Actor John Wayne was an expert when it came to understanding the hard work that went into movies. He starred in everything from leading roles in major studio feature films to non-speaking parts in B-movies that he despised making. However, some of the most physically demanding parts turned out to be the most rewarding when the pictures fluttered on the silver screen. Here are five of the most physically demanding movies that Wayne starred in.
‘Stagecoach’ (1939) L-r: Claire Trevor as Dallas and John Wayne as Ringo Kid | Getty Images
Stagecoach boosted Wayne to stardom overnight in 1939, creating a whole new world for the actor. He played Ringo Kid in a story that follows a group of unlikely stagecoach passengers whose journey becomes increasingly difficult with the threat of a dangerous man named Geronimo on the loose.
Wayne came from the world of the props department and had a great appreciation for the world of stunts.
‘Stagecoach’ (1939) L-r: Claire Trevor as Dallas and John Wayne as Ringo Kid | Getty Images
Stagecoach boosted Wayne to stardom overnight in 1939, creating a whole new world for the actor. He played Ringo Kid in a story that follows a group of unlikely stagecoach passengers whose journey becomes increasingly difficult with the threat of a dangerous man named Geronimo on the loose.
Wayne came from the world of the props department and had a great appreciation for the world of stunts.
- 4/4/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Marion Robert Morrison, more commonly known as John Wayne or ‘The Duke,’ left a lasting imprint on American cinema. His career spanned five decades, during which time he starred in 179 films and delivered countless illustrious performances.
He rose to fame with his starring role as Ringo Kid in the 1939 classic ‘Stagecoach,’ and would go on to play characters like Ethan Edwards in Ford’s 1956 ‘The Searchers’ – cementing his place in American film history.
In this blog post, we’ll be taking a look at some of the best John Wayne movies, which capture the actor’s undeniable talent and unforgotten legacy. From westerns like ‘True Grit’ (1969) to war films like ‘The Longest Day’ (1962), Wayne left an indelible mark on our collective culture.
The Highest-Rated John Wayne Films on IMDb ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ (1962) – 8.1/10 ‘Rio Bravo’ (1959) – 8/10 ‘The Searchers’ (1956) – 7.9/10 ‘Stagecoach’ (1939) – 7.8/10 ‘Red River’ (1948) – 7.8/10 ‘The Longest Day’ (1962) – 7.7/10 ‘The Quiet Man’ (1952) – 7.7/10 ‘The Shootist...
He rose to fame with his starring role as Ringo Kid in the 1939 classic ‘Stagecoach,’ and would go on to play characters like Ethan Edwards in Ford’s 1956 ‘The Searchers’ – cementing his place in American film history.
In this blog post, we’ll be taking a look at some of the best John Wayne movies, which capture the actor’s undeniable talent and unforgotten legacy. From westerns like ‘True Grit’ (1969) to war films like ‘The Longest Day’ (1962), Wayne left an indelible mark on our collective culture.
The Highest-Rated John Wayne Films on IMDb ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ (1962) – 8.1/10 ‘Rio Bravo’ (1959) – 8/10 ‘The Searchers’ (1956) – 7.9/10 ‘Stagecoach’ (1939) – 7.8/10 ‘Red River’ (1948) – 7.8/10 ‘The Longest Day’ (1962) – 7.7/10 ‘The Quiet Man’ (1952) – 7.7/10 ‘The Shootist...
- 3/26/2023
- by Buddy TV
- buddytv.com
The 1960s were rough on John Wayne. Rebellious Baby Boomers had by and large rejected the conservative star of numerous Westerns and war films, which threw a dent into his reputation as the most bankable actor in Hollywood. He'd survived cancer, but not without losing a lung. He'd also barely survived "The Green Berets," a critically reviled effort at rallying the American populace behind the doomed war effort in Vietnam. He looked every one of his 62 years and then some. If Wayne wanted to extend his career into the 1970s, he had to start playing his age.
This opportunity arrived at the moment he needed it most in the form of Rooster Cogburn, the drunk and surly U.S. Marshal hired by a young girl to hunt down the outlaws who killed her father. As a Western, Charles Portis' "True Grit" was made to order for Wayne. It wasn't revisionist...
This opportunity arrived at the moment he needed it most in the form of Rooster Cogburn, the drunk and surly U.S. Marshal hired by a young girl to hunt down the outlaws who killed her father. As a Western, Charles Portis' "True Grit" was made to order for Wayne. It wasn't revisionist...
- 3/26/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
The end was in sight for John Wayne when he took the part of aging gunfighter J.B. Books in Don Siegel's 1976 Western "The Shootist." He was only 69, but the quintessential American movie star hadn't been nice to his body. Decades of drinking and smoking had taken their toll. He'd lost a lung and a couple of ribs to cancer in the 1960s, but had evidently been in remission since. Still, his energy was flagging. He'd struggled throughout the filming of "Rooster Coburn," and was being asked to literally hop back on a horse in the elevated altitude of Carson City, Nevada. He had not been diagnosed with a return of the cancer that would kill him three years later, but The Duke looked a deathly shadow of his former, swaggering self.
Culturally, there was a sense that people should celebrate Wayne while he was still around (for those willing...
Culturally, there was a sense that people should celebrate Wayne while he was still around (for those willing...
- 3/18/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
John Wayne starred in dozens of Westerns during his lengthy career, but he very rarely played the bad guy. One of his darkest roles came in "The Searchers," his 14th and greatest collaboration with John Ford, the director who helped the Hollywood icon make his name in "Stagecoach." It was a film that inverted Wayne's heroic screen persona by casting him as Ethan Edwards, a bitterly racist former soldier who spends many years on an obsessive quest to track down his niece after she is abducted by Comanches.
For a director-star combo that had often portrayed Native Americans as a faceless marauding horde in many of their earlier pictures, "The Searchers" is a soulful and sometimes awkward attempt to reckon with that past and, in turn, America's legacy of genocide and Manifest Destiny. While its comedic moments seem to belong to another film and its use of Redface is cringe-inducing,...
For a director-star combo that had often portrayed Native Americans as a faceless marauding horde in many of their earlier pictures, "The Searchers" is a soulful and sometimes awkward attempt to reckon with that past and, in turn, America's legacy of genocide and Manifest Destiny. While its comedic moments seem to belong to another film and its use of Redface is cringe-inducing,...
- 1/1/2023
- by Lee Adams
- Slash Film
For over a decade of John Wayne's early career, the actor was considered too much of a lightweight to register as the two-fisted lead in a Western or war flick. At 6' 4", you'd think he'd be an imposing presence, but put him in front of a camera and that immaculate face would undo him every time. In his 20s, Wayne was a beautiful man. Not handsome. Beautiful. As /Film's own Jacob Hall recently noted on Twitter, Wayne was such a knockout, the ultra-sophisticated Marlene Dietrich carried on a torrid affair with him before he was a star. Look at a random picture of The Duke from the early 1930s, and he'll melt your retinas.
While being too much of a hunk for Marlene Dietrich to pass up is not exactly a problem, if you're trying to launch a career as a rugged man of the West, having a sun-kissed...
While being too much of a hunk for Marlene Dietrich to pass up is not exactly a problem, if you're trying to launch a career as a rugged man of the West, having a sun-kissed...
- 8/31/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
If you ask who the most important Western directors in history are, there are three obvious names: John Ford, Sergio Leone, and Clint Eastwood. The Western was the dominant genre in Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1960s, and Ford was the preeminent director of the genre at that time. Leone spearheaded the Spaghetti Western movement; color films set in the west, but produced in Europe, and which were more violent/less glamorous than their Hollywood counterparts. According to Leone:
"Ford, because of his European origins — as a good Irishman — has always seen the problem from a Christian point of view... his characters and protagonists always [looked] forward to a rosy, fruitful future. Whereas I see the history of the West as really the reign of violence by violence."
Eastwood began as Leone's star and then followed in his old boss' footsteps by becoming a director himself. And where Eastwood truly...
"Ford, because of his European origins — as a good Irishman — has always seen the problem from a Christian point of view... his characters and protagonists always [looked] forward to a rosy, fruitful future. Whereas I see the history of the West as really the reign of violence by violence."
Eastwood began as Leone's star and then followed in his old boss' footsteps by becoming a director himself. And where Eastwood truly...
- 8/15/2022
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
No single Hollywood filmmaker did more to mythologize America's manifest destiny than John Ford. His Westerns, typically shot in tandem with a larger-than-life John Wayne, told two-fisted tales of hard men who braved attacks from outlaws and resistance from indigenous people to bring a European notion of civilization to a supposedly untamed land. Technically speaking, he played a crucial role in codifying the grammar of visual storytelling (everything you ever need to know about the basics of camera placement and mise-en-scène are on display in his films), but it's really his gruff sentimentality about the brutal work of westward expansion that defines the formative majority of his oeuvre.
Though Ford allowed for shades of gray in films like "My Darling Valentine" and "3 Godfathers," he didn't explicitly sour on the myth he'd played a pivotal role in propagating until 1956's "The Searchers." In Wayne's racist protagonist, Ethan Edwards, Ford found...
Though Ford allowed for shades of gray in films like "My Darling Valentine" and "3 Godfathers," he didn't explicitly sour on the myth he'd played a pivotal role in propagating until 1956's "The Searchers." In Wayne's racist protagonist, Ethan Edwards, Ford found...
- 8/14/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
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