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Brendan Wayne, Grandson of Hollywood Icon John Wayne, Can (Unsurprisingly) Hold His Own In a Fight – My Blog

No, they were looking at me to play the lawyer who grilled Rooster in the beginning. I really wanted to be Rooster, but they got some guy named Bridges. He seems like a talented kid. I think he might do something in this business.Can you do a John Wayne impression?Not one you’d want to hear.

How bad could it be? It’s like a Jack Nicholson impression; anyone can do it.It’s not for lack of trying, but I’m pretty awful at it. I can do the cadence, but I can’t do the depth of his voice.He had that grumbling baritone.Yeah, that deep…. [Doing a surprisingly good John Wayne impression.] “I’m not gonna hit you, partner. The hell I’m not!”Oh Jesus, that was good. Add a “pilgrim” at the end and it’d be transcendent.[As John Wayne.] “I haven’t lost my temper in 40 years, pilgrim . . .”[As John Wayne.] “But you caused a lot of trouble this morning!”[As John Wayne.] “I’m gonna blow your head off. It’s as simple as that.”
This is too much fun. It’s like dueling John Waynes.The problem with mine is that I just end up sounding like I’m drunk. And I’m not implying anything, I’m just saying.You were in the cast of another remake of one of your granddaddy’s movies, 2009’s Angel and the Badman.We made a valiant effort. When they first asked me, I was like, “There’s no way I’m playing one of my grandfather’s iconic roles. I just can’t do it.” And they were like, “Don’t worry, we’re not considering you for Quirt Evans.”They gave that to Lou Diamond Phillips.That’s right, yeah.And this is the part of the interview where we make fun of Lou Diamond Phillips.Feel free. I’ll let you, and I’ll just be here when you do it.
You’re John Wayne’s grandson, and his only qualification is being the guy from Young Guns.I’m not saying anything.Did he at least acknowledge you? That had to be intimidating, doing the Duke in front of the Duke’s own flesh and blood.Not that I know of. I did overhear him doing an interview, and he said something like, “You know, the Duke was just the Duke. He kind of just played that character. I’m going to bring something a little bigger, a little darker to it.” And I about lost my temper. My mom was in my ear, saying, “Don’t do it, don’t do it.” To be overlooked by critics is one thing, but when another actor doesn’t recognize John’s ability to be subtle and powerful. Watch the original Angel and the Badman, and you’re going to see a guy who’s got range. It’s one of the greatest acting performances I’ve ever seen, period.I’m just impressed that John played a guy called Quirt with a straight face. That name didn’t really catch on, did it?It didn’t, no. If I have another kid, I’ll name him Quirt. I think it has potential.Your uncle Ethan was named after John’s character in The Searchers. It’s a miracle that your mom didn’t name you after one of her father’s characters. You could’ve easily been Ringo Kid Wayne or Davy Crockett Wayne.I was very nearly called Daniel Boone Wayne.

You’re joking.I’m not at all. It was really, really close to happening. It was like a Johnny Cash song waiting to happen. Instead of “A Boy Named Sue,” I could’ve been a boy named Daniel Boone. I dodged a bullet with that one.Your granddaddy had a reputation for fighting. When was the last time you were involved in fisticuffs?Not long ago. And I have the scars to prove it. If we ever meet in person, I’ll show you the ring cut I have under my right eye that I acquired in Mexico. I beat the guy in front of me, but I didn’t see the guy who was behind him.Did you start the fight, or just finish it?I actually thought I was going in to finish something. Little did I know, I wasn’t the final act. I woke up later and I thought I was sweating and my buddies were like, “Dude, that’s blood.”That’s pretty badass. Your grandfather would be proud.Maybe. I try not to get into fights too often. I do like boxing. I box three days a week at the greatest gym in Los Angeles, the Fortune Gym. As a matter of fact, that’s how Sam Rockwell and I bonded when I was on the set of Cowboys & Aliens. We both box at the same gym and now we work out together, which is bizarre.
Do you remember that famous story about your granddaddy and Frank Sinatra’s bodyguard?It’s been told to me. He and Sinatra ended up being friends after that, but I don’t know what happened to the bodyguard. I feel bad for the guy. I remember, as a kid, my granddaddy’s hands were as big as my chest. I don’t think I’m exaggerating, I really don’t. They were the biggest things I’ve ever seen.Here’s a hypothetical scenario. You’re at a hotel. Frank Sinatra Jr. is hosting a party in the room directly below you. It’s so loud that you can’t sleep, so you go downstairs and ask them to keep it down. Frank Sinatra Jr.’s bodyguard gives you some guff. What do you do?If somebody’s willing to give me guff, they better be willing to take my fist to their chin, because I’m going to do it.Damn, bitch, I guess you do have the Duke’s blood in you.I’m not a hothead. I’m not running around like a young Sean Penn. But if I see other people being wronged, that tends to make me want to fight. I’ll give you an example. I was in Westwood with two of my brothers, and a bunch of college kids who thought they were really cool were messing with this shop owner. They ran him out of his own store. Before I even knew what was going on, I ran up to them and I said, “Back off!” And my language wasn’t that PG. One of them was like, “You got a problem?” And before he could finish the word “problem,” I hit him square in the mouth. His two buddies went to jump on me, and thank God my brothers are built like our grandfather, because they took them down. It was a beautiful moment. The cops came and took them away, and I probably shouldn’t say this, but they were like, “I can’t believe this kid fell down and banged up his face on the pavement.” I was like, “No, that’s not what happened.” But they cut me off. “He hit. His face. On the pavement.”Did they know you were John Wayne’s grandsons?We refused to acknowledge any of that. We didn’t give our names, and they didn’t ask for them.
Did you call any of them “pilgrim”?Are you kidding? That would’ve been a dead giveaway. It’s funny, my mom always portrayed my granddaddy as somebody who was willing to stand up for the little guys. But he also just liked to fight. He and [frequent co-star] Ward Bond used to fight all the time. There’s a famous story about them that I can’t tell you, but if you ask around, somebody will tell you, if they’re still alive.Can you give me a hint?He and Ward Bond were fighting at the Hollywood Athletic Club, back when it was a place where guys stayed in between fights with whoever they were loving. Ward threw a cue ball at John and it went through the window. And . . . O.K., I guess I’m telling you the whole story anyway.Who am I going to tell?The cue ball hit a car that was driving by. Thank God it didn’t happen today, because it’d still be in litigation. They ran outside to make sure nobody was hurt, and the guy in the car whose windshield was smashed was screaming, “You sons of bitches!” But then he looks up and it’s Ward Bond and John Wayne, and he’s like, “Could I keep this cue ball?”Didn’t John Ford once catch your granddaddy taking a piss in Ward Bond’s whiskey flask?Yes! He was like, “Duke, what are you doing over there?” And John is like, “I’m just filling up Bond’s flask.” And they didn’t tell him! That’s what kills me about it. That’s the best part of that joke.
And this provides the perfect segue to ask the question I’ve been waiting to ask this entire interview: Exactly how much of your urine did Harrison Ford drink on the set of Cowboys & Aliens?I can honestly say that I decline to answer.

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Secrets John Wayne Revealed to Ron Howard About Filmmaking . – My Blog

Although they were celebrities for different reasons, Ron Howard worked with John Wayne on one of The Duke’s late-period movies. Howard said Wayne gave him some interesting advice. In addition, Howard revealed what made Wayne a little different from other actors.


As an actor, Howard is most known for his appearing in the sitcoms The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days as well as George Lucas’ American Graffiti. However, he also appeared in Wayne’s final Western, The Shootist. The film also included James Stewart, Lauren Bacall, and John Carridine. With that cast, the film was almost like a roll call of Old Hollywood actors. Howard’s appearance in the film almost feels like a passing of the torch from one generation to the next.

In an interview with Men’s Journal, Sean Woods asked Howard if working with Wayne and Stewart taught him anything about manhood. “John Wayne used a phrase, which he later attributed to [film director] John Ford, for scenes that were going to be difficult: ‘This is a job of work,’ he’d say,” Howard recalled. “If there was a common thread with these folks – Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Glenn Ford – it was the work ethic. It was still driving them. To cheat the project was an insult. To cheat the audience was damnable.”

What Ron Howard said John Wayne, Bette Davis, and Jimmy Stewart had in common : In a separate interview with the HuffPost, Howard also praised Wayne’s work ethic. “I always admired him as a movie star, but I thought of him as a total naturalist,” Howard said. “Even those pauses were probably him forgetting his line and then remembering it again, because, man, he’s The Duke.

But he’s working on this scene and he’s like, ‘Let me try this again.’ And he put the little hitch in and he’d find the Wayne rhythm, and you’d realize that it changed the performance each and every time. 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.”

How critics and audiences responded to ‘The Shootist’ : Howard obviously admired Wayne’s methods as an actor. This raises an interesting question: Did the public embrace The Shootist? According to Box Office Mojo, the film earned over $8 million. That’s not a huge haul for a film from 1976. However, the film is widely regarded as a classic among 1970s Westerns.

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How did Paul Koslo ever have a tense encounter with star John Wayne ? – My Blog

In 1975, the Canadian actor starring The Duke in Rooster Cogburn. At the time, Koslo was only 19 and still relatively green in the industry. So working with the Hollywood legend was a bit stressful.


During an installment of World on Westerns, Paul Koslo shared his experiences with John Wayne, including a time where he nearly stepped on Wayne’s lines.As the story goes, Wayne had a short 15 line monologue. And once he was finished, Koslo was supposed to respond. And as they were filming, Wayne said his part. But when it was Koslo’s turn, he froze.“The director said ‘Paul, why didn’t you say your lines?’” the actor remembered.

“And I said, ‘well, because I didn’t wanna cut him off because he hadn’t said all of his lines yet.’” Hearing the conversation, John Wayne jumped in saying, “who’s gonna? Nobody’s gonna cut me off. I can say whatever I want, you got it, kid?”Of course, the interaction made Koslo nervous, and the only response he could muster was, “okay, sir.”However, the actor admitted that the Western icon wasn’t as intimidating as the story made him sound.

Koslo shared that as long as his co-stars worked hard, Wayne was always their biggest supporter.“My impression of him was that if you did your stuff, and you were right on top of it, he was your best buddy. But if you were like a slacker, or you weren’t prepared, he could get on your case.”During the AWOW interview, Paul Koslo also shared some details behind the age-old feud between John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn.

“I mean, Kate and him, they were always like this,” said Koslo, while punching his fists together.According to Koslo, politics were behind the fight. Hepburn was a democrat and Wayne was a republican.“It seemed like… in a fun way. I don’t know if it was for real,” he admitted. “You know, she would be sitting on the hood of a truck going like a hundred feet down to the set where they were shooting, and how Wallis was having heart attacks. She was really a daredevil, and she was full of piss and vinegar.”

The actor also noted that he didn’t get to spend much time with the actress, so he couldn’t get a proper gauge on the so-called feud. Almost all his time was spent with The Duke.The only interaction Koslo had with Hepburn was while shooting an intense scene where they were “moving this nitroglycerin to another location because we were going to rob the U.S. Treasury with it, and [John Wayne’s] about to ambush us.”And that happened right before Paul Koslo nearly stepped on John Wayne’s lines.

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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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