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Sawyer was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. He first appeared in Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos #1, May 1963. He was named after Stan Sawyer, a friend of Stan Lee in Hewlett Bay Park and a notable VoiceOver artist for commercials (Salem cigarettes, Hertz Rentacar Certs and many others) in NYC. Stan and Sheila Sawyer socialized with Stan and Joan in the early 60s, and Stan used his name for the character.
Fictional character biography
Happy Sam Sawyer was assigned to the British Commandos by the U.S. Army. He trained for parachuting in Britain in 1940 with Finley's Flying Circus, alongside daredevil parachutist Nick Fury and pilot Red Hargroves. They gave him the nickname “Happy Sam” because of his serious and consistently stony demeanor. In 1942, Sawyer, who had been wounded in North Africa and was deemed unfit for combat missions, organized and led the Howling Commandos, Bull McGiveney's Maulers, Jim Morita's Nisei Squad, and Sgt. Bob Jenkin's The Missouri Marauders, as well as the Deadly Dozen. When artist John Severin joined Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos with issue #44, Severin drew Sawyer as being much older and balder than his original depiction as a young man.
In a Sgt Fury annual set in the Korean War, Sawyer was a Colonel, and in another annual set in the Vietnam War, Sawyer was a full general.
In modern times, Baron Strucker created an LMD of Sawyer that attacked the original Howling Commandos as well as Captain America. Sawyer would sacrifice himself when the LMD detonated itself while trying to gain missile navigation override codes.
In the wake of his death, a S.H.I.E.L.D. assault Helicarrier was named in his honor in the mini-series Iron Man: Hypervelocity. There is also a Samuel J. Sawyer Memorial Veterans Hospital.
In other media
Happy Sam Sawyer appears in the X-Men: The Animated Series episode "Old Soldiers", voiced by Lorne Kennedy.
Sam Sawyer was named after a close friend of Stan and Joan Lee at the time named Stan Sawyer, who was a noted voice-over talent of commercials (Coca-Cola, Salem cigarettes, RCA Victor and others.
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