Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Favorite John Wayne non western

Not a fan of Marion Morrison.

Well yeah, Marion was a womanizing drunk who may have even cheated at cards, not to mention questions regarding military service, but John Wayne was a heck of an actor and produced a few duds (Genghis Khan) but most of his movies were worth at least one viewing.

Any of those movies he made about fighting in WW2 while Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart were actually fighting in WW2 and the director, John Ford, who discovered John Wayne and made his career was on Midway filming the battle as it happened.

Yeah, but people like Ford, Stewart, Marvin, Douglas, etc. continued to do multiple pictures with him. None of us know the real story, but whatever it was, they still worked with him.

Got to work with who ever the boss hires, or who will do the best job.

I can't really blame John Wayne, in addition to his career just taking off, he was having an extramarital affair boning Marlene Dietrich at the time. I sure as heck wouldn't what to go off and dodge bullets if it meant leaving a fancy bedroom with a naked and willing Marlene Dietrich in it.

Its just that Marion Morison created the John Wayne persona that he presented in movies and in public life. The John Wayne persona of a brave hero, super patriot, family man, blah blah blah. In the end, it was utter B.S. That's fine, Hollywood is the land of make believe, its fun, but there was no John Wayne except in the imagination of Marion Morison and the people that want to buy into that fantasy with him.

All movies are fantasy. All actors are "acting". That's why they call it entertainment. I don't agree with the personal lives of most any actor, but many of them are good at their craft and are entertaining.

I liked him in "The Longest Day"

My favorite was Marcus Welby MD.

If they had strong feelings, they wouldn’t have worked with him so much.

I don’t watch movies for who the actors really are, but who they pretend to be.

Tom Cruise is a nut, but usually makes a pretty good movie. Same can be said for most of them. Some might even be fun to have a beer with if the topic is on something other than them. I hear Harrison Ford is a real ass unless you are a pilot and talk flying.


If you are watching John Wayne, you are watching a movie, not reality TV. Most people get that.

US been at war pretty much since day 1. Lots of opportunities to serve.

Always interesting when those who didn't serve then call out others for not serving.

Not pointed at anyone here - just in general.

Yeah, seems to be the case. Those that did serve in Hollywood didn’t seem to hold it against him, so why should we?

Agree with all you've said. Except some people do tend to take the John Wayne persona a bit too seriously and reality TV is really pretty much contrived fiction also.

I wish I knew my grandfathers opinion on him. He was a WWII and Korean vet, and worked for 20th Century Fox for 25 years. He worked on a lot of movies but I don’t know if he ever did a Wayne film. When I was a kid he was doing TV shows. I would go to the sets of MASH, Charlie’s Angels, and Love Boat. I was really too young to know the people I met were famous.

My grandfather was about as conservative as it gets, and he loved Alan Alda and spent a lot of years working with him. Kinda surprises me, but maybe Alda was less liberal in those days. My grandfather didn’t give a crap about their status and pretty much robbed them all blind. Somewhere I’ve got Charlton Heston’s desk lamp that Grandpa liberated.

Hatari, since you wouldn't let us choose The Quiet Man.

Jet Pilot

I liked Brannigan.

They Were Expendible
Trouble Along the Way

In Harms Way

The Alamo (obviously)
Hatari
The Longest Day (easily the best movie JW was in that wasn't a Western, but not as great of an individual performance as above)

Wayne and Stewart were friends and Stewart had nothing but good things to say about Wayne.
Pretty sure Wayne had a bad back from a football injury. That's why he walked that way.