Gunnar Klausen

When the film Suicide Mission (1954) was to be made, several of the members were offered to play themselves. No one had better conditions for it than Gunnar Klausen. With a movie star look, and with a background from his hometown theater, he played the part very well. He was born in 1918, in Sarpsborg, Østfold County, his parents were Karl Johan Klausen and Sara Pettersen. After the outbreak of war in Norway April 1940, Klausen soon became involved in illegal work, such as couriers and refugee work at the Swedish border. The following year he fled to Sweden, but in this uncertain time, the members of the Norwegian resistance were not so welcome in Sweden. Therefore, in 1942 he was sent by plane to England, here he became a member of The Shetland Gang, and Klausen completed around 40 dangerous trips across the North Sea. In 1946 he became one of 38 people to receive the War Cross with a sword. Klausen lived for some years in Oslo, working as a salesman, from 1969 he lived in Drammen. Twice a widower, he died in 1999, aged 81.