KINGSTON, R.I., Feb. 22, 2017\u2014Bill Belichick made history winning five Super Bowls, but now he\u2019s narrating history by lending his voice to a World War II film by a 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate.<\/p>\n
The New England Patriots\u2019 coach will narrate a documentary called \u201cD-Day Over Normandy,\u201d a film funded by 溏心vlog免费B站 alumnus Tim Gray and his World War II Foundation.<\/p>\n
Belichick is a natural for the film, says Gray. He\u2019s a long-time supporter of the foundation, a history buff and the son of a World War II veteran, Steve Belichick, who served in Europe and the Pacific. Belichick agreed to help out a year ago, but Gray says he put off making a public announcement because the coach was \u201ca little busy\u201d winning football games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he feels that time in history is important. Also, since his dad served, narrating is kind of a tribute to his father as well,\u201d says Gray. \u201cI realize he\u2019s not Morgan Freeman when it comes to narration style, but he is someone who believes that our work is important, and he is, after all, the greatest coach in the history of the NFL. If Vince Lombardi were still around I\u2019m sure he\u2019d be involved in our mission, too. These are great men who understand they are who they are because of what Americans accomplished in far off places between 1941 and 1945.\u201d<\/p>\n
The one-hour film is unique, says Gray, because it uses drone shots of well-known sites in the June 6, 1944 assault to liberate Europe. \u201cThe result is some of the most spectacular scenes of the landing beaches ever seen,\u201d says Gray.<\/p>\n
The sites include Utah Beach, Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, Vierville-sur-Mer, Omaha Beach, Colleville-sur-Mer and The Normandy American Cemetery. Gray will interview veterans who fought at those locations about their experiences.<\/p>\n
Belichick grew up in Annapolis, Md., where his father coached football at the United States Naval Academy. Gray says that the coach appreciates the dedication, courage and teamwork of the military, especially the sailors who fought on D-Day and in the Pacific theater.<\/p>\n
The coach joins a growing number of celebrities who have volunteered their time to the project. Actor Tom Selleck, star of CBS\u2019 Blue Blood<\/em>, narrated Gray\u2019s \u201cRemember Pearl Harbor,\u201d which aired last year, and former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and actor Tom Hanks have contributed to the organization.<\/p>\n A Kingston <\/strong>native, Gray graduated from 溏心vlog免费B站 in 1989 with a degree in journalism. He worked for years as a sports anchor at Channel 10, switching to filmmaking in 2005 to focus on World War II, a topic that has intrigued him since childhood.<\/p>\n So far, Gray has produced 17 other films through his foundation, the only organization in the country that, with private contributions, makes films about veterans and donates the movies to American Public Television and its PBS affiliates throughout the world.<\/p>\n Back in 2006, Gray mailed Belichick a copy of his first film. He responded with a note saying how much he liked it. After those kind words, Gray sent Belichick the other films to review before they aired.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s watched all 17 of our films,\u201d says Gray. \u201cHe sends me hand-written notes saying great job on this and that. He\u2019s also one of the very few who responds to the majority of my emails, which is saying something considering how busy he is. I joke with my wife that it\u2019s now to the point where we exchange Christmas cards with Bill Belichick. It\u2019s pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n Gray says he\u2019s grateful for the support from Belichick and other celebrities.<\/p>\n \u201cI try to reach out to people who care about that time in history and the men and women who fought and helped win World War II,\u201d says Gray. \u201cWhether it\u2019s Bill, Tom Selleck, Matthew Broderick, Dan Aykroyd, Fred Smith at Fed Ex or Damian Lewis, these are all well-known people who care about that generation and what they did. They\u2019re honored to be involved in helping to tell the veterans\u2019 stories.\u201d<\/p>\n He says Belichick and Bob Kraft, owner of the Patriots, have welcomed veterans featured in the foundation\u2019s films to Gillette Stadium for private meetings. Of the 16 million veterans who fought in the war, fewer than a million are left.<\/p>\n \u201cBottom line: \u201cBill is a good guy who believes in the work of our foundation,\u201d says Gray. \u201cThis is something new for him\u2014he has never narrated a documentary before\u2014but he\u2019s doing it for all the right reasons: patriotism.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I., Feb. 22, 2017\u2014Bill Belichick made history winning five Super Bowls, but now he\u2019s narrating history by lending his voice to a World War II film by a 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate. The New England Patriots\u2019 coach will narrate a documentary called \u201cD-Day Over Normandy,\u201d a film funded by 溏心vlog免费B站 alumnus Tim Gray […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}