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 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 … Read more
Back in 1959, critics asked if John Wayne was too old to play 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 had received negative reactions in reviews. Nevertheless, the Hollywood star found ways to play older cowboys over the next few … Read more
The cantankerous and eccentric John Ford had filmed several Westerns with John Wayne in colour from The Searchers to She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. But when it came to shooting 1962’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance with Duke and James Stewart on the Paramount lot, the director opted for black and white instead. There … Read more
Chisum, which is on ITV4 today, was John Wayne’s first movie of the 1970s, which would also be the Western legend’s final decade. The film was based on the Lincoln County War of 1878 with Duke starring as John Simpson Chisum, a wealthy cattle baron of the American West. The 62-year-old actor was playing a … Read more
After winning the Best Actor Oscar for 1969’s True Grit, John Wayne returned for a sequel with 1975’s Rooster Cogburn – which is on ITV4 today – alongside Katharine Hepburn. However, Duke had serious health issues going back to when he had a cancerous lung removed a decade prior. Earlier in 1974, Wayne headed to … Read more
Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus couldn’t have been more controversial upon its release in 1960. Title star Kirk Douglas took a massive risk in allowing blacklisted communist screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten, to pen the Oscar-winning Roman epic without having to use a friend’s name in place of his own. The scribe had previously taken a … Read more
Speaking previously with Variety, Semple said: “Frankly, we thought he was kind of unbelievable and as I recall, even kind of stupid. So Gregory thought the solution was to make Bond a woman, ‘Jane Bond’ if you will, and he even had a plan to cast Susan Hayward in the role.” The screenwriter also shared … Read more
John Wayne and John Ford collaborated on some of the Hollywood Golden Age’s best-loved Westerns from She Wore a Yellow Ribbon to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Undoubtedly, their most famous was 1956’s The Searchers, which had Duke play a Civil War veteran who spent years looking for his abducted niece. The Searchers was … Read more
It’s been 59 years since the release of In Harm’s Way, one of the last black and white World War II epics and John Wayne’s final film not in colour. Duke starred as Captain Rockwell Torrey opposite Kirk Douglas and Patricia Neal, in the blockbuster that featured Henry Fonda in a lengthy cameo. Directed by … Read more
True Grit was a godsend for John Wayne, who lobbied for the lead role of one-eyed US Marshal Rooster Cogburn after reading Charles Portis’ novel of the same name. Duke would go on to finally win the Best Actor Oscar for the part on April 7, 1970, but production was far from easy for him. … Read more
