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John Wayne was in very poor health and struggled with action scenes on Rio Lobo, the set where director Howard Hawks “punched” leading lady Jennifer O’Neill

John Wayne ‘completely exhausted’ on Rio Lobo set where director ‘punched’ leading ladyJohn Wayne was in very poor health and struggled with action scenes on Rio Lobo, the set where director Howard Hawks “punched” leading lady Jennifer O’Neill.

John Wayne had already remade 1959’s Rio Bravo, a film about a sheriff defending his office from outlaws, in 1966’s El Dorado. Yet Howard Hawks, who directed both of those films, wanted to make it a third time in 1970’s Rio Lobo.

When the filmmaker first approached Duke about the idea, the Hollywood star replied: “Do I get to play the drunk this time?”

Originally set to be shot in Durango, Mexico for $5 million, Rio Lobo – which is – was filmed for an extra $1 million at Old Tucson, Arizona, since 1971’s Lawman was already shooting south of the border.
Hawks had wanted EL Dorado star Robert Mitchum to reprise his drunken sheriff, but he’d retired. Nevertheless, he would visit the set since his son Christopher had a role that the director had to fight the studio to be included.
At this point in his career, the 62-year-old Wayne was in poor health having had a cancerous lung removed just a few years earlier. The star, who was 13 years older than Jack Elam’s Old Man character, struggled to get on and off his horse and was still recovering from having torn a ligament in his shoulder when shooting 1969’s The Undefeated.
Wayne’s fight scene with Victor French had to be filmed very carefully, with most of the shots that were used being with his double. Much of the scrap took place off-camera, with only sounds of the scuffling being heard.
His Rio Lobo co-star Jennifer O’Neill remembered how Duke struggled to carry her up the stairs. In an interview in the video below, she said: “He became just completely exhausted, he really struggled through it.” Yet despite his suffering, the 21-year-old remembered Wayne being “the nicest guy in the world”, who went out of his way to help young actors trying to improve their performances. However, she couldn’t say the same for director Hawks.
The filmmaker would blame Rio Lobo’s critical and commercial failure on anyone but himself, saying “I didn’t think it was any good”. The director, who injured himself and needed four stitches while filming the railway scene, felt that at 62-years-old Wayne was too old to carry the movie – with critics saying the same in their reviews. He went on to claim that O’Neill was inexperienced and difficult to work with too.
However, she said that when the filmmaker first spoke to her about her role as Shasta, he walked directly up to the actress and punched her in the gut, telling the 21-year-old that her voice was way too high. Hawks told her to go out into the woods and just sit there and scream at trees so that her vocal cords would be rougher for the part.
O’Neill said Hawks’ punch hurt her after the director really thumped her with intent. The actress also claimed he said he’d make her a star if she signed up for three movies, even though Rio Lobo would be his last. Since she declined, the filmmaker’s feelings toward her changed and he treated her poorly on set. She even alleged that Hawks said he would ruin her career.
During filming, the 21-year-old felt that the director’s mental faculties weren’t entirely in working order, which could explain some of his nasty behaviour. In fact, O’Neill shot one scene wearing a false moustache as a joke, which Hawks completely missed even after yelling cut.
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JEFF BRIDGES: I was kind of surrendering to the idea that I might die,” Bridges said of his illnesses


JEFF BRIDGES REFLECTS ON CANCER DIAGNOSIS: ‘CAME PRETTY CLOSE TO DYING’

Over three years after his lymphoma diagnosis, Jeff Bridges reflected on a harrowing set of circumstances that left him on death’s door.

“It’s amazing the way the mind can forget all that stuff,” the 74-year-old actor told Page Six. “I don’t think too much about the past.”

Bridges revealed that during one of his bouts of chemo, he ended up contracting COVID, leaving him hospitalized for five months with extreme pain and very little hope.
“I was pretty close to dying. The doctors kept telling me, ‘Jeff, you’ve got to fight. You’re not fighting,’” he told People in May 2022. “I was in surrender mode. I was ready to go. I was dancing with my mortality.”
“I had no defenses,” he added. “That’s what chemo does—it strips you of all your immune system. I had nothing to fight it. COVID made my cancer look like nothing.”
Thankfully, the chemo session before contracting COVID was his last one, and he was able to go into remission while beginning this new fight. This allowed his body to fully focus on recovering, and with help from a procedure that used blood from other patients who had already beaten the disease, Bridges was finally able to make progress.
Over three years later, the actor is now “feeling” great and fully back into the swing of things, returning to film his upcoming show THE OLD MAN. It was while he was filming this show originally that he discovered he had lymphoma.
“I was doing those fight scenes for the first episode of THE OLD MAN and didn’t know that I had a 9-by-12-inch tumor in my body,” he told AARP Magazine. “You’d think that would have hurt or something, when they were punching me and stuff. It didn’t.”
Jeff Bridges recently walked the red carpet for the premier of his FX show THE OLD MAN, and fans were overjoyed to see the actor back after a series of health struggles.
While filming the show, doctors diagnosed Bridges with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The actor underwent chemotherapy, and during treatment, contracted COVID-19.
“I was kind of surrendering to the idea that I might die,” Bridges said of his illnesses. “That this might be the end of the race kind of thing, because that’s what’s going to happen to all of us at some point and maybe this was my time to go through that and I didn’t know.”
However, Bridges began to recover. The TRUE GRIT actor said that he realized that he still wanted to fight to stay alive.

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Alba will star in the lead role of Parker, who is the Special Forces commando


Netflix, Jessica Alba Team Up For Her First Movie In Five Years

Jessica Alba is coming to Netflix five years after her last feature film.

The streamer announced in a post on X this week that Alba will star in the Netflix original film Trigger Warning, which will debut on June 21.

The official description of Trigger Warning is as follows: “When a skilled Special Forces commando returns home to take over her family’s bar, she soon finds herself at odds with a violent gang running rampant in her hometown.”
Alba will star in the lead role of Parker, who is the Special Forces commando. Netflix also announced that Mark Webber, Tone Bell, Jake Weary, Gabriel Basso and Anthony Michael Hall are also starring in the film.
Trigger Warning is directed by Mouly Surya.
Alba’s last film appearance came in the 2019 crime mystery Killers Anonymous, which also starred Tommy Flanagan, Gary Oldman and Suki Waterhouse.
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Yellowstone’s Kelly Reilly may have won herself a global fanbase as Beth Dutton but not everyone may realise this isn’t actually her real name


Yellowstone’s Kelly Reilly may have won herself a global fanbase as Beth Dutton but not everyone may realise this isn’t actually her real name.

Yellowstone star Kelly Reilly, unlike her counterpart Beth Dutton, shies away from the spotlight, keeping details about her personal life under wraps, including her name.

Beth Dutton is the violent, foul-mouthed, feisty only sister of the Dutton family in the Western Paramount Network drama who certainly is one to fear.

Nevertheless, she has shown her soft side with her desire to protect her dad John Dutton (played by Kevin Costner) at all costs, as well as express her love for Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser).
Fans have loved watching Beth’s development since the show launched in 2018, although Reilly did have a number of other starring roles before its existence.
Some of which included True Detective, Flight, Sherlock Holmes and various appearances in theatrical productions, one of which she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for.
Despite all of this fame and success, some fans may be surprised to learn that Kelly Reilly isn’t actually the actress’ real name.
Yellowstone actress Kelly Reilly is actually called Jessica Kelly Siobhan Reilly but chooses to go by one of her middle names, rather than her first.
It isn’t known why she was named Jessica but with Irish grandparents, her other middle name Siobhan is thought to have been passed down to her.
The star’s mum was a hospital receptionist, her dad Jack Reilly a police officer and her older brother Neil works as a professional golfer.
It’s quite common practice for celebrities to use their middle names for their stage name.
Other famous faces who have done this are Reese Witherspoon, Brad Pitt, Rihanna, Dakota Fanning and Ashton Kutcher.
But she is believed to be the only member of the Yellowstone cast to do this.
Unfortunately for fans of the award-winning drama, the number of Beth scenes to come is few and far between.
Yellowstone was cancelled last year with the network announcing that season five would be its last.PROC. BY MOVIES

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