Unless John Ford was around to put him in his place, John Wayne usually got his own way, which he’d gotten pretty used to during a decades-long reign as one of Hollywood’s most famous faces.
Once he’d finally managed to crack the mainstream after an early career dogged by setbacks, struggles, and mortal enemies he swore he’d never work with again, ‘The Duke’ capitalised on his newfound stardom to transform Marion Morrison into a finely crafted persona that could guarantee ticket sales.
Huge stars often have egos to match, and while Wayne wasn’t necessarily a terror who’d go out of his way to make life difficult for people he didn’t like – apart from those damned commies, obviously – he did develop a recurring habit of standing his ground so firmly that violence simmered dangerously in the background.
When collaborating with the man he called ‘Pappy’ on The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Ford was up to his old tricks of needling Wayne to try and get a better performance out of him. Unfortunately, because he’d never take his frustrations out on his friend, father figure, and mentor, that left poor Woody Strode as the object of his ire, with the actor recalling how he “ended up taking it out on me,” and they almost came to blows.
Tensions eventually smoothed over between ‘The Duke’ and Montgomery Clift, but things were fractious between the Red River co-stars for a long time. Wayne branded him as an “arrogant little bastard,” and Clift responded in kind by saying the star’s macho posturing “repelled me because it seemed so forced and unnecessary,” but at least things didn’t descend into flailing fists.
Wayne threatened to punch Robert Duvall when shooting True Grit, he had a “violent altercation” with Richard Widmark on the set of The Alamo when he made the mistake of questioning the first-time director’s authority, and James Cann revealed that if ‘The Duke’ sensed any sign of weakness in anybody he was working with, he’d be on them like a particularly nuisance-causing bloodhound.
“If he could intimidate you, he’d stay on your forever until you just crumbled,” The Godfather alum recalled. “He’d try you.” When Wayne did it with Caan, he repeatedly told him the best way to shoot a simple sequence of turning around, taking a step, and looking at him on camera. “I was gonna hit him,” he admitted, but it didn’t come to that.
He wasn’t the easiest person to deal with, but history showed that one of the easiest ways to earn Wayne’s respect was to stand up to his overbearing tactics. Not everybody was brave enough, though, and a couple of them came perilously close to throwing hands with ‘The Duke’.