Easy Company lands in Normandy in the second episode of “Brothers,” entitled “Day of Days.” There, Winters leads a small unit against a battery of German artillery, during which First Lieutenant Lynn “Buck” Compton earned the Silver Star (awarded for bravery) for a Hail Mary grenade toss that allowed the unit to take out the Axis guns.
Neal McDonough was an experienced film and television actor by the time he was cast as Compton; the Syracuse University grad enjoyed character turns in “Star Trek: First Contact” and on “China Beach” and “Quantum Leap,” among many other screen projects in the 1990s. McDonough was also a prolific voice-over actor, voicing Bruce Banner on “The Incredible Hulk” series and video game in addition.
The success of “Brothers” provided McDonough with steady work as a lead and supporting player in numerous projects. TV audiences knew him as a conniving Los Angeles district attorney on “Boomtown,” as the unsettling Dave Williams on “Desperate Housewives,” and as criminal mastermind Damien Darhk on multiple DC series, including “Arrow” and “Legends of Tomorrow.” Between these projects, he appeared in numerous high-profile features, including Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report,” “Walking Tall,” Clint Eastwood’s “Flags of Our Fathers,” and “Captain America: The First Avenger” as Dum Dum Dugan, a role he reprised on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “Agent Carter,” and “What If…?”
McDonough remains as busy as ever, logging recent appearances on “Yellowstone” and “Justified,” and in films ranging from “Sonic the Hedgehog” to “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.”