r/johnwayne • u/Potential-Most-3581 • Aug 22 '26
John Wayne
The photo pretty much says it all
7
u/Various-Fennel4304 Aug 22 '26
My great aunt was Maureen O’hare’s stunt/body double and got to know JW through the movies they were in. She adored him and commented about how nice he was.
1
u/Potential-Most-3581 Aug 25 '26
IDK Marrion Michael Morrison ( he's not accountable for the name his parents gave him) was a human being with a very addictive personality.
He didn't quit smoking until they removed one of his lungs and he drank a lot. He couldn't seem to stay married.
His public persona was as much a character as the characters he played. I don't know exactly what his politics were and neither does anyone here.
John Wayne was a character that MMM played most of his life and for a good part of the 20th century John Wayne was the standard that being a man was measured against.
And when we stopped looking at him as an idea of what a man did America started to decline
1
u/TruthTeller777 Aug 24 '26
John Wayne = criticized in his time for being a draft dodger
1
u/Potential-Most-3581 Aug 25 '26
John Wayne = Been dead longer than you've been alive and still living rent-free in your brain
1
u/TruthTeller777 Aug 25 '26
My dad did 20 years in the Navy and did his duty in the South Pacific during WW II ~ his brother was KIA in the European theater. They weren't cowards like your hero was.
1
2
u/Fluid_Anteater959 Aug 25 '26
And they were how old when they enlisted/were drafted and with how many dependents? Let's start there.
1
1
u/DillarDog Aug 25 '26
Yeah. Crazy that a guy in his mid 30’s with several injuries didn’t go to war
1
u/MarsupialDangerous60 Aug 25 '26
When I look at this guy I can’t picture him playing a Special Forces Captain. It’s like Steven Segal playing a Navy SEAL in all his movies
1
u/Potential-Most-3581 Aug 25 '26
He actually played a Colonel who was SF qualified. IDK if they had Height and Weight standards then but he wouldn't have met them.
2
u/MarsupialDangerous60 Aug 25 '26
Probably wouldn’t pass a PT test in his age group either. Man looks he popped out the womb holding a cigar and whiskey tumbler.
1
3
3
u/Lucky-Comparison8788 Aug 23 '26
I met John Wayne when I was on a flight to LA with my parents. As soon as the seat belt sign was off he held court. He talked to everyone on the plane. Truly an excellent man.
7
u/Rebelreck57 Aug 22 '26
I agree. JW was against Communism in Hollywood, and the USA.
1
-3
u/Booeyrules Aug 22 '26
Don’t stop there. In published interviews with Playboy magazine John Wayne made explicit comments supporting white supremacy, alongside derogatory remarks about Black people, he proclaimed that Native Americans were greedy and needed to be genocided, and he viewed the LGBTQ+ community with revulsion and oaranoid dismissal. Great actor though.
6
u/Debbygc Aug 22 '26
So, you read some bits & pieces that people have pulled out? Didn't read the whole thing with context? That tracks...
-4
u/Booeyrules Aug 22 '26
You quit home school before you learned to read? The entire Playboy interview transcript is available online. Get a smart 4th grader to read it to you.
On Race: Wayne stated, “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility,” adding that he did not believe in giving leadership to "irresponsible people". He also remarked that he felt no guilt over historical slavery.
On Native Americans: He defended the displacement of Indigenous peoples, stating it was a matter of "survival" and claiming Native Americans were "selfishly trying to keep it for themselves".
On Cinema and LGBTQ+ People: He disparaged counterculture films like Easy Riderand Midnight Cowboy, using a homophobic slur to describe the latter.5
u/Debbygc Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
So, you don't understand context? About slavery- basically, it happened, he didn't own any slaves, so he doesn't feel guilty about it.
Why would you put irresponsible people in leadership positions just to say you have a minority? Why not just hire the best person regardless of their race?
About race- he's not going to go out of his way to find minorities to be in his films just because they're minorities. You know, like they do today.
Read what he said about native Americans again. He didn't put them in reservations, he imagines they handled it the best they knew at the time.
As far as the homophobic statement- he was against sex or violence in any movie. Fag was a common term. Does that make it right? Doesn't necessarily make it wrong for that era. No, he's not celebrating them, but he's never (as far as I've seen) said anything too bad about them. He just wasn't into it & didn't care to see overt sex from anyone, regardless of who it was.
4
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
There was no LGBTQ community then dude. All of Wayne's wives were hispanic, not a single actor or person who worked with him in his 50 yr career ever accused him of racism or bigotry. He hired Laurence Harvey to play one of the leads in The Alamo knowing about his sexuality, Wayne DIDNT CARE. He hired Rock Hudson to play the second lead in his western in The Undefeated knowing he was a homosexual, he literally said he didn't care what Hudson did in the privacy of his bedroom, and he got along great with him on the movie, the two played chess every day and Hudson later credited Wayne for pulling him out of a rut getting his career going again. There is more to a human being than one interview. You are doing to Wayne the exact thing you are accusing of him.
1
u/Booeyrules Aug 22 '26
Duke indeed married three Hispanic women - divorced two, was estranged from the third, and he cheated on all three. As for no LGBTQ community back then… LOL.
3
1
u/Walter_Burns_1940 Aug 23 '26
I remember reading that interview when it was published. John Wayne made some very shocking statements. At the same time, many people were making controversial statements and engaging in shocking behavior. I recall a young actress dancing on a tank in Hanoi, as well as soldiers being labeled as "baby killers." It was a difficult time to be an American. However, none of that has any bearing on the films Wayne starred in. Another actor I admire is Walter Brennan. Although he held some very right-wing views, it has never stopped me from appreciating his brilliance as an actor.
0
u/Booeyrules Aug 23 '26
Naturally you forgive Jane Fonda 100%. Yeah, we thought so… There is no more beloved character actor than Walter Brennan, but he loudly ranted that the Jews in Hollywood were stealing his money and when Martin Luther King was murdered, Brennan danced a victory jig on the set of THE GUNS OF WILL SONNETT - witnessed by dozens of actors and the crew. He also believe that Civil Rights was tied to foreign subversion. But a brilliant performer, yes. Glad you forgave Fonda.
1
1
u/Ghost_of_Goose Aug 22 '26
But was he wrong?
-4
Aug 22 '26
1
u/Ghost_of_Goose Aug 22 '26
A reply straight out of the dipshit newsletter you all must subscribe to.
You assumed I’m white. That figures.
1
0
-2
u/Gildor12 Aug 22 '26
No, not even a great actor
3
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 22 '26
That statement is so cliche these days. Nearly ten of his films are considered some of the greatest movies ever made.
1
2
2
u/QuietlyDom Aug 26 '26
I met him when I was younger too. I was about 8 years old. He was giving a speech my father was with the AFL/CIO I want to say it was with like the stage hands or the set crews that were all unionized. John Wayne was there to speak about how much he admired the crews and how much they worked with him on his movies.
When he came in I was the only kid in the whole room and he saw me and he pointed to me was asking somebody and I saw my father talking to him so he walked over and he said I heard you're a big fan of mine. I stood up and I put my hand out to shake his hand like my dad taught me to. He kind of chuckled but he put his hand out and shook it. He said you got a good grip of course I was a little kid so I had no grip at all lol.
He sat down and he asked me what my favorite movie of his was. I told him They were Expendable. I think he was shocked because I think he thought I would say something like true grit which had just come out a little while before or one of the other ones. But I like PT boats that's what he told me that the other actor Robert Montgomery actually was in command of PT boats in world war II. There are a lot of people around him but he kept talking to me like I was the only person in the room. In fact one person said hey Duke we've got a speech to give and things to do in the program.
He turned to the guy and he said I'll never forget this he said I'm talking to my good friend Bob here he said I'll be with you guys in a minute. We spoke a few more minutes and then he said I had to go make a speech but it was nice meeting me and he shook my hand again. He got up walked up to the podium apologize to the crowd cuz he was talking to his good friend Bob over there and he got carried away and everybody laughed.
He was a true class act
2
u/KhrymeNYC718 21d ago
Call me Old Fashioned but i agree with this!! I am only 44 and consider myself "Old Fashioned" and I am proud of it
1
1
u/Personal_School5573 Aug 22 '26
You have to view actors based on their on screen work, not their political views, as a screen actor he is an icon. Based on the political views of, for example, Robert De Niro, I would not watch one of his movies, but would then miss seeing one of the greatest actors of all time.
1
u/Iheartsasquatch Aug 22 '26
The standard of masculinity embodied by John Wayne, on screen was something no one could live up to.
But it’s a shame we don’t try.
As for the actor himself, I am long past looking at celebrities as role models so I just don’t care.
1
u/Athos2112 Aug 22 '26
John Wayne was a product of his time. His views were shared by many at the time. This will never set in but , unless someone was truly evil, they cannot be judged by today’s standards. For all the people who claim that they that they would do this or they wouldn’t have done that based through a modern lens , they have no idea what they are talking about.
1
1
u/Motorhead-99 Aug 25 '26
He was a draft dodging adulterer. He was an actor, ya now a pretend tough guy
1
1
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 25 '26
He was never drafted, can't dodge a draft that doesn't exist. And yes, he was an actor, movie star, he never pretended to be a a real soldier or cowboy, he was who he was, a movie star, that owned a yacht and spent most of his free time on the ocean. Nothing controversial there. This fake outrage and animosity toward John Wayne is such a tired put on.
1
u/liarandahorsethief Aug 25 '26
What makes him the standard of American masculinity?
1
u/StunningAd1651 Aug 25 '26
He WAS a standard back in the 50s-60s. Lot of cowboy and war movies he was in
1
u/liarandahorsethief Aug 25 '26
So people confused the characters with the man who played them?
1
1
1
u/Major_Honey_4461 Aug 25 '26
You mean Marion Morrison? The millionaire whose job was playing dress-up in makeup? That guy? The one who loved to play a soldier for the cameras but never served in our Armed Forces ? The narrow minded bigot and flag waving hypocrite ? That guy?
Feck him.
1
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 26 '26
Why the fake outrage over a dead movie star? Its so performative. Wayne was a movie star, who never pretended to be anything other than what he was. He was not a soldier or cowboy, and never claimed to be, it was job to play those roles. Do you not understand the difference between movies and real life?
1
1
1
u/Additional_Skin_3090 Aug 26 '26
Racist homophobes, like John wayne, are the reason for the supposed decline of western civ
1
u/NW_Forester Aug 26 '26
How insecure about your masculinity do you have to be to need a standard to measure your masculinity against?
1
u/Marioninleather Aug 22 '26
Hell yeah brother! Western Civ is on the decline. If you cant see American Meat wrapped in cowskin on the silver screen, is life worth living?
1
u/Successful_Pick3331 Aug 26 '26
John Wayne was a mean alcoholic who abused women his whole life. He's a PoS.
1
u/Fluid_Anteater959 Aug 26 '26
There's no evidence of either. The one accusation of a physical altercation from a woman came from Esperanza, better known as Chata, his second wife. Considering she was a raging alcoholic, and tried to shoot him while her and her mother were intoxicated and fighting over control of the gun, I wouldn't put much faith in what she said. If someone had a gun and was trying to shoot me, I'd probably be inclined to smack them myself, man or woman.
As to being an alcoholic, no. Just no. Heavy drinking was extremely common then among men. Executives drank at lunch. It was just expected. But when you're an alcoholic alcohol rules your life. Examples from Wayne's time would be people like Errol Flynn, who died at 50, at least in part due to his alcoholism. Richard Burton who died at 58, and often drank three bottles of vodka a day. And Bill Holden who died at 63 when he slipped on a rug, while drunk, and bashed his head on a coffee table. He was too drunk to realize how bad he was hurt. Spencer Tracy would be yet another. John Wayne, Clark Gable, many other leading men of the time drank heavily, to the point of it being detrimental to their health. Don't confuse that with alcoholism. There's a difference.
1
u/Successful_Pick3331 Aug 27 '26
Lol cope harder. There are dozens of stories of John Wayne being a drunken fool and an asshole on set. Same for beating multiple women. John Wayne is a piece of shit scumbag.
1
u/Fluid_Anteater959 Aug 27 '26
Source? No source, no facts. I can tell a story. It's called 'You're An Incompetent Moron'. Doesn't make it true, but I can tell the story. That's why it's called a story. Anybody can make it up. Find me a well researched, non-fiction source. Then we'll talk. Until then you're just spouting hearsay.
0
u/Top_Investigator6752 Aug 22 '26
John Wayne didn't fight in WW2 like all his peers did..... Ill take Jimmy Stewart or John Ford any day
3
u/Potential-Most-3581 Aug 22 '26
Neither did you
1
0
2
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 22 '26
So what? Who even cares? Wayne was a movie star not a soldier, I'll still watch his movies, I like Ford and Stewart too.
1
u/Fluid_Anteater959 Aug 25 '26
John Ford was already a commander in the USNR before Pearl Harbor. That's a fairly high rank, equivalent to a lieutenant colonel in the other service branches. He got that through his special skillset as a film maker (which is what he did during WWII), being an accomplished private sailor, and influential political connections.
Jimmy Stewart had no dependents, he didn't marry until 1948. Probably more importantly, he was already a skilled civilian pilot.
0
u/SchlitzInMyVeins Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 25 '26
Love the films but he was a union buster and McCarthyite.
Edit: oh so this sub is filled with a bunch of insane people, gotcha
0
0
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 25 '26
Turned out the McCarthy people were 100% correct, Hollywood has now gone full blown communist. And Dalton Trumbo, who they targeted was a communist, he supported Joe Stalin and made excuses for his purges that murdered millions. Not exactly a man who appreciates freedom or the individual.
1
u/SchlitzInMyVeins Aug 25 '26
Define communism
0
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 25 '26
Hollywood...they claim to be Democratic Socialists, but they're communists. They have no problem with their own wealth, it bothers them that others have it, and they have this mentality that voting for this class warfare will somehow never impact themselves.
-1
0
-3
u/SeanConneryIsMaclean Aug 22 '26
His real name is Marion Morrison btw!
What a trash human being. He hated minorities and lied about his identity to sound more Caucasian
3
u/Minimum-Journalist18 Aug 22 '26
Hated them so much he married a few and had children with them. Go figure
2
2
u/RedHuey Aug 22 '26
Meanwhile, you, the self-imagined GOOD person point out that his name is funny to you. Why? because it’s a Feminine name! So you find this amusing. Neither realizing that a lot of modern feminine names used to be far more common as boys names (LaVern is another one), and that you think it’s an insult, which is misogynistic. So you are both unknowledgeable and misogynistic.
Not sure if that makes you better, or worse, than Wayne.
-3
u/Gildor12 Aug 22 '26
Only liked subservient women too
1
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 25 '26
Where did you get that from? I'll wait for the non answer. When Barbara Walters anchored a nightly news program in the 70's, the male anchors gave her a very hard time. John Wayne sent her a telegram out of the blue telling her to not let the bastards get her down. She this lifted her spirits knowing he was behind her 100%. She mentioned it many times. You people turn Wayne into a cliche, knowing nothing about him.
1
0
Aug 22 '26
3
3
-4
-4
u/NearbyCriticism5193 Aug 22 '26
He and Trump have dodging service in common.
5
1
u/Fluid_Anteater959 Aug 25 '26
For the record, dodging would require actively seeking someone to falsify medical records to be labeled 4-F, fleeing the country to avoid the draft board, etc. Which of those did John Wayne do? Oh, yeah....None of them.
They weren't looking for thirty-five year old guys with four kids to go punch a Nazi in the face at Normandy. Would you really feel better if they had pulled him in so he could make training films or otherwise boost morale? How about if they assigned him to some mindless job like counting mess kits?
Guys that age that were getting pulled in, and I knew at least one, had special skills that were needed. In the case of the one I knew, he got sent to New Jersey to help with processing death benefit life insurance. And that was his pre and post war job, he was a sales manager for Mutual of New York. What were the special skills that John Wayne possessed? Reserve officer? No....Civilian pilot? No....College degree in something that they could utilize? No....Gee, I'm not really seeing anything here that says the war would be over so much quicker if we just grab this one thirty-five year old guy with four kids.
1
u/NearbyCriticism5193 Aug 25 '26
His contemporaries served in whatever capacity they could.
1
u/Fluid_Anteater959 Aug 25 '26
That's not what I asked though, is it? What I asked is if you'd feel better if he had some menial job swatting flies and counting ketchup bottles in an officers mess or some other meaningless job or doing some kind of morale boosting, film making role, which in a roundabout way is what he did since his draft classification was initially 3-A family deferment, but was later changed to 2-A, deferred in the national interest.
Does not being called before a draft board to serve because they were 2-C, which is involved in agriculture, make four of my great uncles draft dodgers? One was the same age as John Wayne, the rest were younger.
1
u/Debbygc Aug 22 '26
And Biden & Clinton and tons of others. What's your point?
-1
u/NearbyCriticism5193 Aug 23 '26
What the fuck is your point? Neither went around playing soldier like Marion and Trump.
2
u/Debbygc Aug 23 '26
Dude- you're totally brainwashed. John Wayne was an actor. Are you bashing every actor that played a soldier? What about all the doctors on Grey's Anatomy or House? When has Trump ever implied that he was a soldier? He doesn't even talk about his ROTC & military school background.
2
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 27 '26
Well Wayne was a movie star, playing a soldier was his job, so what is the problem?
-1
u/ponyboy56- Aug 22 '26
I love most of his movies. He was an asshole of a person though. So he was polite, so was Hitler.
1
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 22 '26
An asshole how dude? And comparing a movie star to Hitler is absurd. Absurd isn't even the right word, like what is even the point of that?
1
u/ponyboy56- Aug 22 '26
Wayne cheated on his wives, beat women, avoided serving in the war, a war were guys like Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart served and saw action. Said negative things about blacks, and also said native Americans weren’t using the land properly and deserved what we did to them and more. Asshole.
1
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 22 '26
What women did he beat? None. What is total bullshit dude. So what if he didn't serve in the war, we ALL know that dumbass! We don't care! He was a movie star not a solider. We know about the Playboy interview, you commies come on here and cite it on every single john wayne post, which is really bizzare. What is up with that anyway? What is the motivation? None of these things make him Hitler. What a juvenile comparison to a man who was a dictator and had million murdered. Right Mr. Self Righteous? Lets compare you to Hitler.
-1
u/RigidGristle Aug 22 '26
2
u/Minimum-Journalist18 Aug 22 '26
What branch of service did you serve?
1
u/RigidGristle Aug 22 '26
I had five deferments due to bone spurs but I hope have an aircraft carrier named after me
-1
-1
u/Hot-Ticket-5749 Aug 23 '26
Paul Newman was way more cool….
1
u/Fluid_Anteater959 Aug 26 '26
Newman was much younger and tried for the cool persona, as it fit in with the times as he became a star in the late 1950's and early 1960's. I don't think "cool" was much of a factor for John Wayne in his fifties and sixties in the 1950's and 60's.
As actors, they're different.
→ More replies (2)
-1
u/Traditional-Round451 Aug 23 '26
You know he was too scared to do his stunts.
2
u/Potential-Most-3581 Aug 24 '26
You know he almost got killed doing a couple of his own stunts right? Studios don't generally want their name actors doing their own stunts because should the name actor get smoked the studio loses money
-6
u/SeniorTailor1127 Aug 22 '26
You mean the guy who changed his name and wore makeup and played make-believe for a living? Ooh and check out that stylish silk scarf!
1
u/Minimum-Journalist18 Aug 22 '26
His dog was named Duke and a fireman started calling him big Duke. I forget which director, but he changed his name to John Wayne both names stuck.
Ever read a book or just propoganda pieces?
→ More replies (1)1
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 26 '26
You mean Wayne was movie star? Really? What a groundbreaking comment! What is even the point of a comment like that dude? I mean seriously?
→ More replies (1)
-2
-2
-2
u/ChrisPollock6 Aug 22 '26
Old, rascist jackass never meant shit to me. Average actor, awful human being.
1
u/Potential-Most-3581 Aug 22 '26
Did you ever meet him or do you just go buy what people wrote about him
3
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 22 '26
One of the greatest movie stars that ever lived and he was a good human being. Was he perfect, no, and neither are you mr. self righteous.
-3
u/Initial-Doughnut6438 Aug 22 '26
My grampa was a carpenter in LA back in the 60s. He installed 2 way mirrors in his pad in Brentwood. Said he came to the door in a dress.
-3
u/cahillc134 Aug 22 '26
Yes, the man that was too cowardly to service in WWII was the model of American Masculinity.
4
u/Minimum-Journalist18 Aug 22 '26
What branch did you serve? You don't mention it
→ More replies (5)2
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 22 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
Yeah yeah, you people repeat that nonsense over and over. Guess what? I'm still watching John Wayne movies, why don't you go worship Che Guevara and move to North Korea already. You people make don't make a dent with us.
1
-3
0
Aug 22 '26
4
3
2
u/Plane_Possibility572 Aug 22 '26
Yeah, you commies come on here with that garbage on every Wayne post, over and over. We're still going to watch his movies, it doesn't nothing to deter us. Go worship Che Guevara or move to North Korea already.
0
Aug 22 '26
4
u/Debbygc Aug 22 '26
First time he was too old, plus had a wife & kids. When they decided they didn't care about his age, they decided he was better served to keep morale up & do publicity stuff. So technically, but he did try to join several times. They just said no. I've read that it really bothered him that he couldn't join.
→ More replies (5)-3
u/brettthedestroyer420 Aug 22 '26
And a very racist asshole. He was a good actor but a terrible person.
→ More replies (14)
8
u/Walter_Burns_1940 Aug 22 '26
John Wayne was truly a gentleman. I was in New York when he passed away, and I heard the newspaper hawkers shouting, “John Wayne dies!” I bought as many newspapers as I could find. He was a great actor—no, perhaps “actor” doesn’t fully capture him. John Wayne was simply John Wayne. He was authentic and a force that transcended the screen. In his best films, he was the most genuine performer to ever grace a movie screen.
I’m not particularly interested in his politics, just as I am not in Henry Fonda's or his daughter’s opinions. I remember reading a quote from Orson Welles about John Wayne that highlighted how civil and polite Wayne was in their conversations. God bless John Wayne.