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New biography reveals the real John Wayne – Old western – My Blog

John Wayne starred in 169 movies, playing so many heroic cowboys that many Americans believed he had single-handedly won the West – and he came to believe it.Yet Wayne was living a lie. Behind closed doors the man born Marion Morrison was a restless, melancholy, troubled actor struggling to live up to the screen persona he had created, a bombshell new biography reveals.In John Wayne: The Life And Legend author Scott Eyman exposes a John Wayne very few knew.Haunted by three failed marriages and bad relations with his children, he always struggled to win the respect he believed he deserved and felt forced to hide his sensitivity and artistic leanings.

For 25 years until 1974 he was one of the world’s top box-office stars, yet he worked almost until his ԁеаtһ not because of a love of acting, but because bad business deals and betrayals by friends meant that he never felt financially secure.Instead the movie legend battled against his inner demons trying to live up to the John Wayne the world thought him to be. Despite his success he was tormented by his failures.“The guy you see on the screen really isn’t me,” Wayne once admitted.“I’m Duke Morrison and I never was and never will be a film personality like John Wayne.“I know him well.“I’m one of his closest students.“I have to be.“I make a living out of him.”But playing the role of John Wayne off screen was tearing the actor apart, the new book reveals.Wayne starred in Second World Wаr drama The Sands Of Iwo Jima, winning an Oscar nomination for his part as the quintessential US Marine.In reality the actor was guilt-ridden having avoided military service during the conflict, staying home with his children while other stars from Henry Fonda to Ronald Reagan enlisted.Wayne preferred the comfort of a yacht rather than a saddle and while his on-screen kisses may have been bashful, off screen he was a sex-hungry, unfaithful husband.Wayne’s inner turmoil drove him to extremes.He smoked up to six packs of cigarettes a day, consumed heroic quantities of booze and food, and made harsh demands of those around him.He often woke at dawn and roused his family because he disliked being alone.His second wife Esperanza Diaz accused him of infidelity, violence and emotional cruelty.Born in Winterset, Iowa in 1907 he moved with his family to California at seven, the college football star worked as a movie prop-man and extra before being spotted by director John Ford who launched him as an actor.Yet before his breakout role in 1939 Western drama Stagecoach, Wayne spent a decade honing his persona: “A voice, a name, a walk that would grow more pronounced in the future, an overall attitude,” writes Eyman.A symbol of American machismo, simultaneously an outsider and an authority figure, Wayne played a series of idealised frontier Western heroes on screen.He summed up his persona as “the character the average man wants himself, his brother or his kid to be.“Always walk with your head held high.“Look everybody straight in the eye.“Never double-cross a pal.”But Wayne’s jingoistic patriotism was also his undoing.He spent 10 years and £1.2million of his own money making 1960 flop The Alamo.“Everybody made money from it but me,” Wayne lamented.His 1968 pro-Vietnam Wаr movie The Green Berets at least made money but alienated a younger generation that never forgave him.Wayne endured the constant failure to live up to his screen persona.When diagnosed with lung cancer in 1964 he poignantly recalled: “I sat there trying to be John Wayne.”Surgery removed part of a lung but Wayne continued wheezing through a succession of mediocre Westerns to pay the bills, while rejecting stronger roles that didn’t fit his image, including Dirty Harry and The Dirty Dozen.“He intended to play only men who mirrored his own beliefs, his own values,” says Eyman.Yet while Wayne’s on-screen character was a man of constrained violence, in real life the actor was quick to apologise if his temper exploded.From 1951 drama The Quiet Man until his ԁеаtһ from stomach cancer in 1979 at 72, Wayne gave every cast and crew member on all his movies a personalised coffee mug as a thank-you.On screen he was a man of action and few words, yet off camera he played chess and bridge, would quote Shakespeare and Dickens and had a penchant for Tolkien.Fans of his Westerns never knew that Wayne collected Eastern woodblock prints and native American kachina dolls.The son of impoverished parents who struggled throughout their lives, Wayne never lost his passion for catalogue shopping, buying gifts for family and friends until “mail-order packages would arrive in bunches, 10 or 20 at a time,” reveals Eyman.But Wayne could not find happinessin a mail-order catalogue and his personal life was tormented.His mother Mary was cold and hypercritical no matter how successful he became.She accepted Wayne’s frequent generosity with a sneer.His father Clyde Morrison was a business failure who ԁıеԁ before seeing his son achieve stardom.Wayne dedicated himself to his career but as a frequently absent father had a troubled relationship with his seven children.Fears of inadequacy drove him to affairs that destroyed his three marriages.A fling with screen siren Marlene Dietrich ended with Wayne being dumped by his first wife Josephine Saenz.Though Wayne emboԁıеԁ machismo on screen it was Dietrich who was the sexual aggressor pursuing the actor, reveals Eyman.When Dietrich spotted Wayne at a Hollywood restaurant she turned to her friend, a top film director, and purred: “Daddy, buy me that.”They starred together in the 1940 hit Seven Sinners and Wayne began cheating on his wife.When Wayne came on set Dietrich would leap into his arms and wrap her legs around him and he told friends that she gave him the best sexual experience of his life.He never even complained when Dietrich spent time with close lesbian friends.But the real-life Wayne could be indecisive, promising his wife to end the affair if only she stopped complaining about the German actress.When his wife’s protests continued, Wayne admitted: “That’s when I knew the marriage was over.”His on-off affair with Dietrich, however, spanned 20 years.His second marriage, to Esperanza Diaz, was a volatile seven-year roller-coaster and his third wife Peruvian-born actress Pilar Pallette left him six years before his ԁеаtһ although they never divorced.She complained that he was often absent, even when not working.Wayne claimed family always came first but Pilar said: “Although he loved the children and me, there were times when we couldn’t compete with his career or his devotion to the Republican Party.”A womaniser to the end, he spent his final years living with his secretary Pat Stacy.But playing John Wayne was a full-time job and the actor spent much of his career battling to live up to the John Wayne fans knew.He wore a wig in every movie after 1948, had plastic surgery to remove crows’ feet around his eyes in 1969 and in later years wore 3in lifts in his shoes as his 6ft 4in frame shrank with age.Only at the end of his career did he dare to break away from his selfimposed rule of portraying all-American role models, winning an Oscar for 1969 western True Grit, playing over-the-hill drunkard Marshal Rooster Cogburn.Wayne called it “my first decent role in 20 years – and my first chance to play a character role instead of John Wayne.”But if playing John Wayne was the actor’s greatest role, it was also one he struggled with for a lifetime and never felt he mastered.

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James Caan shares a memorable collaboration with John Wayne on the set of El Dorado. – My Blog

In 1997, James Caan joined The Late Show with David Letterman to starred on John Wayne after they alongside one another on the hit movie El Dorado.While Wayne portrayed the noble elder gunfighter Cole Thorton, Caan plays his loyal friend, Mississippi. Furthermore, the movie was directed by esteemed producer Howard Hawks.


James Caan notes that the first big-name he worked with in Hollywood was John Wayne. Wayne was 33 years older than Caan and already had boomed success in the industry, so naturally, James Caan admired the Duke.“He was great because he could intimidate you,” explains Caan. “He’d stay on you forever, and you’d just crumble. I mean, he’d just try you.”However, on the set of El Dorado, James Caan recalls getting directions from Howard Hawks, also known as Coach.

“So this one night I remember I was between he and Mitchum and Howard Hawks was about 72 at the time, and we’re outside in this old Tucson. This big old western town and Hawks comes up and says, ‘now look, Kid, when you say that line, here’s what’s going to happen. Duke, you go down the middle of the road right down the center because we are going to surround this bar. Mitchum, you go around that way, and Kid, you go around.’ I said, ‘alright, Coach.’ because that’s what we called him, Coach.’

“He was coach,” notes Letterman. “John Wayne was Duke, and you’re the Kid.” After Hawk gave the instructions, he began walking back to the cameras. James Caan, who does a perfect John Wayne impression, reflected on when Wayne tried to offer the then-youngster a few tips.“So now he has to walk back up 50 yards back to the camera. There’s all kinds of extras, and he’s walking back, and the dude looks at me and goes, ‘now look, Kid.’ He says, ‘when you say that there line, I want you to turn around and give me that look you give me.’

“Give Me That Look That You Give Me.”The men begin to laugh hysterically because Jame Caan has no idea what John Wayne is talking about. Regardless, Caan still gave it a try.“I have no idea what he’s talking about. But the truth is that Mitchum explains me that I was laughing at him all the time. Every time he talked because you had to. How can you take him seriously? That ‘why did you do it’ look. So he said, ‘give me that look that you give me.’ I said, ‘alright. Alright Duke.’

At this point, it isn’t Wayne who is mad about Cann’s performance. It is Hawks. However, the Duke still offered his advice. James Caan must.“He gets behind the camera everything starts going, and they go ‘ACTION!’ and I send my one line and I take a step, and I turn around. Coach goes ‘CUT’. Comes running up, and he goes, ‘look, when you take the step. Don’t take the step. I want you to say the line and go. Just go!’ He starts to walk back to the camera, and Wayne goes, ‘now look, Kid. Don’t take a whole step, take a half a step and then turn around and give me that look you give me.’

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John Wayne’s words to his daughter before taking his last breath . – My Blog

John Wayne was in around 170 movies during his long career in the acting world. It’s hard to determine exactly how many because he had starred in so many early on in his career that was considered more obscure.


By the time he was done acting, fans heard him deliver hundreds of thousands of lines to the cameraWhile his acting career was the life he projected, Wayne also had a life outside of the set. He was married three times and divorced twice. In total, John Wayne had seven children during his life. Wayne will always be remembered as the epitome of the Western genre. The tough, macho man behind countless iconic films. He was in movies like “True Grit,” “The Shootist,” “The Cowboys,” and “El Dorado.”

John Wayne’s Last Words : When he was lying in his death bed, however, he wasn’t talking about the Old West or old-fashioned violence. Instead, family was his main concern. According to a Neatorama post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen, Wayne spent his last days in a hospital bed in-and-out of consciousness. He passed away on June 11, 1979, surrounded by many family members.

His daughter, Aissa Wayne (born March 31, 1956) was at his bedside. She held his hand and asked if he knew who she was. He responded with his very last words ever, “Of course I know who you are. You’re my girl. I love you.”

Wayne passed away from stomach cancer. He had been suffering from poor health for several years at this point. Deezen described Wayne on the set of his last movie, “The Shootist” by saying he was often irritable and missed days on set due to poor health. He even had an oxygen tank on set.

Beyond the stomach cancer, John Wayne also had heart issues. He had a long life of smoking, drinking, and a questionable diet. He actually had a pig valve put into his heart. His last appearance would be at the 1979 Academy Awards where he was notably thinner and very sick. He even had a wetsuit on underneath his outfit to make him look bigger.

According to Mental Floss his grave in Corona del Mar, Newport Beach reads, “Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.”

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How does John Wayne comment and evaluate the person and film of Julie Andrews? – My Blog

John Wayne and Julie Andrews were both huge icons in the 1960s, however, Wayne was not a fan of one of Andrews’ movies. He felt one of her films “fell on its face” because of one of her ideas. Here’s what he thought of her as a performer.

During the late 1960s, Hollywood underwent a lot of changes. For example, the industry started embracing graphic violence and sexuality –or, at least, what constituted graphic violence and sexuality at the time. Explicit movies like Psycho, Bonnie and Clyde, and The Graduate that never could have been made in a more restrictive era were finding success.Wayne was not a fan of the increased sexuality in American films. “All the real motion picture people have always made family pictures,” he told Roger Ebert in 1969.
“But the downbeats and the so-called intelligentsia got in when the government stupidly split up the production companies and the theaters. The old giants–Mayer, Thalberg, even Harry Cohn, despite the fact that personally I couldn’t stand him – were good for this industry. Now the goddamned stock manipulators have taken over. They don’t know a goddamned thing about making movies. “They make something dirty, and it makes money, and they say, ‘Jesus, let’s make one a little dirtier, maybe it’ll make more money,’” Wayne opined. “And now even the bankers are getting their noses into it.”

John Wayne felt Julie Andrews was trying to be like another star
Wayne felt Andrews had succumbed to this trend. “Take that girl, Julie Andrews, a refreshing, openhearted girl, a wonderful performer,” he said. “Her stint was Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. But she wanted to be a Theda Bara. And they went along with her, and the picture fell on its face.”

Which of Julie Andrews’ movies was he talking about?
For context, Bara was a silent movie actor who was an early Hollywood sex symbol who often played femmes fatale. In the interview, Wayne never specifies which movie he was discussing. Between the release of The Sound of Music in 1965 and the time Wayne gave the interview, Andrews starred in five films: Torn Curtain, Hawaii, Think Twentieth, Thoroughly Modern Millie,and Star!. It’s impossible to know for sure which movie Wayne criticized, but it may well have been Thoroughly Modern Millie, whose plot involves sex trafficking.

It’s unclear if Wayne meant the movie he mentioned “fell flat on its face” artistically or commercially. Obviously, whether Thoroughly Modern Millie is a good movie is a matter of taste. However, the movie performed well for the time. According to The Numbers, it earned $34,335,025. In addition, Thoroughly Modern Millie inspired the famous musical of the same name. Regardless of which of her movies he disliked, Wayne still praised Andrews’ talent.

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