John Wayne is turning 100, pilgrim

STATUE OF JOHN WAYNE
at the John Wayne/Orange County Airport

CINE FILE

After all these years, he's still in our hearts, so of course celebrations are planned.

By Susan King, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

May 18, 2007

In January, Denzel Washington topped the annual Harris Poll ranking of America's favorite movie stars, with Tom Hanks coming in second.

Placing third was an actor who's been dead for 28 years — John Wayne, the two-fisted Oscar-winning star of such classics as "True Grit," "Stagecoach," "Red River," "The Quiet Man," "The High and the Mighty" and "The Searchers" and frequent collaborator of directors John Ford, Howard Hawks, Henry Hathaway and William Wellman.

Wayne, who was born 100 years ago on May 26, is the only deceased performer in the rankings, and the only one who has appeared on the top 10 list every year.

"I think he's alive in people's minds," says Gretchen Wayne, the widow of Wayne's eldest son, Michael, and current head of the Duke's production company, Batjac. "I think he's embedded in our psyche."


John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn and Kim Darby as Mattie Ross in the 1969 film version of 'True Grit.' Wayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role.

In celebration of Wayne's centennial, Turner Classic Movies is presenting a festival of films next week, and Warner Home Video and Paramount Home Video have joined forces for a Tuesday release of special editions of such Wayne classics as "The Cowboys," "True Grit" and "Rio Bravo," as well as a set of new-to-DVD tiles including "Trouble Along the Way."

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is throwing its birthday party Thursday with the restored CinemaScope print of 1954's action-adventure "The High and the Mighty," directed by Wellman.

After the film, there will be an onstage discussion hosted by Variety columnist Army Archerd with Gretchen Wayne, William Wellman Jr., and actresses Angie Dickinson, Nancy Olson and Karen Sharpe Kramer.

"John Wayne was larger than life," says Archerd, who was a good friend of the Duke's. "Even though we were on diametrically [opposite] political points of view" — Wayne was proudly on the right — "I always respected him because he was so intelligent. We always got along great."

Archerd says that the tall, rugged actor was also surprisingly tender.

"I remember one of the People's Choice award shows," says Archerd. "He had won many, many times as a favorite actor, and one year, he was in the hospital when he was the winner of the all-time favorite motion picture actor. He wanted to accept the award, so we had tied in a line from the stage to his room. We had Tatum O'Neal make the presentation to Wayne on the phone. Wayne was so sweet on the phone to her and to everybody. It was one of the most touching moments."

William Wellman made six films for Batjac; his son also appeared with Wayne in two Ford movies, 1959's "The Horse Soldiers" and 1962's "How the West Was Won."

"He had the most wonderful attitude," says Wellman Jr. of Wayne. "People always wanted to take pictures with him. He just stood out no matter what he did. He found time for everybody. He always had a sense of humor, every day from the crack of dawn until the end of the day; he just personified a kind of positive attitude."

Wellman Jr., though, was shocked at the way the cantankerous Ford treated Wayne. "Ford was constantly berating him," he recalls. "He would say [to Wayne], 'You are nothing but a lousy cowboy actor' and call him names. I think he stood for it because John Ford was a father figure to him and John Ford gave him his career. Wayne never cringed. He stood there and took it and went on with business as usual."

Dickinson played Wayne's love interest in Hawks' "Rio Bravo." She previously had met him on the set of the western "Gun the Man Down" and had appeared with him in a movie-within-a-movie scene in a long-forgotten George Gobel comedy, "I Married a Woman."

Still, Dickinson says, she didn't know Wayne that well when she reported to work on "Rio Bravo" in Tucson. "He couldn't have been more welcoming and warmer," Dickinson recalls. "He didn't talk a lot, not unless you got on a certain topic. I didn't get on those topics because I was a young liberal."

Just as Archerd, Dickinson found Wayne to be a gentle soul. "He was a very amusing guy … a sweetheart."

And ever the stuff of fantasy.

"I always wondered what would have happened if I had not had a boyfriend at the time and he had not had a girlfriend," Dickinson says. "I always felt like I could get hung up on him!"


susan.king@latimes.com

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`A Centennial Salute to John Wayne'

Where: Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday

Price: $3 and $5

Contact: (310) 247-3000 or go to http://www.oscars.org .