Adrian Cronauer, DJ who inspired the film ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’ – obituary

Adrian Cronauer , who has died aged 79, was a US Armed Forces Radio disc jockey whose stint in Vietnam inspired Barry Levinson’s film Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) a biting satire of the US military effort, starring Robin Williams in best manic, over-the-top form.

Cronauer hosted a four-hour daily radio show, Dawn Buster, during his tour of duty in Vietnam in 1965-66, and like his Hollywood alter-ego signed on each morning with a booming “Gooooood Mooorning, Vietnam.”

While Williams’s portrayal led to the phrase becoming associated with a subversive attitude to military authority, however, the real Cronauer adopted the phrase to buy himself time to set up a record on the turntable when he was…