(Picture: Paramount Pictures)

Michael Conner Humphreys, the child actor who played young Forrest Gump, has grown up to be just as brave as his loveable on-screen character.

Just like Gump, he decided to join the US Army in 2004 and spent 18 months on a tour of duty in Iraq.

Michael revealed in an interview with Mail Online that meeting the Marine Corps during filming inspired him to join the military.

He said: ‘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.’

Run Forrest, run! (Picture: Splash)

Unsurprising, his nickname in the military was ‘Gump’.

During a recent 10km charity run, members of the crowd cheered him on by shouting ‘Run Forrest, run’.

In 2008, Michael quit the army so he could study International Relations at the University of North Alabama.

He returned to acting in 2011 when he appeared in war film Pathfinders: In the Company of Strangers.

Life really has turned out to be a box of chocolates for him!

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