One of a ‘Dozen’

The article about the DVD reissue of “The Dirty Dozen” (“These World War II Heroes Were Dirtier by the ‘Dozen,’ ” May 19) neglected to mention one of the cast: Richard Jaeckel, who died in 1997 at 70 years of age.

He played the drill instructor who shaped up the misfits. He also acted in “The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission” in 1985. At the time he told me that he would have done it for nothing to work with Lee Marvin again.

Richard Jaeckel made so many “stars” look good in movies and on television and was a well-liked gentleman by many of us nonactors who knew him.

HENRY L. DUVAL

Santa Monica