John Wayne

John Wayne regretted turning down iconic role ‘Big mistake’

John Wayne was The Duke of Westerns and also made many major war movies, but he missed a massive opportunity to dominate a new genre when he turned down an iconic role that went to another star he later refused to work with.

John Wayne bestrode the Western genre, his iconic image writ large across the range, but it’s easy to forget he was also a major player in (usually jingoistically patriotic) war films like Sands of Iwo Jima and The Green Berets. But his career could have taken a rather different turn in the 1970s if he hadn’t rejected a grittily noir thriller that went on to confirm Clint Eastwood’s superstardom instead. Two years later, Eastwood personally approached Wayne to co-star with him but he was bluntly turned away. The Duke also turned down Steven Spielberg for very similar personal reasons.

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