John Wayne was a movie star whose conservative politics, as well as his penchant for speaking
his mind, caught the ire of many of his peers. There were several stars that couldn’t stand John,
and we’ll be taking a look at some of them in this video! While plenty of John’s peers couldn’t
stand him, the ones who hated him the most weren’t afraid to talk about it. From Katharine Hepburn to
Frank Sinatra, join Facts Verse as we explore celebrities who publicly hated John Wayne.
Katharine Hepburn The first John Wayne-hating
celebrity that we’ll be taking a look at in this video is Katharine Hepburn. Katharine Hepburn had
such distaste for John Wayne that she actually turned down the opportunity to work with him on
one occasion. However, she ended up going back on her word later in her life and working with John
in a picture shortly before the Western legend’s 1979 death. Though Katharine criticized the star’s
behavior on the set of the picture, it seems that she had grown to respect him by his passing.
It should come as not much of a shock to viewers that John Wayne was one of the
biggest figures in Hollywood during the industry’s Golden Age that was willing
to work with the American government to help expose his Communist peers.
John Wayne had very strong ties to the House Un-American Activities Committee,
or HUAC, which was the group that hunted down Communists in the entertainment industry.
The House Un-American Activities Committee was the organization responsible for getting
Communist stars blacklisted during Hollywood’s Golden Age, and John Wayne’s involvement with
the heinous organization caught the ire of many of his peers in the industry. One such peer who
looked down on John for his involvement with the notorious organization was Katharine Hepburn.
In the early 1950s, Katharine Hepburn was given the chance to star alongside John Wayne
in the movie Hondo. John wanted Katharine to play the movie’s lead female role alongside him.
However, Katharine ended up turning down the chance to work with John Wayne because
she felt that the work that he was doing with the House Un-American Activities Committee was
monstrous. The role in Hondo ended up going to actress Geraldine Page,
and she even went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for it!
Two decades after Katharine Hepburn had turned down the chance to star alongside John Wayne in
Hondo, the political climate in Hollywood had calmed down considerably. The House Un-American
Activities Committee was a thing of the past, and stars weren’t encouraged to go to war with
each other just because of differing political beliefs. In the 1970s, Katharine changed her mind
and decided that she would be willing to star alongside John Wayne, if only for a picture.
The picture that Katharine Hepburn starred alongside John Wayne in was 1975’s Rooster
Cogburn. Although Katharine had warmed up to John enough to star in the picture, she still had some
decidedly negative remarks to share about him after the picture was done filming. Katharine
apparently had some criticisms about how much John got into arguments with the crew of the film,
feeling that it was a little unprofessional. However, Katharine ended up changing her
tune by the time of John’s death just a few years later. Upon John’s passing,
Katharine admitted he was a talented man.
John Lennon The late John Lennon was another celebrity
who had some decidedly nasty words to share about John Wayne. Both during John’s lifetime and after
his passing, it seems that John Lennon had no respect for his fellow celebrity John.
The way John Lennon saw it, he was a seller of peace, while John Wayne was a seller of war.
This put the two at direct odds with one another. John Lennon claimed that John Wayne
had been trying to sell him war since the popular musician was a little boy,
as John Lennon grew up watching John Wayne’s films. When it came time for John Lennon to raise
his own children, he made sure that they had no exposure to the warmongering works of John Wayne.
Many of John Lennon’s disparaging remarks towards John Wayne came from a 1969
interview that the popular musician gave around the time of his most flagrant anti-war
activism. Around the same time that John Lennon and spouse Yoko Ono locked themselves in their
bedroom to protest the Vietnam War, John Lennon could be heard saying in this interview
that he had no interest in letting his and Yoko’s son, Sean, watch John Wayne’s films.
Many years later, after John Wayne’s passing, John Lennon still continued
to ridicule the late Hollywood legend. By that point, John Lennon felt that the only
thing that worshipping a Hollywood figure like John Wayne could bring to someone was
death. John Lennon also went on to insinuate that the reason that John Wayne succumbed to cancer
was because the actor wasn’t in touch with his feminine side. According to John Lennon,
John Wayne’s feminine side turned against him and destroyed him.
Of course, John Lennon would go on to die an even more tragic death right after John Wayne’s.
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Spike Lee An example of a more modern
celebrity that has spoken out against the legacy of John Wayne is famous African-American filmmaker
Spike Lee. Spike Lee let his hatred for the late John Wayne be known to the public
during a 2018 BAFTA event. At the event, Spike Lee gave a long lecture about the way different races
have been portrayed in Hollywood films. Of course, it didn’t take very long for Spike to get on the
subject of John Wayne’s Western films and how many of them depicted Native Americans as savages.
Spike Lee didn’t mince his words when criticizing the late John Wayne at this 2018 BAFTA event, and
most of the crowd certainly agreed with the director’s viewpoint. Spike also criticized
John Ford, who was the director of many of the John Wayne pictures that he was talking about.
While many of John Wayne’s peers hated him around the time that the Western legend
was alive, Spike Lee’s hatred for the late Western star’s legacy
is more emblematic of modern society’s views on the movie star’s works as a whole.
Thanks in no small part to outspoken individuals such as Spike Lee,
modern society has been reevaluating the legacy that John Wayne left
behind in the entertainment industry. Many feel that John was a racist and misogynist
that shouldn’t be revered posthumously, despite all of his film work. One can imagine that Spike
Lee certainly sides with the people that want to write John Wayne out of history, such as
those who campaigned in vain to have the Western legend’s name removed from John Wayne Airport.
Clark Gable While all of the aforementioned
celebrities publicly hated John Wayne due to his politics, Clark Gable and John Wayne actually
agreed on most political issues. Both John and Clark were rare Hollywood Republicans, though this
didn’t necessarily mean that the two were friends. In fact, it seems that Clark wasn’t all that fond
of John Wayne. However, their feud stemmed from artistic differences instead of political ones.
After years of starring in classic films, John Wayne decided in the later 1950s that he was ready
to direct his own. John Wayne’s directorial debut ended up being the classic 1960 film The Alamo.
Though John Wayne’s The Alamo is considered a beloved classic by many today, there were
plenty of people in the entertainment industry who felt that the Western legend was overreaching
in his attempts to become a director. One such person was Clark Gable,
who thought that John was going to fall flat on his face with his directorial debut. This is why
Clark refused John when the latter figure offered him the chance to take on the
film’s lead role. John Wayne allegedly begged Clark Gable to take on the lead role of Davy
Crockett in the film, but Clark Gable refused. Clark was one of the most respected actors in
the industry at the time, and he had no interest in risking his credibility to do John a favor.
John Wayne hadn’t intended on starring in The Alamo, but he ended up taking on the
role of Davy Crockett himself after Clark turned it down. Critics are still divided
to this day over whether John’s directorial debut is cheap, warmongering propaganda or an
actual classic film. However, the film undeniably has classic status in the eyes of John’s fans.
Frank Sinatra The final John
Wayne-hating celebrity we’ll be taking a look at in this video is Frank Sinatra.
Frank Sinatra was so liberal during his early days in Hollywood that the FBI was spying on
him to make sure that he wasn’t a Communist. Frank was somewhat of a liberal activist of the
time, with him supporting numerous liberal organizations and politicians. Meanwhile,
John Wayne was quite the opposite. It stands to reason that the two should’ve butted head
during their shared time in the entertainment industry due to their differing beliefs.
Things came to a head between Frank
Sinatra and John Wayne when the latter figure criticized the former figure’s hiring of a
director with Communist ties. John Wayne wasn’t the only figure in Hollywood that criticized
Frank’s hiring of blacklisted Communist filmmaker Alfred Maltz to write a screenplay for one of his
films. In fact, the backlash was so universal that Frank ended up letting the filmmaker go.
Although Frank went on to fire Alfred Maltz as a result of the backlash, he didn’t let
go of his grudge against John Wayne. The two reportedly nearly got into a physical
altercation at a Hollywood benefit show, though this incident somehow caused the two to squash the
beef and become friends. It seems that both Frank Sinatra and John Wayne won the other’s respect
during this near-altercation, and the two of them would remain friends from that point forward.
John Wayne certainly rubbed a lot of his peers the wrong way during his days in Hollywood, though it
seems that some of them had a more positive view of the Western legend by the time of his death.
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that John Wayne and Frank Sinatra almost got into a
fight over the latter figure hiring a blacklisted Communist director and that Clark Gable refused
to star in John Wayne’s directorial debut because
he didn’t think the Western legend was going to be a good filmmaker? As always, like this video
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