John Wayne’s tenure as an actor in Hollywood is quite remarkable. The actor has created a legendary career with his movies where he kept his charisma intact blending it with the characters he played. Some of his works have been celebrated as masterpieces which rightfully include the 1969 Western drama True Grit.
Certainly, Wayne has always been a man of interest, at least for moviegoers following his works. Life of Wayne is quite similar to a character of a movie as the actor went ahead associating his name with history, sometimes being on Joseph Stalin’s hit list.
Also read: John Wayne Humiliated an Entire Superpower After Joseph Stalin Sent KGB Assassins To Kill Him
John Wayne Changed His Name For His Movie Career
John Wayne changed his name for his career in Hollywood. Not many people are familiar with his birth name, Marion Robert Morrison. The actor played football with his birth name and used the same when he stepped into the industry to be an actor. However, the Hollywood Golden Age actor’s name was not favored by the filmmakers. The makers stated that his legal name sounded too feminine. For that reason director Raoul Walsh suggested the name of a Revolutionary War General, Anthony Wayne.
However, then Fox Studios executive Winfield Sheehan disapproved of the use of the War General’s name, explaining that it sounded “too Italian.”
Later, the director came up with a new name, John Wayne. This time this name was voted in favor of the actor’s stage name and John Wayne stuck. His name has been one of the most recognized faces of Hollywood’s Western and war movies. Interestingly though, the actor was not present at the table of discussion when his name was being chosen, the True Grit actor never got to give any input to the decision of changing his own name.
The actor also went by his nickname ‘Duke’ derived from a childhood friendship with a dog from the Airedale Terrier breed who also had the same name. As per earlier reports, some people called the actor ‘Big Duke’ and gave the name ‘Little Duke’ to his dog.
Why John Wayne Never Liked Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood is certainly a Hollywood legend. The actor/director has a long legendary career spanning over 65 years and is still active. Eastwood has appeared in over 60 films in his astonishing career. Like Wayne, Eastwood, 93, has also appeared in several Western movies, in fact, they have been some of the notable masters of the Western genre. However, there was a huge generational divide between the actors. While Wayne advocated the old-school approach to Western movies, Eastwood preferred new ways of looking at the genre, potentially exploring it and adding a plausible structure.
Wayne and Eastwood’s feud was also popular as they despised each other. As per reports, director Larry Cohen attempted to bring both actors on board in the early 70s for his film, The Hostiles. The director envisioned the two Western giants in one film, Eastwood immediately agreed but Wayne declined the offer. Eastwood also tried to convince the actor for one more time but Wayne was not up for it at all. As far earlier reports go, Wayne wrote a letter to Eastwood criticizing his most recent movie, High Plains Drifter. Wayne’s criticism was solely based on the changes being introduced in the genre by Eastwood as he believed that Western movies should sustain a positive approach to American expansion. “It wasn’t really about the people who pioneered the West,” Wayne wrote in the letter, according to Eastwood.
The Western legends never shared a screen together in their career.
Source: Looper.
