Like his eponymous character, Cronauer was a radio presenter in Saigon in 1965 and 1966 known best for his enthusiastic early morning greeting and penchant for playing rock'n'roll tunes to raise American troops' morale during the Vietnam War.
But Hollywood took a lot of liberties in its depiction of the air force sergeant.
Cronauer was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in September 1938, to a steelworker father and teacher mother.
A keen broadcast fan throughout his life, he landed a semi-regular slot on local children's television aged just 12.
After enrolling in his home city's university in the 1950s, he helped found a student radio station and worked with local broadcasters throughout his studies in Pittsburgh and later in Washington.
Cronauer joined the US air force, doing his training in San Antonio and Wichita Falls, Texas. His first deployment was to the island of Crete in Greece - where he spent a year-and-a-half and developed his signature radio greeting.
He told the Fayetteville Observer in 2011 that his initially timid "Good Morning, Iraklion" gradually became "wilder and wilder" into the dramatic, booming and protracted form he would become notorious for in Vietnam.
Keen to travel, Cronauer says he actually volunteered for a transfer to Vietnam, where he was hired initially as a news director for Armed Forces Radio there.
After his morning presenter left, he took up the 06:00 Dawn Buster show mantle, greeting troops with an enthusiastic yell of: "GOOOOOOOOD morning, Vietnam!"