Having starred in 1974’s McQ, John Wayne played another tough cop in 1975 action thriller, Brannigan, opposite Richard Attenborough. Set in London, the movie saw Duke’s Chicago detective Lieutenant Jim Brannigan organise the extradition of an American mobster, who is kidnapped and held to random. The 67-year-old star had been suffering from major health issues for years, … Read more
Back in 1947, John Ford and John Wayne kicked off the first of their Calvary Trilogy movies in Fort Apache, which would be followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande. The Western was filmed in the director’s favoured Monument Valley where the blazing heat, high winds and desert storms proved a challenging shoot for … Read more
James Caan was 27 when cast as knife-throwing gambler Mississippi in Howard Hawks’ first remake of Rio Bravo, El Dorado. Co-starring opposite John Wayne and Robert Mitchum in the 1966 Western was a massive deal and over the years he’s shared some shocking stories of the shenanigans and at times fiery altercations he had with Duke. Acting … Read more
Back in 1959, critics were already asking if John Wayne was too old to be playing 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 … Read more
Back in 1950, John Wayne starred in Rio Grande, the third of his Cavalry Trilogy (alongside Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon) with director John Ford. Cast and crew struggled terribly with the extremely hot Utah location, with sets and stages having to be built in such challenging conditions. To make matters worse the actors had to perform … Read more
In the 1952 Oscar-winning classic, considered by director John Ford to be his sexiest movie, John Wayne’s retired boxer Sean Thornton makes a pilgrimage to his home village in 1920s Ireland to claim his family estate. There he meets his match with Maureen O’Hara’s Mary Kate Danaher and her difficult brother Red, played by Victor … Read more
By the 1970s, John Wayne was coming towards the end of his career as a Hollywood star. In 1973, aged 65-years-old, he had been living with one lung for the best part of 10 years and was suffering from emphysema on the remaining one. That year he released two Westerns, which aren’t remembered as his … Read more
Bruce Dern struggled to find acting jobs after co-starring opposite John Wayne in The Cowboys. His troubles began even before filming on the 1972 Western began. Duke had just given an incredibly controversial Playboy interview sharing his views on civil rights and the treatment of Native Americans. In fact, Laura Dern remembers at the time some of her … Read more
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: … Read more
Bruce Dern struggled to find acting jobs after co-starring opposite John Wayne in The Cowboys, which celebrates its 52nd anniversary this week. His troubles began even before filming on the 1972 Western began. Duke had just given an incredibly controversial Playboy interview sharing his views on civil rights and the treatment of Native Americans. In … Read more
