Audie Murphy (1925-1971) is considered by many to be "the real Captain America" for his battlefield heroics during World War II. He did not inspire the Marvel superhero. Audie and the United States entered the war in 1941 as Allies, while Captain America appeared in an unpublished volume in 1940.

Audie was the seventh of 12 children. He tried to enlist in the United States Army and other branches of the military from a young age. Like the comic book hero Steve Rogers, he was rejected for being too short. After his parents died, Murphy felt compelled to support his siblings. He tried again to join the army. This time, his older sister helped using false documents to prove he was of legal age, although Audie was only 16 in 1941.

Young Audie's application was officially granted in 1942, and the Texan found himself fighting first in Casablanca, Morocco, and then in the Italian campaign (1943–1945) to liberate the peninsula from the German occupiers. It was in Italy that Murphy would forge his legend: during an ambush, he managed to destroy an enemy machine gun with a grenade and save the lives of his comrades. Furthermore, for his courage, he was promoted to platoon sergeant in 1944, the year in which he played an active role in the liberation of Rome. Audie didn't stop there, however. Once he was transferred to the French front, he was caught in another German ambush, forcing him and his men to take cover in an old ruin. There, he managed to recover a machine gun and, regardless of the danger, killed 15 Nazi soldiers, once again saving his comrades and earning the Distinguished Service Cross for valour in combat. Throughout the rest of the war, Audie continued to carry out daring individual actions (sometimes wounding himself several times), earning himself a reputation as a hero on the battlefield. In 1945, again in France, he even managed to recover a tank, forcing the Germans to retreat from the village they were defending. Murphy thus earned the Medal of Honour, replying, "They were killing my friends," when asked why he had attempted such a reckless action.

After the war, Murphy wrote his memoir. He devoted himself to film and became a successful actor, as heroic as he was on the battlefield.