George Ernest(1921-2009)

George Ernest was a child actor who appeared in more than 60 films from 1929 to 1942. He was born George Ruud Hjorth in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His father was Danish and his mother Norwegian . The family moved to California when George was two years old, and his father ran a restaurant in Hollywood. At age 10, Ernest got his start in movies. Among his early roles were a few of the short films in the comedy series created by Hal Roach, known as The Little Rascals and later as Our Gang.

Ernest was among the small number of child actors whose careers continued through their teen years. In a family comedy series by 20th Century Fox, he was Roger, a son of the Jones family. But as he reached manhood, three things happened that would change his career and life. As film roles were becoming more difficult to find, he became interested in camera work and began studying and following the camera crews. Then, World War II broke out. One of his last roles was in "Four Sons" of 1940. That war film was about a Czech family whose four sons take different paths after Germany invades Czechoslovakia in 1939.

Shortly after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entered WW II, Ernest enlisted in the Army. He became a combat photographer in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). He served in the photographic unit that was headed by Hollywood director, John Ford. Ernest filmed American forces fighting in North Africa, in the invasion of Sicily, and the Italian campaign. He parachuted behind enemy lines in France and Germany to take photos. One of those occasions was a few days before the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day. He moved through the French underground and hid along the German front. And, on June 6, 1944, he took photos of the American landings at Omaha Beach.

After the war, Ernest entered the business field and later became an executive with the McDonnell Douglas aviation company. He died on June 25, 2009, in Whittier, California. He was 87 years old.