John Wayne
The Western Genre’s Real-Life Showdown: Clint Eastwood & John Wayne’s Feud Explained
John Wayne and Clint Eastwood are easily the two names best associated with the Western film genre, but the two of them never starred alongside one another in a picture and actually experienced something of a feud from the 1960s. Whereas Wayne had been a mainstay in the genre since his acclaimed breakthrough role in John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939), Eastwood – nearly 25 years Wayne’s junior – didn’t arrive until his unveiling as a leading man in Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy (1964 – 1966). The apparent succession was difficult for Wayne, who was also dismayed by the dark transition that the genre was making, coinciding with Eastwood’s rise to fame.
Though it would not be fair to blame Eastwood for the emergence of the gritty spaghetti Western subgenre which refuted the classic Western’s unending romanticism for its depicted era, his elevation to gunslinging mainstay was only possible because of Sergio Leone. Just as Wayne and Ford are forever synonymous, as are Eastwood and Leone. In fact, it was with such momentum that the Western pendulum swung in the 1960s that Wayne outright condemned the evolution, refusing to star with Eastwood in a later film despite that Eastwood was eager to work with him. Because the two subgenres were never reconciled, it meant inevitably that Wayne and Eastwood would never be either.
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John Wayne Hated Eastwood’s Take On The Western
John Wayne and director John Ford together epitomized the early 20th-century dedication to portrayals of the Old West: charming, starry-eyed, and probably a bit out of touch. Though many from the era were still alive by the time of the genre’s golden age, its most popular additions were stubbornly inaccurate and over-idyllic. When Clint Eastwood – and the spaghetti subgenre with which he was best associated – came along, the ideals of unambiguous morality, American Exceptionalism, and Manifest Destiny were torn apart. Wayne, perpetually patriotic and conservative, was opposed to such progressiveness and was particularly irritated by Eastwood’s rising star, which arguably came to surpass his own for a time in the ‘60s.
Clint Eastwood & John Wayne Represented Two Different Generations
The landscape of the Western had changed drastically by the end of the 1960s. Not only had the revisionist subgenre (whose durability would carry it all the way 21st century, best exemplified by the 2016 miniseries Godless) captured the hearts of audiences, but spaghetti Westerns especially had rewritten the laws of the genre entirely. A Fistful of Dollars (1964) – a shot-for-shot remake of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961) marked the dawn of a new age of cowboy pictures, spearheaded by Eastwood, Charles Bronson, and Franco Nero. The new generation preferred a grittier, bloodier, and more unapologetic depiction of the Old West, contradicting the great works of Wayne, who came from an old generation of Western romantics.
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John Wayne Refused To Star In An Eastwood Movie
B-movie director Larry Cohen envisioned Wayne and Eastwood would work together on a Western that he was writing, The Hostiles, which began coming together in the early 1970s. There’s not much known on the script – other than that it focused on a young gambler and an older man – but Wayne saw it as a continuation of the spaghetti Western trend which he believed was plaguing the genre. In particular, he had been unimpressed by Eastwood’s directorial debut High Plains Drifter (1973), a cynical, aromantic illustration of the Old West. The dispute was unsolved because Wayne’s view of the era – one of nobility and mystique – could not be reconciled with the new interpretations that Eastwood pioneered.
John Wayne
The Legend Lives On: John Wayne is Still Alive!
John Wayne
Why John Wayne Turned Down the Chance to Work With Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood and John Wayne are the two biggest legends in the history of Western movies, however, they never worked together. The duo did have the opportunity to work together once in the 1970s. Here’s why the film never came to fruition.
How John Wayne responded when Clint Eastwood tried to work with him
Firstly, a little background. According to the book John Wayne: The Life and Legend, it all starts with Larry Cohen. Though Cohen is not a widely known director like Steven Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino, he’s a huge name to fans of B movies. He directed famous B movies like The Stuff, Q: The Winged Serpent, It’s Alive, and God Told Me To. He also wrote a script called The Hostiles shortly after Eastwood released his classic High Plains Drifter.
The Hostiles was about a gambler who wins half of an estate of an older man. The gambler and the older man have to work together despite the fact that they don’t like each other. Eastwood optioned the screenplay with the intent of playing the gambler alongside Wayne as the older man.
Eastwood sent a copy of the script of The Hostiles to Wayne. Although Eastwood felt the script was imperfect, he saw its potential. However, Wayne was not interested. Eastwood pitched the film to Wayne a second time and Wayne responded with a letter. Wayne’s letter complained about High Plains Drifter. Wayne was offended by the film and its portrayal of the Old West as a cruel, violent place.
John Wayne
Ann-Margret Refused to Call John Wayne ‘Duke’ While Introducing 1 of His Movies
Ann-Margret once starred in one of John Wayne’s lesser-known movies. However, she refused to call him by his popular moniker Duke. Here’s a look at the film they made together — and why she declined to call him by a nickname.
The one time Ann-Margret and John Wayne made a movie together
Ann-Margret is probably most known for her work in musicals, specifically Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, and The Who’s Tommy. However, she also dabbled in the Western genre. She starred alongside Wayne in the mostly forgotten movie The Train Robbers.
Wayne was also known as The Duke or just Duke. According to USA Today, the nickname was derived from his childhood dog. It stuck with him for many years. It continues to be used today — even on the box covers of the DVDs for his movies.
John Wayne | Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
During an interview with Interview Magazine, Ann-Margret explained why she didn’t refer to the Rio Bravo star by this famous name. “When I came to this country, first of all, mother and I didn’t know English,” she said. “I would curtsey, then say, ‘Thank you,’ and then when I was leaving, curtsey. For example, we went to Dallas to introduce a film I did with John Wayne. And I never called him Duke. I just couldn’t. That’s the way I was raised. When you meet someone, you say either Mr. or Mrs. or Miss. You stand up.”
Ann-Margret revealed she treated other famous people in much the same way. For example, she worked with director George Sidney on Bye Bye Birdie and Viva Las Vegas. She always called him Mr. Sidney.
What Ann-Margret thought about John Wayne
Ann-Margret refused to use Wayne’s most famous moniker. However, she had a positive view of the actor. During an interview with Fox News, she was asked what she expected when she met Wayne. “Oh, I didn’t know what to expect,” she revealed. “But when he hugged me, it’s like the world was hugging me. He was so big and wide with that booming voice.
“We were shooting in Durango, Mexico and my parents came down to visit me,” she added. “He was so great with my parents. So absolutely welcoming and gentle with them. And anybody who was great to my parents was on a throne in my eyes.”
How the world reacted to ‘The Train Robbers’
Wayne starred in many classic Westerns, including The Searchers, Stagecoach, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. However, The Train Robbers is mostly forgotten. It didn’t gain a cult following like Once Upon a Time in the West or Dead Man. It wasn’t a critical success either, garnering a 33% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, Ann-Margret had some fond memories of making the film — even if she refused to call Wayne by his famous nickname.
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