while most classic films trick audiences
into thinking old hollywood was squeaky
clean under its surface this certainly
wasn't the case there were plenty of
classic hollywood stars who held some
decidedly backwards values racism has
always been an issue and it pervaded
hollywood at its roots join facts first
as we take a look at classic hollywood
stars who were terribly racist off
camera
james stewart while the average audience
member thinks of the innocent face of
old hollywood few actors epitomized this
quite like james stewart known
colloquially as jimmy james had a long
and healthy career in the industry that
started before the days of world war ii
before blossoming into something even
greater after it james served in the war
and his father before him had served in
world war 1. when james returned from
the war he feared he'd have a hard time
returning to his career with all the
traction he'd lost while this was an
issue initially he eventually grew to
become a bigger star than ever of course
some of his most iconic roles include
his turns and mr smith goes to
washington and it's a wonderful life as
well as appearances in the alfred
hitchcock films vertigo and rear window
those later films showcased a slightly
darker side to stewart while his
performances in the prior two features
were more emblematic of the beloved
actor's public persona as a whole but
beneath james's nice guy's demeanor and
lovable draw there was a streak of
racism and general xenophobia james
stewart's nice guy demeanor doesn't
necessarily seem to have been a complete
illusion as most of those who knew the
man personally and worked with him
closely claimed he was just as nice when
the cameras weren't rolling as when they
were but this is likely because james
made sure to surround himself with
people who were like-minded and white
there was a black co-star who accused
james stewart of racism while the two
were working on the set of the man who
shot liberty valance famous director
john ford directed it while the actor
who accused james of racism was woody
strode those looking to forgive the
deceased's actor's more backward
tendencies attribute his racism to his
upbringing james grew up in a small town
in indiana and there was nary and
non-white in sight james wasn't afforded
the opportunity to see many african
americans during his childhood years and
these opportunities didn't increase all
that much when james ventured out to
princeton to get his higher education
besides james's apparent distrust of
african americans the actor was also
seemingly distrusting of jews it seems
james was simply xenophobic in general
and this caused him to develop a fairly
close relationship with fbi director j
edgar hoover both of them shared similar
conservative values and this caused
james to become j edgar hoover's
right-hand man when it came time to hunt
down communists in hollywood james
stewart acted as an informant for the
fbi director in many situations while
hoover didn't care about james's claims
that the mafia was trying to take over
hollywood he was all ears when it came
time for the actor to spill the beans
about his communist co-stars james
stewart was a good friend of henry
fondas before hollywood's second red
scare when henry found out james was
working as an informant for j edgar
hoover the two stopped talking for many
years despite all these problematic
aspects of james stewart the actor
remains a beloved old hollywood icon in
the eyes of most people
william frawley i love lucy's william
frawley's legacy has been plagued with
complaints that the comedic actor was as
much of a curmudgeon off the screen as
he was on it which is part of why he
played grumpy characters so well but
while fans can brush off the facts that
william was pretty much always drunk and
didn't get along with his co-workers
audiences may be more hesitant to brush
off the hard to ignore reality that
william was a bit of a racist it was
frawley's knack for playing curmudgeonly
characters that got him hired by lucille
ball and desi arnaz to play the part of
fred mertz on i love lucy by that point
in his career the veteran vaudevillian
performer had already been working for
many years and had developed a
reputation for being hard to work with
this almost caused him to lose out on
the role of fred mertz but desi arnaz's
gut instinct kicked in and made him
demand william's inclusion desi
certainly knew what he was doing by
hiring frawley to play fred mertz as the
role became the actor's most iconic
though william was drunk throughout much
of i love lucy's filming the actor
managed to curtail much of his
problematic behavior to make shoots go
smoothly most claim he was a misogynist
while william couldn't be rude to
lucille ball because she was his boss he
could be rude to the actress who played
his on-screen wife vivian vance frawley
and vance reportedly got into it
constantly on set but these incidents
consisted mostly of innocent bickering
on the less innocent side of things was
william's racism as the actor was said
to have thrown around racial slurs
liberally today that kind of thing
wouldn't fly but william came from a
time in a place where people were simply
allowed and encouraged to treat women
and minorities differently besides
william's penchant for racism and
misogyny the alcoholic actor also
infamously punched clifton webb in the
face on broadway
before we tell you more about old
hollywood actors who were racist be sure
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john wayne john wayne was an avid
conservative and patriot but unlike
james stewart john didn't have an
authentic nice guy demeanor that makes
this hard truth easier to go down in
retrospect the bulk of the modern day
controversy surrounding western legend
john wayne stems from an interview the
hollywood veteran gave with playboy in a
now notorious 1971 issue in it john
wayne does things as outright condone
white supremacy refused to express
remorse about slavery and make flagrant
use of homophobic slurs according to
john wayne there was no reason he should
ever have had to think about the fact
that african americans were historically
enslaved while one might think the actor
was trying to make a point about the
fact that he wasn't directly involved in
slavery as it had been abolished years
before his birth his support of general
white supremacy suggests there may be
more to the actor's refusal to express
remorse about historical slavery john's
support of white supremacy in his
playboy interview came with the adage
that he only believed white supremacy
was necessary until african americans
received a proper education however it's
unsure what exactly would have
constituted a proper amount of education
in the actor's eyes his use of
homophobic slurs came about when it was
time to discuss the film midnight cowboy
which had recently made waves in
hollywood of course the largely
conservative john wayne was not remotely
a fan of the cutting edge film perhaps
because of the excessively flagrant and
well-documented nature of john wayne's
problematic values the actor's legacy
has been damaged since his passing much
more than the legacies of the stars we
previously mentioned john graduated from
the university of southern california
recently an exhibit at the college
honoring the actor was removed as a
result of student protests those being
inspired by the actor's playboy
interview some have also attempted to
have the actor's name removed from john
wayne airport in orange county though
these attempts have continuously failed
walter brennan finally let's take a look
at classic star walter brennan walter
won several academy awards over his
lifetime and appeared in classics such
as the westerner and sergeant york he
also appeared with john wayne in a
handful of classic films such as rio
bravo like william frawley brennan made
a name for himself playing characters
who were generally curmudgeonly also
like william these tendencies were
typically matched in the actor's
real-life behavior like james stewart
walter was a hollywood legend who
detested communism however he took his
detesting of communism a step further by
branding anyone who held any liberal
beliefs whatsoever as such the most
problematic aspect of walter brennan is
probably the fact he hung around with
members of the john birch society which
is notoriously in favor of segregation
the actor also reportedly expressed joy
when it was announced that martin luther
king jr had been assassinated now it's
time to hear from you which one of these
stories was most surprising to hear
about let us know in the comment section
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