John Wayne, the actor who had become the face of the rockiest masculinity, died on June 11, 1979, at the age of 72, giving yet another proof of toughness: after having filmed The Conqueror of Mongolia in a radioactive zone, Wayne had been battling lung cancer for decades. In this way, the world said goodbye to an actor who had changed his original name (Marion Robert Morrison) because there was little manhood left in the movie credits, and whose dinosaur talent made him shine in countless Western classics.
Since his debut in 1926, when no one gave a penny for him and he seemed doomed to act in B-movies for leftovers, Wayne had a much more versatile career than meets the eye. Never shying away from the tough guy role, he starred in numerous war films (playing an aviator was his specialty), high-seas, adventure movies, and even comedies. Since film buffs live not only from Stagecoach, we have gathered 5 essential titles from his filmography that are far from the cliche.
The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952)
Leaving aside Centaurs of the Desert, Stagecoach, Fort Apache, and a few more that we forget, Wayne's CLASSIC (with capital letters) and his head director does not take place in Monument Valley, but in Ireland. Part nostalgic drama, part slapstick with megalithic smacks, the love story between the ex-boxer and the irreducible Maureen O'Hara continues to make moviegoers around the world want to move to Innisfree.
Pirates of the Caribbean Sea (Cecil B. DeMille, 1952)
Don't look for Jack Sparrow here: this collaboration between John Wayne and the great Hollywood megalomaniac takes place during the 19th century, a long way from the golden age of piracy, which does not prevent it from being a formidable adventure film in that our man faces Ray Milland and a giant octopus. Later, DeMille and Wayne worked together again in The Fabulous World of the Circus (1954), but that was not the same by any means.
First Victory (Otto Preminger, 1965)
What do you get when you put together an icon of the extreme right in Hollywood, like John Wayne, with an icon of the opposite, like Kirk Douglas? Well, a war drama of a father and my very gentleman. Despite what it might seem, Wayne insisted that Douglas work with him on the tape. And when lung cancer endangered his life, he proposed the Spartacus actor as his replacement in The Four Sons of Katie Elder. Despite the odds, Wayne held out until 1979...
The Irishman's Tavern (John Ford, 1963)
Neither John Ford nor John Wayne was exactly in their prime when they shot this comedy, set in the South Seas. In fact, the director was so ill that Wayne became the uncredited co-writer on the film, handing his old friend over with the staging and editing. Upon the premiere, Wayne found his age difference with co-star Elizabeth Allen embarrassing, requiring since then that all of his partners be mature actresses.
