Lewis Nixon, Dick Winters’ Right-Hand Man
U.S. Army/HBOLewis Nixon, left, and Ron Livingston, who played him in Band of Brothers, right.
As with Dick Winters, the true story of Lewis Nixon is told fairly faithfully in Band of Brothers. But there are differences between the show and real life.
Born on September 30, 1918, in New York City, Nixon had a privileged upbringing. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in Trenton, New Jersey, on January 14, 1941, and later met Winters — and Herbert Sobel. They were all assigned to the Easy Company, though Sobel’s leadership wouldn’t last.
Eventually, Nixon and the other men of Easy Company were shipped off to fight in World War II. Like Winters, Nixon fought in D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge, he was one of the first U.S. soldiers to witness the horrors of concentration camps, and he gleefully pillaged Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest.”
National World War II MuseumLewis Nixon after celebrating V-E Day.
During Band of Brothers, however, Nixon delivers one of the show’s most historically inaccurate lines — he announces Adolf Hitler’s death on April 11, 1945 (in real life, Hitler did not die until April 30th). But overall, Nixon’s portrayal in the miniseries is, if anything, less dramatic than his real service.
The miniseries’ second episode, “Day of Days,” for example, largely follows Winters during the D-Day invasion. During this battle, Nixon also parachuted into Normandy — and ran with a map that Winters had found of German defensive positions for three miles in order to give it to their superiors.
Nixon was indeed shot in the helmet during Operation Market Garden, as portrayed in the show, but one of his most harrowing war experiences was told only in a flashback. In episode 9, “Why We Fight,” Nixon recalls his experience in Operation Varsity. During the battle, not portrayed on the show, Nixon’s plane was shot down. Only he and two others managed to survive.
