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John Wayne

John Wayne’s Attempt To Break Out Of Westerns Nearly Killed His Career

John Wayne tried to break his Western typecasting early on in his career – which almost destroyed it. A look at Wayne’s filmography reveals he made a movie in just about every genre, from historical dramas to romantic comedies. He will forever be tied to Westerns, however, and felt uniquely suited to the genre. Wayne starred in over 80 Westerns across his 50-year career, with even his final starring role – 1976’s The Shootist – being an Oater also. Early on in his career, he made dozens of low-budget, “Poverty Row” Westerns, including his “horror” Western Haunted Gold in 1932.
During the 1930s he seemed poised for stardom, but his big break was slow arriving. He attempted to split from both Westerns and Poverty Row by moving from b-movie studio Republic to Universal in the late 1930s. According to Shooting Star: A Biography of John Wayne (via /Film), Wayne was promised by Universal producer Trem Carr that if he made the leap, Universal would pull him out of Westerns and into a variety of more contemporary projects. When Carr kept his Western promise, Wayne’s six-movie run with Universal very nearly ended his career, as they were all cheapies too.
John Wayne’s Non-Western Movies Were Terrible

john wayne in idol of the crowds

With Universal, Wayne – whose last “role” was Star Wars – starred in everything from ice hockey drama Idol Of The Crowds – where the actor had never played prior to filming – or action movies like California Straight Ahead! Carr was attempting to make low-budget films with up-and-coming stars that would rival bigger budget fare from other studios. His scheme didn’t pay off for Wayne, with all of the films being shot quickly and cheaply. None of them were hits and they did little to elevate Wayne’s career. The now-lost Adventure’s End was the final movie of his Universal deal
How Stagecoach Saved John Wayne’s Career

Stagecoach

Instead of helping his career, his move away from the genre left Wayne in a bad spot. He claimed to have “crawled” back to Republic after his Universal days, as he couldn’t find work elsewhere. He embarked on another series of b-Westerns like Red River Range, before his friend John Ford (played by David Lynch in Fablemans) cast him as the Ringo Kid in 1939’s Stagecoach. The film is now regarded as one of the most important Westerns ever, and made the careers of both Wayne and Ford; Stagecoach was one of Wayne’s favorite films of his own, too.

After toiling away in b-projects for over a decade, Stagecoach finally gave Wayne the star-making role he was seeking. He made plenty of projects outside Westerns, including Sands of Iwo Jima or The Quiet Man, but most of his biggest hits came within the genre. The Searchers – another Ford collaboration – Rio Bravo (part of an unofficial trilogy) and True Grit are just some of his biggest successes, with the latter winning Wayne his sole Academy Award. His latter career can be traced back to the success of Stagecoach, however, but who knows how his filmography may have evolved if his Universal gamble had paid off.

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John Wayne

John Wayne Let ‘Liberty Valance’ Director John Ford Bully Him for 1 Reason

In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, John Wayne helps James Stewart stand up to the title outlaw. Wayne was the ultimate tough guy in movies but in real life, there was one man who always kept him in his place. It just so happened that Wayne made 14 movies with that man, director John Ford. Their last was the classic Liberty Valance, and Wayne was still taking Ford’s bullying then.

Paramount Home Entertainment released The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance on 4K UHD on May 17. The 4K edition of the film is so clear you would think the world was really black and white in 1962 and they just captured it on film. The home video release also includes a new interview with Leonard Maltin explaining Wayne’s relationship with Ford, and some archival material with his co-star James Stewart backing it up.

John Wayne was in good company taking John Ford’s abuse in ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ or any film

Maltin explained that Wayne was hardly singled out by Ford. It was Ford’s reputation. 

“John Ford is the only filmmaker to have four Academy Awards for Best Director so he was held in the highest esteem by critics, pundits, and the audience too because he made films for the people,” Maltin said. “John Wayne’s eldest son Michael once told me he thought John Ford was a great director between action and cut. Aside from that, he was an absolutely quixotic, cantankerous, sometimes outright mean-spirited guy. He teased and goaded everyone on the set and he was especially nasty to his protege, John Wayne.”

According to Maltin, Wayne just took it because he credited his whole career to Ford. Wayne became the king of westerns after that.

“But Wayne was eternally grateful to Ford for giving him his first great opportunity in this film Stagecoach so he never talked back,” Maltin said

Bullying might have gotten the best performance out of John Wayne in ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’

Ford’s grandson, Dan Ford, is also in the bonus features. He explained how his grandfather’s bullying behind the scenes may have helped Wayne’s performance in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

“Ford would use anything he could to get what he wanted out of an actor,” Dan said. “If he wanted to put him down, which is basically where John Wayne is in this movie the whole way through, he’s put down. He’s the guy who doesn’t get the girl, he’s the guy that plays the drunk, he’s the guy who only has one function. That’s to kill Liberty Valance. He’s an action hero but he’s not really the lead. Jimmy Stewart’s the hero. Ford would probably work on Wayne to keep him in that frame of mind.”

The late director and film historian Peter Bogdanovich is also included on the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 4K UHD. Bogdanovich reminds fans that Ford would have wanted to take Wayne down a peg.

“People wonder why he was so tough on John Wayne,” Bogdanovich said. “Well, John Wayne was a huge star so it was Ford’s way of showing his control by attacking him and by minimizing him.”

Jimmy Stewart finally got it on ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’

Stewart tells this story of working on The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Wayne marveled that Stewart had made it through most of the shoot without getting on Ford’s bad side. 

“Remember in Liberty Valance, Duke came up to me and said, ‘Jesus, here we are, we’ve got three more days on the picture and you’ve never been in the barrel. Everybody else gets it and everything and you come out of it clear. What are you doing? Are you bucking for something?’” Stewart said. “I said, ‘I don’t know.’”

Stewart’s tenure as golden boy on the set of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was about to come to an end anyway. 

Well, that very day, he came up and Woody Strode, at the end with the funeral, Woody Strode had on a blue overalls. He came up to me and said, ‘What do you think of Woody’s outfit?” For some reason, I’ll never know why. I said, ‘It looks a little like Uncle Remus, doesn’t it?’ That’s all. He said, ‘Oh?’ He called everybody together, called the whole company together, and said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, what do you think of Woody’s outfit?’ They all said fine, fine. He said, ‘Well, there’s an actor in the company that doesn’t like it. I wanted to point him out to you. Now that you know this actor doesn’t approve of Woody’s costume, now we can all go back to work, thank you very much.’ This lasted until the end of the picture with me. 

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John Wayne

A John Wayne Movie Classic Actually Reduced His Role From the Story It’s Based On

The John Wayne movie classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance has many memorable moments. The most noteworthy is the whole theme of “print the legend.” Wayne makes an impression as Shinbone cowboy Tom Doniphon, who played a pivotal role in the life of Senator Ransom (James Stewart). It turns out the adaptation of Dorothy M. Johnson’s short story gave Doniphon even less to do in the movie, but Wayne still made those moments count.

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.]

Paramount Home Entertainment is releasing The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance on 4K UHD on May 19. The 4K edition makes the black and white movie so sharp that the shadows in the title shooting scene are extra dark and moody. In the bonus features, historian Scott Eyman explains how the adaptation reduced Wayne’s role. 

‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ story became a John Wayne’s movie

Adapting a short story into a two hour film often requires embellishing the source material. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance actually streamlined it. Scott Eyman wrote a biography of director John Ford, so he knew all about the differences between the story and the film. 

“The point of the story is basically the same point as the film,” Eyman said. “The execution is quite different. Ford and his writers altered one crucial aspect. In the story, the John Wayne character is kind of the fairy godfather to the Jimmy Stewart character, keeps nudging him along on the road from frontier lawyer to United States senator, constantly showing him the way and helping him out.”

‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ isn’t completely a John Wayne movie

The western begins with Ransom attending the funeral of Doniphon. When reporters ask how he knew Doniphon, the story flashes back to Ransom’s arrival in Shinbone. Outlaw Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) roughed him up and terrorized the town. 

When Doniphon was around, that was enough to keep Valance in line. Doniphon tried to convince Ransom to pick up a gun to defend himself, but Ransom wanted to use the law to address Valance. Finally, Valance confronted Ransom in the street. Ransom pulled the trigger of his gun and shot Valance dead, or so it seemed.

At the end of the film, Doniphon reveals he was standing in the shadows and fired his gun at the same time. Now, it makes much more sense that experienced gunslinger Doniphon hit his target than amateur shooter Ransom. But, Doniphon let Ransom have the credit, and the heroic act set him on a course for political success. When the reporters heard the truth, they killed the story, stating, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is both a Wayne movie and a Stewart movie. Both have equal parts, though the story centers around Stewart’s character with Wayne’s coming in for backup.

‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ made its point 

The film adaptation made its point without making Doniphon directly involved in every aspect of Ransom’s life. It proved to be a signature role for Wayne, too.

“That doesn’t happen in the film,” Eyman said. “Basically, the John Wayne character in the film commits two acts that alter Ransom Stoddard’s life and that’s all and that’s enough. So it made the Wayne character a little less proactive in the film as opposed to the story.”

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John Wayne

Who Is John Wayne? Meet The Iconic Cowboy of Western Films

John Wayne’s actual name is Marion Robert Morrison. He’s nicknamed Duke in the entertainment industry and was an American actor and filmmaker. John was one of those late actors whose career started in the 1920s silent era and pioneered the Golden Age of Hollywood. Eventually, he was the forerunner of the American New Wave of film and television. The cowboy icon has appeared in an impressive total of 179 films and television productions. This has established him among the top box office draws in three decades.

Early Life

Born on May 26, 1907, at Winterset, Iowa, John Wayne’s birth was featured in Winterset Madisonian on page 4 of May 30, 1907 edition, where it was reported he weighed 13 lbs. (around 6 kg). The actor claimed that his middle name, Robert, was changed to Michael because his parents decided to name his brother Robert, but no legal documents supported his claim.

His grandfather was an American Civil War veteran named Marion Mitchell Morrison, while his father is Clyde Leonard Morrison, a pharmacist. Meanwhile, his mother’s name was Mary “Molly” Alberta Brown, who had Scottish, English, and Irish ancestry. He was raised in Presbyterian.

John Wayne initially wanted to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, but he was not accepted. Instead, he went to the University of Southern California (USC) and majored in pre-law. John went to play on the USC football team but lost his athletic scholarship when he got injured in a bodysurfing accident. Because of this, he had no funds for schooling, thus had to leave the university.

Acting Career

The unfortunate incident of his university life was the push John Wayne needed to start his career in entertainment. He was first hired as a prop boy and extra as a recommendation by silent western film star Tom Mix to his director John Ford. Later on, he moved to support roles in a movie when he established a longtime friendship with Ford. 

Moreover, the first time he was given on-screen credit as “Duke Morrison” happened in the 1929 film Words and Music under Fox Film Corporation. His first big break was in The Big Trail in 1930 when the director Raoul Walsh saw him moving furniture in the studio as a prop boy and cast him as a starring role. He did well on that project, and so, the Fox Studios chief Winfield Sheehan discussed his screen name. The actor suggested “Anthony Wayne,” but Sheehan rejected the idea because it sounded “too Italian.” The second suggestion was “John Wayne,” which was approved, and then his pay was raised to $105 a week.

Thanks to the Stagecoach film in 1939, John Wayne became a household name. The film, directed by John Ford, shot John in mainstream stardom. Even with the breaking out of World War II, John’s career soared, and he won several awards in the 1970 Academy Awards as Best Actor. 1953, 1966, and 1970 Golden Globe Awards gave him Henrietta Award, Cecil B. DeMille Award, and Best Actor for Motion Picture Drama, among other notable accolades.

Marriages And Personal Life

The actor was married three times and divorced twice. His first wife was Josephine Alicia Saenz, his second wife was Esperanza Baur, and his third wife, Pilar Pallete. He had seven children, four from Josephine and three from Pilar. According to reports, his first child Michael Wayne didn’t take his divorcing and new wives lightly because their relationship became harsh at some point. Several of John Wayne’s children worked in film and television. His children also contributed a lot to the productions.

Moreover, the biographer of John Wayne, Michael Munn, chronicled the actor’s drinking habits. This has affected his performance, and some shooting schedules were aligned to it. Sam O’Steen’s Cut to the Chase memoir wrote how the studio directors knew to shoot John’s scene before noon comes as he’s practically a mean drunk by the afternoon. Besides drinking problems, he had been a chain smoker of cigarettes since he’s a young adult and was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1964. Furthermore, he underwent successful surgery to remove his entire left lung and four ribs. Five years later, he was declared cancer-free.

Death

John Wayne was declared cancer-free, but then he still died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1979. His remains were buried in the Pacific View Memorial Park found in Newport Beach. According to Patrick Wayne and his priest grandson Matthew Munoz, Wayne converted to Roman Catholicism before he died.

Strangely, many cast and crew from the film The Conqueror in 1956 developed different forms of cancer at various times, including the stars like John Wayne, Agnes Moorehead, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendariz, and director Dick Powell. It was shot in southwest Utah, to the east and downwind of recent US government nuclear weapons tests in southeastern Nevada.

John Wayne is an American actor who may have the ups and downs in life, but he’s still a Cowboy icon of Western films, no doubt.

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