![]() In 1978, after a 33-year struggle by the unit's veterans, President Jimmy Carter awarded the 761st a Presidential Unit Citation "for extraordinary heroism in action." ![]() Among its 687 enlisted men and 41 officers, 276 received the Purple Heart for wounds in action and 36 died in combat. The unit, whose shoulder patch had a black panther, inflicted thousands of casualties on the enemy and captured, destroyed or liberated more than 30 major towns, 4 airfields, 3 ammunition-supply dumps, 461 wheeled vehicles, 34 tanks, 113 large guns and a radio station.Ĭolonel Bates was the first member of the 761st to be wounded. In all, the 761st Tank Battalion went from Vic-sur-Seille, France, to the Enns River in Steyr, Austria, where it linked up with the Soviet Army. It also fought in Luxembourg and Austria. The battalion fought in France, then in Germany, where it pierced the Siegfried Line, and then in Belgium, where it fought the Nazis in the Battle of the Bulge. Patton's Third Army and fought for 183 consecutive days without relief, according to David Williams, a veteran of the battalion and the author in the early 1980's of "Hit Hard" (Bantam), an account of the unit. The 761st entered combat in November 1944 as part of Gen. In January 1943, about two years after he joined the Army, Colonel Bates took command of the 761st Tank Battalion, all of whose enlisted men were black. The cause was cancer, said a daughter-in-law, Dorothy Bates, of Bloomfield, Mich., and Manhattan. Bates, the white colonel who commanded the first black tank battalion to enter combat in World War II, died on Tuesday at his home in Dunedin, Fla. "Coming 2 America" was released in December of 2020.Paul L. Bates also returned for the sequel as Oha, thus giving him the rare opportunity to make a triumphant return to the role he was most remembered for. The film was directed by Craig Brewer, who was best known for directing 2005's "Hustle & Flow," and also featured appearances by Wesley Snipes, Tracy Morgan, and Arsenio Hall, in a reprisal of his role from the original film. Then in 2019 it was announced that an eagerly-anticipated sequel to "Coming to America" (called "Coming 2 America") was in the works, with Eddie Murphy reprising his role as Akeem. Some of the more notable films he appeared in during this period include Tony Scott's romantic crime drama "True Romance" (1993), the Whitney Houston fantasy drama "The Preacher's Wife" (1996), and the Eminem -starring hip hop drama "8 Mile" (2002). After "Coming to America" Bates continued working steadily over the next 30 years. Although the role of Oha was small, Bates's character performed a memorable high-pitched song during Akeem's wedding that would become one of several memorable scenes from the crowd-pleasing film. In 1986 he landed a small part as a theater manager in Woody Allen's Oscar-winning comedy-drama "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986), and then went on to work alongside John Cusack and Jerry Stiller in the 1987 comedy "Hot Pursuit." It was Bate's part as Oha, the servant to a lovestruck African King named Akeem played by Eddie Murphy in 1988's "Coming to America," that he would forever be associated with. ![]() Bates would go on to nab small parts in films like "Exterminator 2" (1984) and "Midsummer's Night Dream" (1985) throughout the early to mid-1980s. Furthermore, despite having over 50 acting credits to his name, Bates never truly had a breakout moment that would have lifted his career beyond the limited title of "working Hollywood actor." Bates began his acting career in 1983 with a role in the fantasy drama film "Somewhere, Tomorrow." The star of that film was a relatively unknown actor by the name of Sarah Jessica Parker. Paul Bates was a film and television actor who was best known for playing the royal servant Oha in the 1988 Eddie Murphy comedy "Coming to America." Although Bates had been appearing on screen going all the way back to the early 1980s, not much biographical information about him was known.
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