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John Wayne’s Final Movie ‘Beau John’ Would Have Only Been a ‘Half-Western’ – My Blog

Actor John Wayne had a very good idea of what type of movie worked best for him. However, his critics judged him for sticking too close to his lane. As a result, they called him a poor actor. Wayne wanted to make one final movie called Beau John, but the “half-Western” film would never come to be.

Unfortunately, Wayne died on June 11, 1979 from stomach cancer. However, he never wanted to retire from his passion for making feature films. Wayne starred in his final movie, The Shootist, in 1976. Many folks thought that his performance as J.B. Books would earn him another Oscar nomination. Unfortunately, it never did.
Wayne previously earned Oscar nominations for Sands of Iwo Jima and The Alamo. However, he finally earned the golden statue with 1969’s True Grit for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Wayne had another movie in mind that could have put him back in the awards season conversation.
John Wayne wanted to make one final movie called ‘Beau John’ that was a ‘half-Western’

“Don’t ever for a minute make the mistake of looking down your nose at westerns.” ???? What’s your favorite John Wayne Western? (photo by @johnhamiltoncollection) pic.twitter.com/dE1g0mtDvK— John Wayne Official (@JohnDukeWayne) August 29, 2021
Scott Eyman explored Wayne, his various movie projects, and his personal life in John Wayne: The Life and Legend. Toward the end of 1978, the actor didn’t work on any films in a couple of years. Wayne started to feel a bit aimless without having a movie to work on.
The Utah Film Festival awarded him its John Ford Medallion, although his health didn’t allow him to travel. As a result, he asked Peter Bogdanovich to accept it on his behalf. He later brought the medallion to the actor, where they had iced tea. They discussed the old days of John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Ward Bond, where Wayne said, “Christ, everybody’s gone.”
Wayne asked Bogdanovich if he would be interested in directing a movie for him called Beau John. “It’s kind of a half-western thing, it’s not cowboys and Indians, you know, it’s—oh, the humor and the wonderful relationship between this grandfather and the son and the son-in-law and the grandson,” Wayne described. “I hope to hell I live to do it. Just a wonderful story.”
Bogdanovich agreed to direct it and reassured Wayne that he would live long enough to make the movie. Beau John became the primary focus of his life and he later proposed the project to Ron Howard. However, he didn’t want to make it without him.
“I found a book,” Wayne told Howard. “I think it’s a movie. It’s you and me or it’s nobody.”
However, Wayne never had the chance to make the movie.
“It never got past the verbal stage,” Howard recalled. “And at that point, he was showing signs of not being well. I was a little doubtful.”
The actor reflected on Hollywood stars
“I’ve worked with Bette Davis, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda. Here’s the thing they all have in common: They all, even in their 70s, worked a little harder than everyone else.” – Ron Howard pic.twitter.com/YnINN6ftOg— John Wayne Official (@JohnDukeWayne) April 27, 2019
Wayne had a lot more time toward the end of his life without any movie projects to work on. According to Eyman, he looked back on his career and explained his thoughts on some of his peers. He never liked Clark Gable, telling his daughter, Aissa: “You know why Gable’s an actor? It’s the only thing he’s smart enough to do.”
However, Wayne absolutely loved Gary Cooper. He also had a “soft spot” for Paul Newman, but thought that he needed to stop playing anti-hero roles and directing his own movies.
Additionally, Wayne’s personal favorite actor was James Garner: “I think the best actor in the world today is James Garner. He can do anything—comedy, detective. Just his facial expressions alone are enough to crack you up. They rave about Brando and Scott, but they couldn’t hold a candle to him.”
Wayne disagreed with the movie audiences and thought that Gene Hackman was “the worst actor in town.”

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What John Wayne said in his angry letter to Clint Eastwood and how Eastwood responded. – My Blog

John Wayne and Clint Eastwood are the two biggest icons of the Western movies, however, Wayne wasn’t always a fan of Eastwood’s work. In fact, Wayne hated one of Eastwood’s Westerns so much he sent him a letter decrying the film. Here’s how Eastwood reacted to the letter — and how the public reacted to this movie.

This Clint Eastwood movie was a lot darker than John Wayne’s films : First, a little background. The Western was a staple of American cinema from its early days. It often presented a glorified view of American expansionism. During and after the civil rights movement, Westerns began to evolve, often presenting a critical or at least cynical view of the Old West. Movies like that became especially popular during the 1970s, but by the 1980s the genre was no longer an American staple.


One of the more famous dark Westerns from the 1970s was High Plains Drifter. The film is about a mysterious criminal who comes into town, to get revenge for his brother who was murdered as many of the townsfolk watched by idly. No one in the film is very sympathetic — they’re all either evil or passive in the face of evil. It’s a far cry from the more uplifting films which made Wayne famous.


What John Wayne said in his letter to Clint Eastwood — and how Eastwood responded : It’s very easy to see High Plains Drifter as a critique of the American West. According to the book Ride, Boldly Ride: The Evolution of the American Western, that’s how Wayne saw the film. In addition, he saw it as incorrect.Eastwood told Kenneth Turan “John Wayne once wrote me a letter saying he didn’t like High Plains Drifter. He said it wasn’t really about the people who pioneered the West.

I realized that there’s two different generations, and he wouldn’t understand what I was doing. High Plains Drifter was meant to be a fable: it wasn’t meant to show the hours of pioneering drudgery. It wasn’t supposed to be anything about settling the West.” According to the book John Wayne: The Life and Legend, Eastwood did not write back. How the public reacted to ‘High Plains Drifter’ : Clearly, Wayne was upset by the film. This raises an interesting question: Did High Plains Drifter resonate with the public?

According to Box Office Mojo, High Plains Drifter earned over $15 million. Even by the standards of the 1970s, High Plains Drifter was not a tremendous hit. For comparison, Box Office Mojo reports a less dark 1970s Western starring Eastwood called The Outlaw Josey Wales earned over $31 million.Regardless, High Plains Drifter has a bit of a legacy. It was the first Western that Eastwood directed himself. Eastwood would go on to direct several other Westerns including the Oscar-winning Unforgiven. Wayne wasn’t much of a fan of High Plains Drifter — and neither was the public.

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John Wayne spent a lot of time in Mexico doing charity work at orphanages . – My Blog

Easily overlooked amid the prolific acting career and larger-than-life persona was John Wayne’s generosity. He was generous with his family, whom he welcomed into his own career with open arms. And in the years since his ԁеаtһ, the philanthropy carried out by his estate has been dedicated to cancer research.Recently, the official John Wayne Instagram account posted a throwback photo from 1970.


It shows Duke visiting a Mexican orphanage with actress Raquel Welch.“Giving back to the community was important to Duke, he’s pictured here with Raquel Welch visiting an orphanage in Mexico in 1970,” the caption of the post reads.The heartwarming photo shows John Wayne giving a smile to a child outside the orphanage. Raquel Welch can be seen behind him to the right, doing the same thing.

John Wayne Had an Affinity for Mexico : John Wayne spent a lot of time in Mexico. For one, the iconic Western actor filmed no less than six movies in the country throughout his career. Beyond his acting career, however, Duke just loved spending time there.Granted, most of that time wasn’t spent at orphanages. But John Wayne did his small part in other ways too.

The town of Chupaderos in Northwestern Mexico was effectively built by Wayne and the movies he filmed there. Although, it did fall on hard times after he stopped making movies there.Nonetheless, Mexico was one of Wayne’s favorite destinations. His estate posted another photo back in April of the Western icon taking in the sights of Acapulco.“Duke loved to travel all over the world and one of his favorite places to visit was Mexico.

He’s pictured here in Acapulco in the late 1940’s, where he owned a hotel called Hotel Los Flamingos with his friend Johnny Weissmuller, who played Tarzan,” part of the caption reads.One of the things that brought Wayne to Mexico was his yacht, the Wild Goose. One of his favorite activities was sailing it down the coast of Mexico with his family.“For a long time, whenever I dreamed about him, we were on the boat,” John Wayne’s daughter Marisa said.Duke Owned a Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico : As the caption from the Instagram posts mentions, John Wayne owned a hotel in Mexico.

Along with a group of celebrities, John Wayne bought Hotel Los Flamingos in 1954 to use as a private getaway.After using it for vacations and private events for a few years, the group decided to sell the hotel. Today, Hotel Los Flamingos is still in operation. And fortunately for travel-inclined fans of the Duke, getting a room there is actually pretty affordable.

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Elvis Presley turned down an offer to star with John Wayne in the Oscar-winning Western . – My Blog

Having made his name as a singer in 1956, Elvis Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker had a vision for his client to become a Hollywood movie star. That same year The King acted in his first movie, a Western called Love Me Tender. Among his musical romantic comedies, he starred in three more Wild West films in Flaming Star, Frankie and Johnny and Charro, which caught the eye of John Wayne himself.


During this period, Wayne was America’s cowboy star, having acted in his first Western in 1930’s The Big Trail, before making iconic movies with John Ford like The Searchers.In 1969, the 62-year-old starred in one of his last box office successes, an adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel True Grit.

The storyline saw Duke play Rooster Cogburn, a tough one-eyed old United States Marshal who helps a 14-year-old girl track down the drunk who killed her father.They did this with the help of Texan Ranger LaBoeuf, a part that initially was set for Elvis.However, in the late 1960s, Elvis was tired of making poor musical rom-coms and returned his focus to live performances with his 1968 Comeback Special and subsequent Las Vegas residences.

The King’s cousin Billy Smith described on his son Danny’s Memphis Mafia Kid YouTube channel how John Wayne asked Elvis to co-star in a few of his movies. He said: “In fact, he asked him a couple of times.” In the end, his manager The Colonel pushed it too far by demanding that Elvis should receive top billing above Wayne if he were to play the Texan in True Grit.Billy added: “Of course, it was always carried through Colonel and at that time when he was asking, Elvis was such a big star.

Colonel didn’t want him to play second co-star or second star…with anybody else, so that ruled that out.”Since Wayne was already such a huge star, True Grit’s producers declined Elvis even though he was their original choice for the role of LaBoeuf.

Instead, another musician, Glen Campbell, was cast as the Texan ranger, which saw him nominated for a Golden Globe.If that wasn’t enough, Duke himself won the Golden Globe and his first and only Oscar in the Best Actor category for Rooster Cogburn.The Western legend said during his Academy Awards speech: “Wow! If I’d known that, I’d have put that [eye] patch on 35 years earlier.”

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