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Weakened John Wayne’s struggles on late Western ‘I’m on borrowed time’ – My Blog

CAHILL US MARSHALL was one of John Wayne’s last Westerns and saw the ageing Hollywood star pushing on through despite his declining health. His worst-reviewed film in almost two decades, even Duke admitted it was a far cry from his Oscar-winning True Grit just a few years earlier.

Back in 1959, critics were already asking if John Wayne was too old to be playing gunslinger leads. Rio Bravo was released that year and the romantic age gap between the 51-year-old and his 27-year-old co-star Angie Dickinson received negative reactions in reviews. Nevertheless, the Hollywood star found ways to play older cowboys over the next couple of decades, even as his health began to decline dramatically.
Wayne was 65-years-old when he shot one of his last Westerns, 1973’s Cahill US Marshall.
The movie saw Duke play a widowed US Marshal who neglects his two sons when he finds them mixed up with an outlaw in a bank robbery.

Director Andrew V McLaglen felt the picture was “not the usual John Wayne movie. It’s a very deep, personal story about children neglected by a father who is just trying to do his job.”
The star was far from being in good shape, having had a cancerous lung removed back in 1964. He was also struggling with emphysema on his remaining one.
wayne as cahill


Cahill US Marshall: Weakened John Wayne’s struggles on late Western ‘I’m on borrowed time’ (Image: GETTY)
wayne filming cahill
John Wayne shooting Cahill (Image: GETTY)
Being significantly weakened, Wayne was forced to use a stepladder to climb onto his horse in the movie.
As for riding shots from a distance, Duke’s Cahill was doubled by Chuck Roberson.
When the movie hit cinemas, both audiences and critics thought that the star should really have played the boys’ grandfather.
However, at the time, he had three kids around the same age as his on-screen sons played by Gary Grimes and Clay O’Brien.
wayne and ford
John Wayne with John Ford (Image: GETTY)
wayne as cahill by horse
Cahill was John Wayne’s worst reviewed movie in almost 20 years (Image: GETTY)
On top of this, many men in the 19th century didn’t have children until their middle age.
Nevertheless, Wayne was coming to terms with being in the winter of his own days, having heard that his long-time collaborator, director John Ford, was dying of cancer.
Upon news of his death in August 1973, Duke told journalists: “I’m pretty much living on borrowed time.”
Hardly helping matters, Cahill was the worst-reviewed of his films since he played Genghis Khan in 1956’s The Conqueror.
Produced by Duke’s son Michael under his father’s production company Batjac, Cahill had failed to live up to the praise Wayne received for his Oscar-winning role in 1969’s True Grit.
The star later admitted of the 1973 Western: “It just wasn’t a well-done picture. It needed better writing, it needed a little better care in making.”
Wayne would go on to make a couple of better-received Westerns in True Grit sequel Rooster Cogburn opposite Katherine Hepburn and The Shootist.
The latter film saw him playing a terminally ill gunfighter. The Hollywood icon himself died of cancer just a couple of years later in 1979.

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‘Black movie queen’ Maureen O’Hara – a close colleague of John Wayne passed away in front of the audience’s mourning. – My Blog

The star of the movie “Miracle on 34th Street”, a familiar co-star of actor John Wayne, has passed away due to old age and weakness. Maureen O’Hara, an Irish star, was once known as “the queen of movies. color”, died at his home in Boise, Idaho, USA, on October 24, at the age of 95.


The information was confirmed by Johnny Nicoletti, her long-time manager. “She passed away in the loving arms of her family, as well as on the soundtrack of the movie The Quiet Man that she loved so much,” one Maureen O’Hara’s relatives shared.

During her illustrious career, O’Hara had five times played the screen lover of actor John Wayne. She appeared in many classic Hollywood films, such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), How Green Was My Valley (1941), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Rio Grande (1950), The Quiet Man (1952). , Our Man in Havana (1959) and The Parent Trap (1961).

However, she never received an Oscar nomination. A year before Maureen O’Hara’s death, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided to present her with an honorary Oscar for her service to Hollywood.

During the 1940s, when color film began to flourish, Maureen O’Hara appeared in a series of compelling works such as To the Shores of Tripoli (1942), The Black Swan (1942), The Spanish Main (1945). and The Quiet Man.

Possessing fair skin, red hair, as well as green eyes, she “shines like the sun on a silver screen,” as the New York Times described it. It was Dr. Herbert Kalmus, the inventor of color film, who gave Maureen O’Hara the nickname “color film queen”.

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The reason why John Wayne is labeled ‘Draft Dodger’ in Wor ւ ԁ War II . – My Blog

When actor John Wayne visited American soldiers in Vietnam in the summer of 1966, he was warmly welcomed. As he spoke to groups and individuals, he was presented gifts and letters from American and South Vietnamese troops alike. This was not the case during his USO tours in 1942 and ’43.According to author Garry Wills’ 1998 book, “John Wayne’ America: the Politics of Celebrity,” the actor received a chorus of boos when he walked onto the USO stages in Australia and the Pacific Islands. Those audiences were filled with combat veterans. Wayne, in his mid-30s, was not one of them.


Around the time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Wayne was not the big-name actor we remember him being today. He was fresh off the box-office success of the 1939 film “Stagecoach.”Being drafted or enlisting was going to have a serious impact on his rising star. Depending on how long the ԝаr lasted, Wayne reportedly worried he might be too old to be a leading man when he came home.

Other actors, both well-established and rising in fame, rushed off to do their part. Clark Gable joined the Army Air Forces and, despite the studios’ efforts to get him into a motion picture unit, served as an aerial ɡսոոеr over Europe. Jimmy Stewart was initially ineligible for the draft, given his low weight, but like some amazing version of Captain America, he drank beer until he qualified.In his 2014 book, “American Titan: Searching for John Wayne,” author Marc Eliot alleges Wayne was having an affair with actress Marlene Dietrich. He says the possibility of losing this relationship was the real reason Wayne didn’t want to go to ԝаr.

But even Dietrich would do her part, smuggling Jewish people out of Europe, entertaining troops on the front lines (she crossed into Germany alongside Gen. George S. Patton) and maybe even being an operative for the Office of Strategic Services.Wayne never enlisted and even filed for a 3-A draft deferment, which meant that if the sole provider for a family of four were drafted, it would cause his family undue hardship. The closest he would ever come to Worւԁ Wаr II service would be portraying the actions of others on the silver screen.

With his leading man competition fighting the ԝаr and out of the way, Wayne became Hollywood’s top leading man. During the ԝаr, Wayne starred in a number of western films as well as Worւԁ Wаr II movies, including 1942’s “Flying Tigers” and 1944’s “The Fighting Seabees.” According to Eliot, Wayne told friends the best thing he could do for the ԝаr was make movies to support the troops. Eventually, the government agreed.

At one point during the ԝаr, the need for more men in uniform caused the U.S. military brass to change Wayne’s draft status to 1-A, fit for duty. But Hollywood studios intervened on his behalf, arguing that the actor’s star power was a boon for ԝаrtime propaganda and the morale of the troops. He was given a special 2-A status, which back then meant he was deferred in “support of national interest.”The decision not to serve or to avoid it entirely (depending on how you look at the actor) haunted Wayne for the rest of his life. His third wife, Pilar Wayne, says he became a “super-patriot for the rest of his life trying to atone for staying at home.”

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John Wayne Wanted to Make His Home Alarm a Hilarious Tape Recording of His Voice: ‘I See You, You Son of a B****’

John Wayne Wanted to Make His Home Alarm a Hilarious Tape Recording of His Voice: ‘I See You, You Son of a B****’

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