Popcorn Disability: 'The Best Years of Our Lives' (1946)

A story of how Hollywood screwed over a dual Oscar-winner for the sheer fact he was disabled

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I’ve been wanting to write about Harold Russell for awhile, him being a prime example of Hollywood’s continued use and abuse of the few disabled performers in existence. So I figured no better time than Memorial Day to spotlight Russell and his work in the fantastic 1946 feature The Best Years of Our Lives.

Disabled representation was what first inspired Harold Russell, to take up acting. Russell was a bilateral amputee, one of just 63 vets in the country, who had prosthetic hooks in place of his hands. It was while watching the 1944 short film Meet McGonegal, following an amputee who illustrates to disabled vets how to do basic things without their arms, that Russell was inspired to help other vets transition to a new life with a disability.