Editing Henry Wilcoxon (section)

==The war years==
In 1941, Wilcoxon appeared as [[Captain Hardy]], alongside [[Laurence Olivier]] and [[Vivien Leigh]], in [[Alexander Korda]]'s ''[[That Hamilton Woman|Lady Hamilton]]'', during the filming of which:

<blockquote>a wad of flame fell from a torch directly on Olivier's head, setting his wig afire. Wilcoxon, standing right beside him, tried to extinguish the blaze but was unsuccessful. Finally he had to wrench the wig from Olivier's head, but both of his hands were badly burned while Olivier's eyebrows were scorched."<ref name="Whizzbang13"/></blockquote>

When the U.S. entered [[World War II]] in December 1941, Wilcoxon enlisted in the [[United States Coast Guard]], supposedly "leaving his home twenty minutes after the announcement that the U.S. had declared war and proceeding to enlist then and there."<ref name="Whizzbang13"/> He served with the Coast Guard until 1946, gaining the rank of lieutenant commander.<ref name="Whizzbang13"/>

During his period of service, three films in which he appeared were released in 1942, among them ''[[Mrs. Miniver]]'',<ref>His role in "Mrs. Miniver" must have had special meaning to Henry because his only brother, [[Sub-Lieutenant]] Robert Owen Wilcoxon of the [[Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve]], had been killed by a German bomb when assisting in the [[Dunkirk evacuation]] on 29 May 1940.</ref> which received considerable public acclaim, as well as six [[Academy Award]]s.<ref name="Whizzbang13"/> Wilcoxon, in his role as the [[vicar]], "wrote and re-wrote" the key sermon with director [[William Wyler]] "the night before the sequence was to be shot."<ref name="Whizzbang13"/> The speech "made such an impact that it was used in essence by [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|President Roosevelt]] as a morale builder and part of it was the basis for leaflets printed in various languages and dropped over enemy and occupied territory."<ref name="Whizzbang13"/>

Upon his return from war service, Wilcoxon "picked up his relationship with Cecil B. DeMille" with ''[[Unconquered (1947 film)|Unconquered]]'', and after starring as [[Sir Lancelot]] in the [[A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949 film)|1949 musical version]] of [[Mark Twain]]'s ''[[A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court]]'' (with [[Bing Crosby]] in the title role), he featured (with "fifth starring billing") in DeMille's ''[[Samson and Delilah (1949 film)|Samson and Delilah]]'' (1949).<ref name="Whizzbang13"/> To help pre-sell the film, "DeMille arranged for Wilcoxon to tour the country giving a series of lectures on the film and its research in 41 key cities in the United States and Canada."<ref name="Whizzbang13"/> However, "after the fourteenth city," Wilcoxon collapsed "from a mild bout of [[pneumonia]]," (actually [[tuberculosis]]), and the tour was continued by "press-agent [[Richard Condon]] and [[Ringling Brothers]] [[public relations]] man Frank Braden" (who also collapsed, in [[Minneapolis]]).<ref name="Whizzbang13"/> Condon finished touring by the time of the film's release in October 1949.<ref name="Whizzbang13"/> Wilcoxon, meanwhile, had returned to England under contract to feature in ''[[The Miniver Story]]'' (1950), a sequel to the multi-Oscar-winning ''[[Mrs. Miniver]]'' (1942) in which he reprised his role as the vicar.