bastogne, were built on the old airfield.

The scenes set in Germany and Austria were actually shot in which country?

The village of Brienz and the Grandhotel Giessbach stood in for the Alps.

Which broadcaster's £7 million co-production fee was its highest ever for a bought-in programme?

The BBC paid about £7 million for Band of Brothers, a record for an acquired programme at the time, and aired it on BBC Two in autumn 2001.

Who composed the score for Band of Brothers?

Michael Kamen composed the score, whose main theme opens every episode under the veterans' interviews; Kamen, also known for Lethal Weapon and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, died in November 2003.

Which concentration subcamp does Easy Company liberate in episode nine, 'Why We Fight'?

Kaufering: the camp in 'Why We Fight' is Kaufering IV, a Dachau subcamp near Landsberg that Easy finds in April 1945; local townspeople are made to bury the dead.

What is the Kehlsteinhaus, which Easy Company reaches at the end of the war?

The Eagle's Nest, Hitler's mountaintop tea house above Berchtesgaden, is the Kehlsteinhaus; Easy reaches it in the finale 'Points', though which Allied unit got there first was disputed among the French 2nd Armored, US 3rd Infantry and 101st Airborne.

What was Easy Company's casualty rate by the time it was pulled off the line in Normandy?

Twenty-two men were killed, including the 17 aboard Stick 66.

Which companion miniseries followed Marines Leckie, Sledge and Basilone in 2010?

The Pacific (2010) followed Marines Robert Leckie, Eugene Sledge and John Basilone from Guadalcanal to Okinawa, with Hanks and Spielberg again producing for HBO.

What did the real Major Winters say when Tom Hanks asked what he thought of the series?

Hanks replied that Hollywood would be hailed as geniuses for getting 12 percent right, so they aimed for 17.

Which 2024 companion miniseries followed Band of Brothers and The Pacific?

Masters of the Air (2024, Apple TV+) follows the 100th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, with Hanks and Spielberg again producing after Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

Who was the lead writer of Band of Brothers, co-writing the opener Currahee with Tom Hanks?

Erik Jendresen was the lead writer and a co-executive producer; he co-wrote the opener 'Currahee' with Tom Hanks and wrote the finale 'Points'.

Which carmaker sponsored the series, its vehicles appearing on screen?

Chrysler sponsored the miniseries through its Jeep brand, running commercials cut from series footage that Hanks and Spielberg approved.

What is the title of Richard Winters' own 2006 memoir?

Beyond Band of Brothers, written with Cole C. Kingseed and published in 2006, is Winters' own account; Easy Company Soldier is Malarkey's memoir and Parachute Infantry is Webster's.

Which Essex airfield stood in for the D-Day take-offs?

North Weald in Essex, a Battle of Britain fighter station, stood in for Upottery, the airfield from which Easy took off for Normandy on the night of 5 June 1944.

Which English village was used extensively to depict Easy Company's training in England?

Hambleden in Buckinghamshire stood in for Aldbourne, the Wiltshire village where Easy Company was actually billeted before D-Day.

Which publisher issued David Kenyon Webster's memoir Parachute Infantry in 1994?

LSU Press, the Louisiana State University Press, published Parachute Infantry in 1994, more than thirty years after Webster was lost at sea in 1961.

Where did Dale Dye run the actors' 10-day boot camp?

Longmoor, an Army camp in Hampshire, hosted Dye's ten-day boot camp, where the cast lived in the field, answered to their characters' names and ranks, and drilled with period weapons.

What did Easy's men nickname their absentee commander, Lieutenant Dike?

'Foxhole Norman' was what Easy's men called Lieutenant Norman Dike, the commander who kept vanishing from the line at Bastogne and froze during the attack on Foy.

Who commanded the 101st Airborne Division in Normandy?

Maxwell Taylor commanded the 101st Airborne from March 1944 and jumped with it into Normandy; he was in Washington when the Germans struck in the Ardennes, so his artillery commander led the division at Bastogne.

What is the title of episode seven, which covers the attack on Foy?

The Breaking Point, episode seven, follows First Sergeant Lipton through the Bois Jacques shelling and the attack on Foy, with Lipton narrating.

Which director helmed the opening episode, "Currahee"?

Phil Alden Robinson, the director of Field of Dreams, shot 'Currahee', the Toccoa training episode that introduces Sobel, Winters and the men.

Which episode did Tom Hanks himself direct?

Crossroads, episode five, is the one Tom Hanks directed; written by Erik Jendresen, it covers the dike fight in Holland and Winters' promotion to battalion executive officer.

Which director handled both the third episode, "Carentan", and the finale, "Points"?

Mikael Salomon, the Danish cinematographer turned director, handled both 'Carentan' and the finale 'Points', which aired on 4 November 2001.

Which actor plays Lieutenant Harry Welsh, Winters' other close friend?

Rick Warden plays Harry Welsh, the diminutive Pennsylvania lieutenant who leads a platoon at Carentan and is wounded by shrapnel at Bastogne in episode six.

What is the title of the eighth episode, set in Haguenau?

The Last Patrol, episode eight, directed by Tony To, follows the night prisoner snatch at Haguenau in February 1945 through the eyes of the returning Webster.

Which actor plays Private First Class David Kenyon Webster?

Eion Bailey plays Webster, the literary private who rejoins Easy in 'The Last Patrol' after months away wounded and is coolly received by the veterans.

Which actor plays Staff Sergeant Denver "Bull" Randleman?

Cudlitz later played Abraham Ford on The Walking Dead.

Who plays radio operator George Luz, the company's impressionist?

Rick Gomez plays George Luz, whose impression of Major Horton's voice tricks Sobel into cutting a farmer's fence on a night exercise.

Which British actor-director plays Staff Sergeant John "Johnny" Martin?

Fletcher later directed Rocketman and completed Bohemian Rhapsody.

Which actor plays Technician Fourth Grade Frank Perconte?

James Madio plays Frank Perconte, the wisecracking Joliet, Illinois, native who is shot in the backside at Foy and recovers to rejoin the company.

Which actor plays Joseph Liebgott, who leads the hunt for a camp commandant in the finale?

Ross McCall plays Joseph Liebgott, the German-speaking barber who serves as Easy's interpreter and in 'Points' goes after a concentration-camp commandant.

Who plays Sergeant Warren "Skip" Muck?

Speight later became a Supernatural regular as the Trickster.

Which Battlestar Galactica actor plays Second Lieutenant Jack Foley?

Bamber went on to play Apollo in the 2004 reboot.

Who plays Private First Class Edward "Babe" Heffron?

Robin Laing plays Babe Heffron, the Philadelphia replacement who befriends fellow Philadelphian Guarnere and loses his friend Julian in the Bois Jacques at Bastogne.

Who plays sharpshooter Darrell "Shifty" Powers?

Peter Youngblood Hills plays Shifty Powers, the Virginia marksman who wins the lottery ticket home in the finale, only to be hurt in a truck crash on the way.

Which Late Night host cameos as Lieutenant George Rice, handing Easy ammunition near Bastogne?

Jimmy Fallon cameos as Lieutenant George Rice of the 10th Armored Division, who passes out ammunition from a jeep as Easy marches toward Bastogne at the end of 'Crossroads'.

Which future Sherlock and Fleabag actor plays Private John "Cowboy" Hall?

Andrew Scott, later Moriarty in Sherlock and the priest in Fleabag, plays John 'Cowboy' Hall, the radio man Winters picks up on D-Day who is killed at Brécourt Manor.

Which Boardwalk Empire and Snatch actor plays Sergeant Myron "Mike" Ranney?

Stephen Graham, later Al Capone in Boardwalk Empire, plays Mike Ranney, whose answer to his grandson, 'I served in a company of heroes', closes the series.

Which actor plays Sergeant Floyd Talbert?

Matthew Leitch plays Floyd Talbert, the sergeant bayoneted by a jumpy sentry at Carentan while wearing a German poncho, and one of the men Winters rated his best soldiers.

Simon Pegg plays which Easy Company first sergeant under Sobel?

Evans is Sobel's clerk and enforcer at Toccoa and in England.

Which Mamma Mia! actor plays Allington in the series?

Cooper went on to play Howard Stark in the Marvel films.

Which Belgian nurse befriends Doc Roe in the Bastogne episode?

The real Lemaire was killed in a German air raid on Christmas Eve 1944.

Which soldier dies after accidentally shooting himself with a Luger near Foy?

Donald Hoobler had coveted a Luger since Normandy.

Ambrose interviewed Easy Company veterans at a reunion in which city for his book?

New Orleans: Ambrose, who taught at the University of New Orleans, met Easy's veterans at a company reunion there while collecting D-Day oral histories for his Eisenhower Center.

How many chapters does Ambrose's Band of Brothers contain?

Ambrose circulated drafts to surviving company members and incorporated their input.

Why was E Company nicknamed "Easy"?

The WWII phonetic alphabet call for E: in the Army's Able-Baker-Charlie-Dog-Easy-Fox alphabet, E Company was 'Easy', just as D Company was 'Dog' and F Company 'Fox'.

Easy Company's four-column formation runs at Toccoa were adopted Army-wide in which decade?

Sobel's men were so fit they skipped the physical-training portion of Jump School.

Which type of aircraft was the 506th created to jump from?

The regiment was an experimental airborne unit created in 1942.

Richard Winters was born in 1918 in which Pennsylvania town?

New Holland, in Lancaster County: Winters was born there on 21 January 1918; the family later moved to Ephrata and then Lancaster, and he settled in Hershey after the war.

Which college did Winters graduate from in 1941 with a degree in economics?

Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster: Winters graduated in 1941 with a degree in economics, then enlisted as a private that August rather than wait for the draft.

Which Pennsylvania congressman introduced a bill seeking the Medal of Honor for Winters?

The bill died in a House Armed Services subcommittee in 2007.

Winters died in January 2011 at what age?

92: born 21 January 1918, Winters died on 2 January 2011, nineteen days short of his 93rd birthday, at an assisted-living facility in Campbelltown, Pennsylvania.

Ronald Speirs was born in which city?

Edinburgh: Speirs was born in the Scottish capital on 20 April 1920 and grew up in Boston after his family emigrated to the United States in 1924.

Speirs retired from the Army at what rank?

Lieutenant colonel: Speirs stayed in the Army after the war, commanded a rifle company in Korea and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1964.

Carwood Lipton was born and raised in which West Virginia city?

Huntington, West Virginia: Lipton was born there on 30 January 1920 and, after his father died in a car crash when he was ten, helped support his mother.

Which magazine article about paratrooper training inspired Lipton and Malarkey to volunteer?

Life magazine: a photo feature on the new paratroopers' training, with its $50 monthly jump pay, drew Lipton and Malarkey to volunteer for the airborne in 1942.

What rank did Richard Winters hold on D-Day?

First lieutenant: Winters led the Brécourt Manor assault as a first lieutenant and was promoted to captain on 1 July 1944, before Easy left Normandy.

Why did the Marines reject Malarkey when he tried to enlist after Pearl Harbor?

Dental problems: the Marines turned Malarkey down over his teeth, and the Army Air Corps over his weak mathematics, so he volunteered for the paratroopers in 1942.

Bill Guarnere was the youngest of how many children?

10: Guarnere was the youngest of ten children in an Italian-American family in Philadelphia; he enlisted in the paratroopers in 1942 and jumped into Normandy with Easy.

Guarnere left school to build Sherman tanks at which company?

Baldwin Locomotive Works, the Philadelphia-area builder that switched to Sherman tanks in the war, employed Guarnere before he enlisted in the paratroopers in 1942.

What did the 101st call the single road north from Eindhoven during Market Garden?

Hell's Highway was the 101st's name for the one road from Eindhoven toward Nijmegen and Arnhem that the Germans repeatedly cut during Market Garden in September 1944.

Guarnere and Heffron co-wrote a 2007 memoir with which journalist?

Robyn Post, a journalist, wrote the 2007 memoir with the two Philadelphia friends, who were neighbours again after the war and died within months of each other in 2013 and 2014.

Babe Heffron worked at which shipyard before enlisting, giving him a draft exemption he refused?

New York Shipbuilding, the big yard across the river in Camden, New Jersey, employed Heffron; the job carried a draft deferment he gave up to volunteer for the paratroopers.

Which future baseball legend was Compton's UCLA teammate?

Jackie Robinson lettered in baseball and football at UCLA in 1939-41, when Compton was a Bruins catcher and football guard.

Compton was eventually appointed an associate justice of which body?

California Court of Appeal: Governor Ronald Reagan appointed Compton an associate justice in 1970, the year after he prosecuted Sirhan Sirhan.

Herbert Sobel attended which military academy in Indiana?

Culver Military Academy in Indiana educated Sobel before he studied at the University of Illinois; the Chicago native was already an Army officer when Easy Company formed in 1942.

After the war Sobel worked as a credit manager for what kind of company in Chicago?

Telephone equipment: after the war Sobel was a credit manager for a telephone-equipment company in Chicago while serving in the Army Reserve, from which he retired as a lieutenant colonel.

Which Connecticut prep school did David Kenyon Webster attend?

The Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, prepared Webster for Harvard, where he was an English major before leaving to volunteer for the paratroopers in 1942.

Shifty Powers got his nickname from his footwork in which sport?

Basketball: Powers earned the nickname 'Shifty' for his quick footwork on the court back home in Clinchco, Virginia, where his father had taught him to shoot.

Which Easy Company friend enlisted with Shifty Powers from the Norfolk Naval Shipyard?

Popeye Wynn, like Powers a Clinchco, Virginia, native, left the Norfolk Navy Yard with him to volunteer for the paratroopers in 1942; both feared a shipyard job would be ruled essential.

Moose Heyliger received which British decoration for rescuing 138 stranded paratroopers?

The Military Cross: Heyliger led Easy's part in Operation Pegasus on 22-23 October 1944, ferrying 138 British 1st Airborne survivors back across the Rhine, and the British awarded him their Military Cross.

Colonel Robert Sink graduated from West Point in which year?

1927: Sink graduated from West Point that year, commanded the 506th from its activation in 1942 through the war's end and retired as a lieutenant general in 1961.

Sink marched the 2nd Battalion from Camp Toccoa to Atlanta, covering how far in 75 hours?

118 miles: in December 1942 Sink marched the 2nd Battalion from Toccoa to Atlanta in 75 hours through rain and mud, beating a Japanese army marching record he had read about.

Brécourt Manor lies about how far southwest of Utah Beach?

About 5 kilometres: Brécourt Manor, by Le Grand-Chemin near Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, sits just inland from Utah Beach, and its guns were shelling causeway exit 2 used by the 4th Infantry Division.

How many men did Winters collect for the Brécourt Manor assault?

Twelve: Winters gathered a dozen men, including Compton, Guarnere, Malarkey and Lipton, to take the four guns; his whole order had been 'There's fire along that hedgerow there. Take care of it.'

The name Currahee comes from a Cherokee word meaning what?

'Stand alone': Currahee is Cherokee for 'stands alone', and the lone 1,735-foot peak in Stephens County, Georgia, gave the 506th its motto.

Camp Toccoa was originally named after which Confederate general?

Sink had "Camp Toombs" renamed, fearing recruits passing the Toccoa Casket Company would find it ominous.

Anthony McAuliffe's one-word reply to the German surrender demand at Bastogne was what?

'Nuts!' was McAuliffe's written reply to the German demand on 22 December 1944; as the 101st's acting commander he held Bastogne until Patton's tanks broke through four days later.

Which Easy Company officer, who died in 2021, was its last surviving officer?

Shames, who was Jewish, said viewing the concentration camps deeply affected him.

Albert Blithe was wounded near Carentan on which notable date in 1944?

His 21st birthday: Blithe, born 25 June 1923, was shot through the collarbone by a sniper on 25 June 1944, days after the hysterical-blindness episode shown in 'Carentan'.

What is the title of episode two, covering the Normandy jump and Brécourt Manor?

Day of Days, episode two, follows Winters from the scattered night drop through the Brécourt Manor assault on 6 June 1944, the day that gave the episode its name.

Which unit was Winters ordered to join at Fort Campbell when recalled during the Korean War?

The 11th Airborne Division: recalled in 1951, Winters reported to it at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; he obtained a release rather than go to Korea and returned to civilian life.

Why, according to eyewitness Art DiMarzio, did Ronald Speirs shoot one of his own sergeants on 7 June 1944?

The man, lying next to DiMarzio, refused to hold position and to go to the rear; Speirs fired in self-defence before the attack on Ste. Côme-du-Mont.

How was Frederick 'Moose' Heyliger's war ended after D-Day and Market Garden?

Wounded by friendly fire: a nervous sentry shot Heyliger, his own company's commander, and the injury ended his war; Scottish actor Stephen McCole played him in the miniseries.

After graduating in engineering, Carwood Lipton built a career with which company?

Owens-Illinois, the Toledo-based glass and packaging maker, hired Lipton after he finished an engineering degree at Marshall College on the GI Bill, and he spent his career with the company.

Which Easy Company paratrooper, fighting from Normandy through Holland and Bastogne to the Ruhr, served more consecutive front-line time than anyone else?

Donald Malarkey was never seriously wounded and logged 23 days in Normandy, nearly 80 in the Netherlands, 39 at Bastogne and nearly 30 more around Haguenau and the Ruhr.

Which sergeant, cut off at Nuenen in 'Replacements', hides overnight in a barn?

Bull Randleman, cut off from Easy during the fight at Nuenen on 19 September 1944, killed a German in the barn where he hid and rejoined the company the next morning.

Band of Brothers' Edward 'Babe' Heffron, lifelong friend of Bill Guarnere, was born in 1923 in which part of Philadelphia?

South Philadelphia was Heffron's birthplace in 1923; he was the third of five children in an Irish family, and his father was a prison guard.