Thomas Michael "Mad Mike" Hoare was an Irish military officer and mercenary who fought during the Simba rebellion and was involved in carrying out the 1981 Seychelles coup d'état attempt.
Tullio Moneta was an Italian actor and mercenary. He acted in 15 films between 1970 and 1990, starring in the feature film The Lion's Share. He also played a role in the Afrikaans language film Aanslag op Kariba in 1973, produced by Brigadiers Films. He was, together with Mike Hoare, the military advisor for the film The Wild Geese (1978).
The Wild Geese is a 1978 Swiss-British war film starring an ensemble cast led by Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Krüger. The film, which was directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, was the result of a long-held ambition of producer Euan Lloyd to make an all-star adventure film in the vein of The Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare. The plot concerns a group of European mercenaries fighting in Africa. The screenplay by Reginald Rose was based on Daniel Carney's unpublished novel The Thin White Line.
Kenneth Griffith was a Welsh actor and documentary filmmaker. His outspoken views made him a controversial figure, especially when presenting documentaries which have been called "among the most brilliant, and controversial, ever made in Britain".
Erwin C. Dietrich was a Swiss film director, producer and actor, often regarded as one of the most influential cinematographers in Switzerland.
Like piracy, the mercenary ethos resonates with idealized adventure, mystery, and danger, and appears frequently in popular culture. Many are called adventurers, filibusters, soldiers of fortune, gunslingers, gunrunners, ronin, and knights errant.
Daniel Carney (1944–1987) was a Rhodesian novelist. Three of his novels have been made into films. He was a brother of Erin Pizzey, also a writer.
Code Name: Wild Geese is a 1984 West German-Italian Euro War film directed by Antonio Margheriti and starring Lewis Collins in the first of their three mercenary war films. Despite the films title, Code Name: Wild Geese is not the sequel to The Wild Geese film, but a derivative film. Kim Newman described the film as closer to the director's films such as The Last Hunter and Cannibal Apocalypse.
Wild Geese II is a 1985 British action-thriller film directed by Peter Hunt, based on the 1982 novel The Square Circle by Daniel Carney, in which a group of mercenaries are hired to spring Rudolf Hess from Spandau Prison in Berlin. The film is a sequel to the 1978 film The Wild Geese, which was also produced by Euan Lloyd and adapted from a novel by Carney. Richard Burton, who starred in the first film as Colonel Allen Faulkner, was planning to reprise his role, but died days before filming began. Faulkner is replaced by his brother played by Edward Fox as one of the mercenaries. No characters from the original are featured in the sequel.
The Wild Geese is a 1978 novel by Rhodesian author Daniel Carney published by Bantam Books. He originally titled it The Thin White Line, but it went unpublished until its film adaptation The Wild Geese was made.
Euro War, also known as Macaroni Combat, Macaroni War, Spaghetti Combat, or Spaghetti War, is a broad subgenre of war film that emerged in the mid-1960s. The films were named Euro War because most were European co-productions, most notably and commonly by Italians, as indicated by the subgenre's other nicknames that draw parallels to those films within the mostly Italian Spaghetti Western genre.
Jane Hylton was an English actress who accumulated 30 film credits, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, before moving into television work in the latter half of her career in the 1960s and 1970s.
Brook Richard Williams was a British stage actor who also made numerous film and television appearances in small roles.
Sette baschi rossi also known as The Red Berets, Seven Red Berets and Congo Hell is a 1969 Italian/West German co-production, filmed in Ethiopia, about a fictional group of mercenaries. The film was produced and directed by screenwriter Mario Siciliano in his debut as a director. It was based on the novel Rebellion by Piero Regnoli, under his pen name Dean Craig.
The Square Circle is a 1982 novel by Daniel Carney. It was adapted as the 1985 film Wild Geese II.
Tough to Kill is a 1978 Italian action film shot in the Dominican Republic written and directed by Joe D'Amato and starring Luc Merenda and Donald O'Brien.
Ian Yule was a British born South African actor and soldier. He had a film career that commenced in the late 1960s and lasted to around the early to mid 2000s. Many of the roles he has played are that of a soldier. The films he has appeared in include Killer Force, in 1976, One Way also released in 1976, Golden Rendezvous in 1977, The Wild Geese in 1978, —Safari 3000 in 1982, City of Blood in 1983, and many more. He was also a stuntman in a few films. He also was a screenwriter and wrote some screen plays including Shamwari in which he starred opposite Ken Gampu. He was a well known actor in South Africa.
The 5 Commando was a mercenary unit of the Congolese National Army formed in response to the Simba rebellion. They were trained to be commandos, and had their own air support unit. 5 Commando was active from 1964 to 1967.
