Category: John Wayne
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Fueled by Opposition: The Legendary Creation of ‘Rio Bravo’ Driven by Discontent with ‘High Noon’
A certified classic Western was born totally out of spite. “Rio Bravo” was spearheaded by two of the biggest names in Old Hollywood — the on-screen cowboy John Wayne and the multi-faceted director Howard Hawks. The 1959 film was a direct response to a Western released seven years prior, “High Noon.” Hawks took issue with…
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Behind the Scenes of ‘Rio Bravo’: Angie Dickinson Unveils the Art of Acting Alongside John Wayne
“Fair to middling” is how Angie Dickinson is feeling this morning as she talks about “Rio Bravo,” the 1959 film that made her a star. “Somebody who says they’re great at 90, you can figure out that they lie a lot.” It’s a line that could have come straight from Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett’s…
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John Wayne’S Spanking Of Co-Star ‘So Authentic She Had Bruises For A Week’
John Wayne famously spanked his co-star in a satirical Western that left her actually bruised for a week. Back in 1963, John Wayne starred in a Western comedy loosely based on William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Duke played an ageing rancher called George Washington McLintock, a wealthy self-made man facing a number of…
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The Dark Secrets of John Wayne’s Rio Grande – Tragedy Strikes on Set in 1950’s Scorching Utah
John Wayne filmed a classic Western with Maureen O’Hara in which cast members were killed and their bodies never recovered. 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…
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Unveiling 1968’s Legendary Onset Prank: How Rock Hudson Earned John Wayne’s Respect on The Undefeated
Back in 1968, having shot his Oscar-winning performance as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, John Wayne made another Western with Rock Hudson. The Undefeated followed the French Imperial intervention in Mexico during the 1860s and was loosely based on a Confederate General’s real escape south of the US border after the American Civil War. Originally…
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From Cancer Surgery to The Shootist: John Wayne’s Relentless Struggle with Health, a Cinematic Odyssey
John Wayne suffered from ill health for the last 15 years of his life, being hospitalised for two weeks with influenza on his last movie The Shootist. At one point, doctors were even unsure if they would allow Duke to complete his final picture, in which he played an old gunslinger with cancer opposite James…
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Uncover John Wayne’s Surprising Choice for His ‘Worst’ Film – Dive into the Trailer for Jet Pilot
Known as one of the very best actors in American cinema, creating such classic movies as The Searchers, True Grit and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the legacy of John Wayne marks him as one of the most definitive Hollywood stars of the era. Sharing his limelight only with the likes of James Stewart,…
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Fading Legend: The Untold Story of John Wayne’s Final Movie and Its Close Call
John Wayne suffered from ill health for the last 15 years of his life, being hospitalised for two weeks with influenza on his last movie The Shootist. At one point, doctors were even unsure if they would allow Duke to complete his final picture, in which he played an old gunslinger with cancer opposite James…
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From B-Movies to the Open Sea: John Wayne’s Journey from Poverty Row to ‘The Long Voyage Home’
John Wayne had finally broken free of Poverty Row B-flicks as the lead of John Ford’s classic Western “Stagecoach” when he jockeyed for the lead in the filmmakers 1940 seafaring drama “The Long Voyage Home.” Like “Stagecoach,” this World War II-set yarn about a tramp steamer wending its way from the West Indies to Baltimore…
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Duke’s Right-Hand Men: Ranking John Wayne’s Top 10 Male Co-Stars in Film History
This article lists my favourite top 10 actors who have appeared opposite John Wayne, in ascending order. All of these actors have, at one time or another, appeared second in the cast list after John Wayne. Dan Dailey | The Wings of Eagles (1957) In The Wings of Eagles, Dan Dailey, as ‘Jughead’ Carson, plays…