The Hollywood icon John Wayne “personally couldn’t stand”
Although he may have his detractors, for the most part, the American screen icon John Wayne is considered to be one of the most celebrated stars of 20th-century Hollywood
Thriving in the western genre alongside the likes of Clint Eastwood and James Stewart, Wayne finished his career in 1976 with one Oscar under his belt, as well as one bonafide industry enemy.
The enemy in question was, surprisingly, an industry expert who gave the star one of his first leg-ups onto the silver screen, the head of Columbia Pictures, Harry Cohn. Contracted to work for Columbia Pictures (and only Columbia Pictures) on a number of celebrated movies in his early career, Cohn hired Wayne, who would quickly become a famous face in the early 20th century.
Yet, the friendship between them wouldn’t last long, with Wayne becoming close with a female actor at the same studio, a relationship that Cohn and the studio strongly disagreed with. “When you’re at this studio, you keep your pants buttoned,” Cohn reportedly stated, according to John Wayne: American, with the actor denying having ever shared an intimate relationship with the fellow actor.
Known for his rudeness, Wayne was taken aback by the head of the studio, stating later in his career: “I’d been brought up to respect older people, and he talked to me like a sewer rat”.
As punishment for this private relationship, Cohn had Wayne play a corpse who had been stabbed in the back in 1930’s The Big Trail, as well as an American footballer who sold out his team in 1931’s Maker of Men. Not best pleased with either humiliating role, Wayne soon left Columbia Pictures and never quite forgave them or Cohn for their treatment of him.
Reportedly, Wayne felt that he would “rather leave the industry than make a picture” with the same Hollywood executive, later telling Roger Eber in 1969 that he “personally couldn’t stand” Cohn.
This wasn’t the only Hollywood icon Wayne disliked either, even sharing a feud with the great Clint Eastwood following the release of 1973’s High Plains Drifter. “John Wayne once wrote me a letter saying he didn’t like High Plains Drifter,” Eastwood once stated, “He said it wasn’t really about the people who pioneered the West. I realised that there’s two different generations, and he wouldn’t understand what I was doing”.
Take a look at the trailer for the 1973 film starring Eastwood below.
