As one of Hollywood’s most outspoken personalities, it was inevitable that John Wayne would make a few enemies throughout his career, especially when he was among the industry’s biggest stars during a time of intense political turmoil.
Everybody knows ‘The Duke’ didn’t care for those damned commies one bit, and from his perspective, anyone who was even tangentially associated with the movement didn’t deserve to work in the business he was so protective of. He certainly wasn’t alone in that respect, but that didn’t necessarily mean he despised anyone accused of being even remotely pro-communist.
Take Kirk Douglas, for example. He and Wayne were two of the most celebrated superstars of their shared era, and the former was instrumental in ending the blacklist when he fought for Dalton Trumbo to be credited under his real name for Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus. On paper, ‘The Duke’ should have hated him.
And yet, he didn’t. They weren’t exactly best friends, but they worked together on several movies and developed a mutual respect, with Douglas one of the few who had no issues standing up to Wayne. However, Frank Sinatra wasn’t quite as fortunate, with his perceived leanings and political ties making him a long-term enemy of the iconic actor.
Ironically, the feud exploded into life over a film that ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’ didn’t even make, although he did purchase the rights. Sinatra hired Albert Maltz, exiled from Hollywood during the communist witch hunt, to write a feature-length adaptation of William Bradford Huie’s novel, The Execution of Private Slovik.
“I never thought Sinatra was a commie,” Wayne clarified. “But he hired a commie to write a screenplay the communists would have just loved.” That was enough to make him an enemy, even when the project fell to pieces. As a close ally and supporter of John F Kennedy, the campaigning president’s team insisted that Sinatra drop The Execution of Private Slovik to avoid causing moral and political outrage.
That’s exactly what he did, with the actor and singer eventually selling the rights in 1969 at a profit, and it wouldn’t be until 1974 that the picture arrived. When it did, it aired exclusively on television with ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’ nowhere to be found. Still, Wayne’s initial outburst and public takedown of Sinatra’s involvement weren’t forgotten, and it almost saw the two heavyweights come to blows.
“The next time I saw Frank was at a charity benefit, and he’d been drinking heavily,” he recalled. “He walked up to me, and he’s not exactly tall enough to see eye to eye with me, and he said, ‘You seem to disagree with me’. I told him, ‘Just take it easy, Frank. We can talk about this later’. And he said, ‘I want to talk about it right now’. It’s a good thing some of his friends pulled away because I’d sure hate to have flattened him.”
Wayne and Sinatra were at each other’s throats for years, although they did reconcile before ‘The Duke’ passed away, but their feud only started because of a movie that ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’ didn’t even end up making.