John Wayne

How John Wayne Helped Revolutionize The Art Of On-Screen Fighting

Before John Wayne began making low-budget Westerns in the 1930s, stunt performers were rarely, if ever, acknowledged or given credit for their work. Studios didn’t want to break the illusion to reveal that it wasn’t the main star on-screen performing their own stunts, so the practice became one of Hollywood’s biggest secrets. Looking back on the history of stunts from the era, the British Action Academy noted that, during that time, studios and directors began demanding more dangerous stunts that resulted in a large increase in on-set fatalities.

The marquee star wasn’t in mortal jeopardy and some actors like Harold Lloyd had it written into their contracts that it could never be revealed when a stuntman was utilized. Tom Mix, the first bonafide movie star, always claimed that he was the one who made the famous horse jump across the Beale’s Cut ravine in John Ford’s 1923 short film, “3 Jumps Ahead.” However, Mix biographer Robert S. Birchard, author of “King Cowboy: Tom Mix and the Movies,” insisted that it was actually a stuntman and horse trainer named Earl Simpson.
Up until the era of John Wayne, there was always a clear delineation between actor and stuntman. Once talkies became mainstream, the Western remained popular but the genre was relegated to B-movie status. After the failure of his first starring role in “The Big Trail,” Wayne took an interest in learning more about stunt work, becoming proficient in horse riding and the general cowboying skills needed to look the part on-screen. Over the next decade, Wayne would hone his skills and become fast friends with the legendary stuntmen Yakima Canutt. In the years ahead, Wayne would help usher in an entirely new approach to fight choreography that proved safer for performers and more realistic to audiences.
Acting like a real-life street fighter

Warner Bros.Most of John Wayne’s greatest movie moments involve punching something or someone. The sound of his punch alone echoed throughout movie halls and became a famous signature of his. Since the actors weren’t really punching each other, the sound of the hit would be added later in post and it always seemed like the hero’s punch was always a little louder. Back when the action star began his career, however, the actors really were making contact. “At that time, in pictures, the way they did a fight was, you and your opponent, you hit each other in the shoulders and faked it to look like real,” Wayne said in an interview in author Maurice Zolotow’s biography “Shooting Star.” Wanting the fights to be as realistic as possible, Wayne emulated world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, studying old newsreels of Dempsey training before a bout.
Unfortunately for performers like Yak Canutt, someone who found himself on the other end of those punches on more than one occasion, Wayne’s commitment to authenticity resulted in some real abuse. “I wouldn’t hold back when I felt myself gettin’ all worked up with hatred for a villain,” Wayne recalled. “I wanted to kill the son-of-a-b****. Matter of fact, I guess I liked these fight scenes more than any other stunts we did.”
Canutt went on to perform incredibly dangerous, spectacular stunts in “Stagecoach” and “Zorro’s Fighting Legion,” but he went up against John Wayne’s fists first. Complaints from Canutt and a little ingenuity from director Robert Bradbury (“West of the Divide,” “Westward Ho”) wound up leading to a completely new way to shoot a fight scene, with a technique still used today.
Inventing a new camera trick

United ArtistsInstead of punching the daylights out of his co-stars until they were black and blue, John Wayne described the day when director Robert Bradbury, one of Wayne’s early cohorts and collaborators, had a moment of inspiration. As told in the “Shooting Star” biography:
“[Bradbury] said that he thought if he placed the camera at a certain angle it would look as if my fist was making contact with Yak’s face, though my fist was passing by his face, not even grazing it. We tried it out one day, and when we saw the rushes we saw how good it looked. Bradbury invented this trick, which he called the pass system. Other stuntmen and directors picked up on it, and it became the established way of doing a fight.”
Before this simple but brilliant idea of the pass system was invented, there just wasn’t a lot of thought paid to protecting actors and efforts to make movie sets a little safer were still in early stages of development. Something as basic as changing the angle of the shot immediately lessened the blows performers were taking without compromising a fight scene’s believability. Wayne loved it because he could still pack just as much power into his punches. In the famous fight against Vic McLagen in “The Quiet Man,” Wayne played a retired American prizefighter for the first time. Watching the brawl, it’s clear both actors aren’t holding anything back but, miraculously, they never made physical contact once.
For a heavy like John Wayne who loved a good battle, the new technique was a welcome tool in his arsenal that allowed him to keep punching for years to come, in films such as 1975’s “Brannigan.” “I had plenty of fights on-screen. I’ve been told I’ve done more fighting in pictures than any other star –- and I’ve also had a few fights off the screen.”

John Wayne

Famed famous actress will not work with John Wayne for many years .

While many fans love John Wayne and his movies, it turns out he wasn’t always that popular with his fellow celebrities. In fact, there was at least one actress that refused to work with him for a long time! eventually, she came around but she called out his behavior and asked him to change. That actress was the iconic Katharine Hepburn.

In the ‘50s, John was a Republican who would often share his political views. Of course, this led to disagreements and other people didn’t always agree or like his views.

John wanted Katharine to play Angie Lowe in his western film Hondo. However, after she discovered that he supported the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), she didn’t want to work with him.

Kathar Hepburn famously feuded with John Wayne : In changed her mind. They worked together in the 1975 classic Rooster Cogburn. However, it doesn’t seem that all was well when they filmed the movie. After the movie was completed, Katharine spoke out about John, saying that he was always arguing with the crew and the director. She called him out during the film’s wrap party.

Reportedly, she told him, “I’m glad I didn’t know you when you had two lungs. You must have been a real b*****d. Losing a hip has mellowed me, but you!” Years later, before his death in 1979, they apparently made up and had some fun times together.

John Wayne

The reason Elvis Presley turned down John Wayne’s offer to return to the West together.

Elvis Presley could have starred in the 1969 western True Grit alongside icon John Wayne. However, as much as his manager Col. Tom Parker wanted Elvis to be a Hollywood star, he didn’t want him to have any co-starring roles. If it wasn’t the main role, then he didn’t want it for Elvis.

Reportedly, after Elvis’ western Love Me Tender did so well, John Wayne started noticing him as an actor. He asked Elvis to star in movies with him a few times, including True Grit. He wanted Elvis to play the part of Texan Ranger LaBoeuf.

Elvis Presley could have acted with the iconic John Wayne : However, at the time, Elvis was wanted to focus on music and live performances.

Just a year before True Grit came out, Elvis filmed his 1968 Comeback Special. His manager also asked if Elvis could receive the top credit in the film, above John, if he were cast.

So, Glen Campbell was cast instead. In addition to playing the role of LaBeouf, he sang the title song of the film. This wasn’t the only film role that fell through for Elvis because of his greedy manager.

Elvis was asked to play the lead role in A Star is Born with Barbra Streisand. After negotiations fell through, Kris Kristofferson was cast instead. Can you imagine A Star is Born starring Barbra and Elvis instead? That would definitely have been interesting. Sadly, Elvis died just a year after the film came out.

John Wayne

Ronald Reagan shared how he never forgot John Wayne’s support for him ?

John Wayne was indisputably a Hollywood icon, but he was much more than that to Ronald Reagan. In fact, the 40th president of the United States never forgot how America’s most beloved big screen cowboy, nicknamed the Duke, gave him support when he needed it most.

John Wayne remains one of the most recognizable actors of all time, but he was also extraordinarily patriotic. “John Wayne has dedicated his entire life to America,” said Sen. Barry Goldwater during the 1979 hearings to award the Duke with the Congressional Medal of Honor. “And I am safe in saying that the American people have an affection for John Wayne such as they have had for very few people in the history of America.”

“John Wayne is not just an actor, and a good actor, he is the United States of America,” said actress Maureen O’Hara at the 1979 hearings. “I feel this gold medal should say just one thing: John Wayne American . . . I beg you to order the President to strike it.” O’Hara, known for her fiery red hair, starred with the Duke in the 1952 classic A Quiet Man. They were also great friends his entire life.

Although Ronald Reagan and John Wayne never made a movie together, they were well acquainted. Reagan and Wayne shared political beliefs, but sadly, the Duke died about eighteen months before Reagan won his bid for the White House. However, during a 1988 interview, Reagan recounted how his friend gave him and his wife Nancy support during their first big public battle.

“Are there any comments you’d like to give to close out?” the interviewer asked. “We’re doing this documentary for public television on John Wayne, called An American Hero, I might add. Are there any last, closing comments you’d like to make about the man?”

“There’s one thing that I think shows the character of that man as well as anything,” Reagan said. Then, he began to tell the story of the first Screen Actors Guild strike. At that time, he was president of SAG. So, Reagan was catching most of the blame from the media as well as others in Hollywood.

“In the mornings, for seven months, I was out of that house at meetings trying to get this thing settled,” Reagan explained. “And, Nancy would be there with the morning papers. Sometimes, they were worse than others.”

Ronald Reagan went on to explain how the Duke reached out to Nancy Reagan. “One day, Nancy told me that she’d had a phone call that morning after I left, and it was John Wayne.” The Duke was reading the papers as well. So, according to Reagan, he just called to say, “I thought you might want to hear a friendly voice about this time.” He then went on to tell Nancy how supportive he was of Ronald Reagan and what he was doing as head of SAG.

That wasn’t just a one-time thing, either. Ronald Reagan said that John Wayne called his house every morning just to cheer Nancy up. Looking back on that time, Reagan added, “That was very typical of John Wayne.” When Reagan left acting to start his career running for political office, Wayne publicly supported him through every campaign.