Peter Ortiz: War Hero, Leading Man, and the Spy the Nazis Couldn't Catch

On this episode of Our American Stories, before he ever stepped onto a film set, Peter Ortiz had already survived more danger than most action heroes face in a lifetime. A decorated Marine, fluent in multiple languages and trained in espionage, he parachuted into Nazi-occupied France in 1944 with one mission: aid the resistance and disrupt the enemy from within. The Gestapo put a price on his head worth half a million francs, but Ortiz kept moving, outwitting his pursuers with a mix of charm, grit, and cold precision. After the war, he returned to Hollywood, appearing in John Ford’s classic Westerns, where few realized the actor on screen had once been one of the most decorated spies in U.S. military history. Roger McGrath shares the story.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American Stories here to tell
another Hollywood goes to War's story is our own. Roger
McGrath McGrath is the author of Gunfighters and Vigilantes, Violence
on the Frontier, a US marine and former history professor
at UCLA, Doctor McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel

(00:30):
documentaries and is a regular contributor here at our American Stories.
Here's McGrath.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
In our tease. Begins career in Hollywood as a technical
advisor for all things military. After a highly decorated service
in World War Two, he began appearing in movies as
a curacterrector, tall, lean and hansom and with a military bearing,
often portrayed military officers which he had been. He appeared

(01:01):
in five of John Ford's films, included She Wore a
Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande. He appeared in twenty two
other films and in two television series. He worked with
such directors as John Sturgis, Michael Kurtiz, Raul Walsh, Robert Wise,
and Sam Fuller. The lead actress in the movies Ortiz

(01:22):
had roles in included such stars as John Wayne, Gary Cooper,
Gregory Peck, Humphrey Bogart and James Kaig. Peter Ortiz is
born in New York City in nineteen thirteen. Is christened
Pierre Julian Ortiz oh will go by Peter. His mother

(01:45):
is an American of Swiss German descent, and his father French.
He is reared partly in New York and partly in France,
and grows up speaking English, French, and German. He later
acquires fluency in Spanish and Arabic and conversational proficiency in
Italian and Portuguese. Is an excellent student in a private

(02:07):
secondary school in France and is accepted for admission to
the University of Grenoble. Inspired by his reading of tales
of Adventure, Ortiz drops out of college after a year
and joins a French foreign legion in nineteen thirty two.
He's sent to the legion's training camp in Algeria, then

(02:29):
a French colonial possession. He excels in his training and
upon graduation, is posted to Morocco. His father, a prosperous
and well connected figure in France, arrives in Morocco to
buy Ortes out of a legion. However, the now nineteen
year old corporal or keys Will have none of it.

(02:53):
There's adventure a plenty for Ortiz in North Africa, provided
by groups of rebels, Bedouin and Berbert tribesmen, bandits, and pirates.
Ortiz is in several engagements and is wounded in one
of them. He's awarded the Qua Deagher twice in the
military medal once As his five year enlistment years an end.

(03:15):
He's the commander of an armored car unit and has
the rank of brevet second lieutenant. The Legion offers him
a regular rank of lieutenant if he will enlist for
another five years. Ortiz decides it's time for a new
adventure and heads for Hollywood. With his Foreign Legion experience

(03:35):
and his chest full of medals, he quickly finds work
as a technical advisor for movies with a military or
North African theme, which are popular at the time. Ortiz
works as a technical advisor for almost three years when
war erupts in Europe in September nineteen thirty nine. A

(03:56):
month later, Ortiz quits the good life in Hollywood, flies
to France and again enlists in the Foreign Legion. Is
given the rank of sergeant, but is awarded a battlefield
commission as lieutenant. In May nineteen forty he is also
awarded the Quadaguere for a third time. During the withdrawal

(04:18):
of French forces. Injured, he learns that a storage jump
of the gasoline has not been torched by his retreating men.
Lieutenant Ortiz swings his leg over a motorcycle, speeds back
to the dump, and sets the gasoline on fire. The

(04:39):
blazing fuel alerts the Germans and they open fire on Ortiz.
As he races towards the French lines, a bullet penetrates
his hip and grazes his spine. Temporarily paralyzed, he crashes
the motorcycle and is captured. Lieutenant Ortiz spends the next

(05:00):
fifteen months in pow camps, first in Germany, then in Poland,
and finally in Austria. He attempts to escape from each camp.
The third time proves the charm when he disappears from
the camp in Austria in October nineteen forty one. Aided
by partisans along the way, he arrives in Portugal at
the end of November. Both the Free French and the

(05:23):
British have clandestine operatives in Portugal, and they each offer
Ortiz a commission in their forces. However, Ortiz is determined
to return to the United States and see his ailing
mother in California. Sailing from Lisbon, Ortiz reaches New York
on December eighth, nineteen forty one, the day after the

(05:45):
Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Before he heads for California,
is debriefed by both army and naval intelligence officers. He
also submits paperwork for a commission. After reuniting with him
mother and resting for several weeks, he grows restless, wondering

(06:06):
what's become of his application for a commission. His inquiries
get no results. Fed up with the delay, in June
nineteen forty two, he enlists in the Marine Corps, and
natural choice for him. The arrival of Peter Ortiz at
Parris Island recruit depot causes quite a stir. Within weeks,

(06:27):
Colonel Lewis Jones, a decorated veteran of World War One
and the chief of staff at Parris Island, sends a
packet to the Commandant of the Marine Corps with Ortiz's
application for a commission and the record of Ortiz's service
with the French Foreign Legion. Also in the packet is
a personal note from Colonel Jones, saying Private Ortiz has

(06:52):
made an extremely favorable impression upon the undersigned. His knowledge
of military matters is far beyond that of the normal
recruit instructor. Ortiz is a very well set up man
and makes an excellent appearance. The Undersigned is glad to
recommend Ortiz for a commission in the Marine Corps Reserve

(07:15):
and is of the opinion that he would be a
decided addition to the reserve officer list. In my opinion,
he has the mental, moral, professional and physical qualifications for
the office for which he has made application well this time,
Ortiz's application is acted upon immediately, and on August one,

(07:38):
nineteen forty two, Peter Ortiz is commissioned a second lieutenant
in the Marine Corps. He remains at Paris Island for
two months as an insistent training officer before going to
parachute school at Camp lu June. Already a qualified jumper
from his service with the Legion, the course is merely

(08:00):
refresher for Ortiz. At Marine Corps Headquarters, It's determined that
Lieutenant Ortiz, with his fluency in French, Arabic and German,
and his five years with the Foreign Legion in North
Africa would be of exceptional value to the US Army,
which landed on the beaches in Morocco and Algeria on

(08:22):
November eighth in Operation Torch. Things are now moving fast
for Ortiz. On December three, he is promoted from second
lieutenant to captain, skipping the normal step to first lieutenant.
On December twenty one, Captain Ortiz flies to Tangier, Morocco,
where he's assigned duties as an assistant naval atta shade

(08:46):
a cover for his real mission of organizing and leading
the patrol of the Arab tribesmen to gather intelligence behind
German lines in Tunisia as part of an office of
Strategic Services.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
And you're listening to one heck of a story about
Peter Ortez. Born a privilege, he wants the action. He
drops out of college, He joins the French Foreign Legion,
and his dad tries to buy him out, and his
son will have nothing of it comes for his second adventure.
After doing a good and strong stint in the French
Foreign Legion to Hollywood and then a trip to America,

(09:26):
he gets bored hanging with his mom and joins the
Marine Corps, and quickly the brass understands what they have.
A multi lingual, courageous fighter whither going to use for
great purposes in what will be the future, as you
can tell already espionage world, what would become our modern CIA.

(09:49):
More of the story of Peter Ortiz here on our
American story, and we continue with our American stories and

(10:12):
our Hollywood Goes to War series with Roger McGrath the
subject of the story today, Peter Artiz. Let's pick up
where we last left off.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
The Office of Strategic Services or the OSS, was the
creation of Major General William Donovan, a Medal of Honor
recipient in World War One. The mission of the OSS
is collecting intelligence and conducting special operations behind enemy lines,

(10:46):
known as wild dill. General Donovan says his ideal candidates
for OSS operations are PhDs who can win a bar
fight at George Bundy, an Army intelligence officer during World
War II and later a professor had Harvard and a

(11:07):
national security advisor, said of Donovan's organization, the OSS was
a remarkable institution, half cops and robbers and half faculty,
meeting with exceptional intelligence fluency. In many languages, a combat

(11:28):
record second to none, and an escape from a German
prison camp. Peter Ortiz is exactly the kind of man
Donovan wants. Ortiz now finds himself leading a reconnaissance patrol
behind German lines in Tunisia during January nineteen forty three.

(11:49):
Over several weeks, he gathers critical intelligence until his patrol
clashes with a German patrol in a fierce firefight. Ortiz's
wounded in the action, but continues fighting, and it's his
accurate throes of grenades that cause the Germans to break contact.

(12:09):
Ortiz will receive the Purple Heart for the wound he suffered.
General Donovan is highly impressed not only by Ortiz's reconnaissance
patrol and his valor in battle, but also by the
professional quality of Ortiza's after action report. Donovan says he
wants Orties assigned to the OSS full time. Ortiz spends

(12:33):
time recuperating in a hospital at Algiers and then at
another in Washington, d c. In May nineteen forty three,
the now fully recovered Ortiz is assigned to the OSS's
naval command. In July, He's flown to London for training
or a mission behind enemy lines in France. The mission

(12:56):
will be due a mountainous region of southeastern France known
as the Hate Savoir, which borders Switzerland and Italy. There
are large numbers of Free French in the region, particularly
on the Verkor Plateau immediately south of Grenoble. General Charles
de Gaul and other French leaders in exile think the

(13:17):
French partisans at Vercors, if well armed and trained, can
offer stout resistance to the Germans and divert German men
and materiel from Normandy when D Day arrives. The mission
to ver Coors is codenamed Union. On the moonless night

(13:37):
of January sixth, nineteen forty four, a British agent, a
French agent, and Peter Ortiz parachute onto the Verkor Plateau.
They are dressed in civilian clothes but carry their military
uniforms and packs. They quickly make contact with French partisans

(13:57):
or maquis as they are known low, and the OSS
team begins to train them. The British agent later said
that Ortiz, who knew not fear and did not hesitate
to where his US Marine captain's uniform in town and
country alike. This cheered the French but alerted the Germans,

(14:20):
and the mission was constantly on the move. Ortiz finds
the morale of the Maquis good. They willingly follow him
on raids and ambushes, but they need more arms and ammunition.
Ortiz coordinates parachute drops with the needed material, and eventually,
as hundreds of Maquis armed and attacking Germans, reports of

(14:42):
an American marine leading Maquis raids causes the Gestapo in
the area to increase their interrogations of farmers and townsfolk.
Ortiz seems a ghost like figure, appearing here and there
and then disappearing. He walks into villages in his unit
form in the middle of the day to the cheers
of the townsfolk, and is gone before German soldiers or

(15:05):
the Gestapo will arrive. He leads raids that steel German
army or gunstopo vehicles or set fire to German supply
and ammo dumps. He sets and bushes of German patrols.
He rescues four down RAF pilots and leads them through
southern France and across the Pyrenees to Spain. One night,

(15:26):
Ortiz strolls into a German occupied town, wearing a long
cape and enters a cafe where three German officers are
drinking and cursing the Marquis and the American Marine who
is leading them. The filth of the American swine, they shout.
They look up to see a tall, lean faced man

(15:47):
staring at them. The man opens his cape to reveal
a marine uniform and draws two semi automatic Colt forty fives.
He opens fire before the Germans can unholster their side arms.
They are riddled by bullets and Captain Peter Ortiz disappears
into the night. In late May nineteen forty four, after

(16:09):
nearly five months of such daring dew, Ortiz is pulled
out of the Corps by an airplane with special short
field takeoff and landing capabilities and flown to London. He's
decorated with the Navy Cross and promoted to Major. Hortiz
spends the next two months in London preparing for another

(16:30):
mission behind enemy lines, which is codenamed Union two. This time,
Ortiz will lead an OSS operational group to act as
guerrillas behind German lines. The group consists of Ortiz and
five enlisted Marines, an Air Force captain and a French officer.
The French officer will carry documents identifying him as an

(16:52):
American marine. All members of the group will wear their uniforms.
On August one, nineteen forty four, they parachute from an
American B seventeen into a drop zone at Verkor. The
parachute of one of the marine's malfunctions and he free
falls to the ground and dies upon impact. The others

(17:15):
land safely and within days. Or Tees and his team
are in heavy action. At one point, the Germans maneuver
them into a steep walled canyon and have them surrounded.
Surrenders seems the only option. Burroteese tells his man of
tight spots he's been in before and if they are
willing to follow him when night falls, or Teese leads

(17:38):
them crawling silently and undetected through the German mines. On
August sixteen, or Tees and five others just begin to
cross a road when a German troop convoy comes speeding
around a curve and is suddenly upon them. The trucks
screech to a halt and outcome Dozens of German soldiers

(18:00):
were in their weapons as soon as their feet hit
the pavement. The Americans raced to the protection of buildings
and houses of a roadside village in return fire. The
German firepower is overwhelming, though, and the residents of the
town implore the Americans to surrender before the town is destroyed.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of
Peter Ortiz, who moved up the ranks of the Officer
Corps in the Marine Corps quickly. His competency, his courage
rewarded in the field of battles stood the test in
this newly formed OSS the equivalent of the modern day CIA,
and not just gathering intelligence, but going behind enemy lines

(18:42):
and conducting operations, one of them to try and divert
German troops away from Normandy. Imagine the importance of an
operation like that. He's ultimately awarded the Navy Cross, and
we find him back at war again even after the awards.
By the way description of these men in the early
OSS PhDs who can win a bar fight half cops

(19:06):
and robbers, half faculty meeting and this cowboy with a
refined multi lingual sensibility going into combat for the sheer
adventure of it. When we come back more of Peter
Ortiz's story here on our American Stories, and we continue

(19:38):
with our American Stories and with Roger McGrath telling the
story of Peter Ortez. Let's pick up when we last
left off.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
On August sixteen. Ortez and five others just begin to
cross a road when a German troop convoy comes speeding
around a curve and is suddenly upon them. The trucks
creach to a halt and outcome dozens of German soldiers,
firing their weapons as soon as their feet hit the pavement.
The Americans race to the protection of buildings and houses

(20:11):
of a roadside village in return fire. The German firepower
is overwhelming, though, and the residents of the town implore
the Americans to surrender before the town is destroyed. Ortiz
looks at a sergeant positioned close to him and explains that,
considering the circumstances, it would be best to surrender. A

(20:34):
sergeant looks or Teazed in the eye and says, Major,
we are marines. What you think is right goes for
me too. Ortiz orders his men to cease fire and
shouts of the Germans, who continue to lay down a
withering fire Finally realizing there is no return fire, the
German shooting slackens. Ortiz steps out from cover and begins

(20:58):
walking towards the German lan. A few rounds kick up
gusts around him. Corrtz continues walking, all the while calling
for the German commander. When the commander comes forward, Ortiz
says he will order his men to surrender only if
the commander will guarantee the villagers will not be armed.

(21:19):
The commander gives his word, and Ortiz orders his men
to assemble next to him. Ortiz calls them to attention
and orders them to give no information other than that
required by the Geneva Convention. The German commander is impressed
by both the order and the look of Ortiz and
his men, and tells his troops to treat the Americans

(21:43):
with respect. Ortiz and his men are now transported by
truck from one German army camp to another until they
finally reach a PUW camp in northern Italy. They are
not there for long before they put a boarder train
with box cars full of friend British and American prisoners.
The train takes them one hundreds of miles north to

(22:05):
a POW camp. In Germany, near the north sea port
of Bremen. They arrive at the end of September nineteen
forty four. The campus divided into two separate camps, one
for officers and one for enlisted men. Ortiz finds himself
with some four hundred other officers, nearly all of them British.

(22:26):
Only three, including Ortiz, are American. The senior Allied officer
is a British Royal Navy captain. Upon meeting him, Ortiz
asks about plans for escape and is told there will
be no escape attempts. Major Ortiz immediately declares himself senior
American officer and says American POWs will plan to escape.

(22:51):
On the night of December eighteenth, ortes in an American
Navy Lieutenant Hiram Harris, spend more than an hour cut
in and crawling through a series of wire fences before
reaching an open field and making a dash for it.
Search lights illuminate the running Americans and their escorted back

(23:11):
to the camp and locked in solitary confinement. On April tenth,
nineteen forty five, with Allied forces moving into Germany, it's
decided to move most of the prisoners to a PUW
camp at Lubeck, a port on the Baltic Sea about
one hundred and twenty miles to the northeast. The prisoners

(23:33):
begin the trek, marching in a column along the side
of a road, when a couple of raf spitfires sweep
down on the column and open fire. While most in
the column die for cover or Tease dashes into nearby woods.
Two Americans and one Englishman follow him. With the spitfires gone,

(23:54):
German guards order the prisoners back into a column and
the march begins again. No one seems to have noticed
the disappearance of Ortiz and the others. Ortiz thinks that
British troops must be near and will not be more
than a day or two before they arrive. The escapees
move only at night, and all they ever see are Germans.

(24:17):
Several times they only narrowly escape detection. After ten days
of this and with no food, they are starving and exhausted.
Disgusted by the slow advance of the British, Ortiz decides
they should return to their old pow camp and see
if any food was left behind. They walk into the

(24:37):
camp and a few guards there mostly ignore them. It
seems the guards know the war is nearly over. Among
the few prisoners still there are the enlisted Marines for
Martz's SS group. They give them a rousing welcome. For
better or worse, they are together again. A week later,

(24:57):
a British armored division finally reaches the camp. Most of
the remaining prisoners eagerly board trucks for transportation to the rear,
but not Ortiz. In his men, Ortiz asks if his
group can join the armored division. As Ortiz later put it,
we Marines wanted to join this unit in order to

(25:20):
bag a few more Germans before hunting season closed. The
British refuse, and Ortiz and the others are sent to
the rear. Ortiz is debriefed by an OSS officer, and
then the commander of the US Navy's twelfth Fleet decorates
Ortiz with a second Navy Cross. By this time, the

(25:42):
war in Europe is over, and Ortiz requests combat duty
against the Japanese. By July nineteen forty five, is in
California preparing a team for an OSS mission to Indo, China,
but the atomic bombs in August in the war. Before
the mission is launched, Ortiz returns to Hollywood, to again

(26:06):
work as a technical advisor, beginning with thirteen Rue Madeline,
a World War II spy thriller released in nineteen forty
six starring James Cagney. Ortiz is content with working as
a technical adviser and has no ambitions to become an actor.
But the director, John Ford, a veteran of the Navy

(26:29):
and the OSS who is involved in his own daring
do when he parachuted behind Japanese lions into a Burmese jungle,
offers Ortiz a small role in She Wore a Yellow
Ribbon starring John Wayne Because the offer comes from John Ford,
Ortiz accepts it. During the next decade, Ortiz appears in

(26:53):
five of Ford's movies and in twenty seven movies altogether,
as well as in two television series. He enjoys the
work because he doesn't really act, but simply plays himself,
often portraying a military officer. In Retreat Hell, the best
movie about Marines in Korea, Ortiz plays marine major exactly

(27:15):
what he was while Peter Ortiz is acting. Operation Secret,
a movie inspired by Ortiz's real life during dew is
released in nineteen fifty two. Cornell Wilde plays Ortiz, called
Peter Forrester in the movie, but as usual, Hollywood takes

(27:36):
liberties with what really occurred. Ortiz eventually retires from Hollywood
and moves with his wife to Prescott, Arizona. Their son
becomes a marine officer like his dad. In nineteen eighty eight,
at the age of seventy four, Peter Ortiz dies is

(27:57):
buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. Not
only are Harry ranking American officers there, but also high
ranking officers from France. He's an American hero and a
French hero. To this day, Peter Ortiz is commemorated in

(28:17):
France as the hero of Oh Savoa.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
Had a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler and a special thanks to
Roger McGrath or Hollywood Goes to War series is his
brainchild and it's his storytelling and there's so much good stuff.
Go to Our American Stories dot com and just put
in Hollywood Goes to War and doctor McGrath has appeared

(28:45):
on numerous History Channel documentaries and again is a regular
contributor here at Our American Stories and what a story
he told here. Peter Artiz imagine this two not one,
but two navy crosses. He's a pow not once but twice,
once with a French foreign legion serving in World War Two,
and again in an operation behind enemy lines, and the

(29:08):
character you can almost see him feel them and hear them.
The joy of spoken words sometimes is that you don't
need the pictures. Sometimes we can fill them in ourselves.
And when he returns to Los Angeles, the next thing
you know, Well, a director who knew a little about war,
john Ford, he himself was in the OSS and the

(29:29):
Navy and fought in World War Two, hired him as
an actor to play, of course, military men. And he
did that because it's who he was and it's what
he knew. And Peter Ortiz finally does retire and retires
in Arizona. His son becomes a marine, and that's no surprise.
These things run through family lines and intergenerational service. In

(29:54):
nineteen eighty eight, Peter Ortiz died. He was seventy four.
He was buried with full military honors in Arlington Cemetery.
He died an American and a French hero. The story
of Peter Ortiz, a part of our Hollywood goes to
war series here on our American Stories.