Was actor john wayne gay
Close-Up: Dan Ford on John Wayne and John Ford
June 21, 2007 1:42 PDT - By Scott Holleran - Interviews
Actor John Wayne, who would have been 100 years elderly this year, made many historic motion pictures with famous director John Ford (The Informer, How Green Was My Valley). Among them were Stagecoach, The Quiet Man and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
John Ford's grandson, Dan Ford, who wrote Pappy: The Life of John Ford, sat down with Box Office Mojo to communicate about John Wayne, John Ford and their extraordinary careers.
Box Office Mojo: Have you seen every John Ford movie?
Dan Ford: I haven't seen some of the really old ones.
Box Office Mojo: What did John Ford value most about John Wayne?
Dan Ford: What he liked about John Wayne was John Wayne. He was such an appealing, likable, amusing guy to be around—a man's dude. He was a sensational card player, like Ford, a big drinker, love Ford was, and they had a lot in shared. They were outdoor guys, they both loved boats—they spent every nickel they had on their boats—and it was a personal friendship.
Box Office Mojo: To attain that level of consistency throughout their labor is a
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By Tori Link
The Searchers is a difficult movie to watch without bringing in your preconceived notions. It’s a lot to ask that viewers not already have their have ideas of John Wayne, the man or the legend.
However, I consider that it’s also a petty bit difficult to watch The Searchers in 2016 and let it have the same effect it was supposed to have in 1956. I had a lot of political issues with the film. For instance, the Native American villain is an apparent case of a white bloke in redface (his eyes are so blue that he looks love Dan Stevens with a spray tan) and it caused me physical pain to accept a racist white man as our protagonist while living in a world where Donald Trump may be President. But I got past these issues because when I considered my knowledge of the Western genre, it’s what I expected to see.
What I did not expect, however, was that motherfucking John Wayne, Captain Masculinity himself, was going to be so fucking GAY.
One of the most dynamic relationships is that between the heroic Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) and his faithful sidekick Martin (Jeffrey Hunter). In fact, The Searchers lends itself well to a queer reading throu
“John Wayne?! You’re gonna tell me that John Wayne’s a fag?!”
–Midnight Cowboy (1969)
“I gave my dead d--- for John Wayne.”
–Ron Kovic (1976)
“There ain’t no queer in cowboy and I don’t care for anyone suggesting there is,” snapped Wyoming cowboy Jim-Bob Zimmerschied in December 2005 (qtd. in Sherwell). The growing numbers of participants at regional and national gay rodeo finals, and the existence of the International Gay Rodeo Association (founded in 1981 and now with member associations across most states, the District of Columbia, and two Canadian provinces) might suggest otherwise. But, responding to questions about Ang Lee’s critically acclaimed movie Brokeback Mountain, Zimmerschied continued: “I’ve been doing this job all my being and I ain’t never met no gay cowboy…John
After a more than 50-year career starring in Western-themed films and TV shows, actor Sam Elliott could be expected to have perspectives about “The Authority of the Dog.”
But podcaster Marc Maron probably didn’t hope for that Elliott’s beliefs would take on such an furious, homophobic edge when he asked the famously rugged, deep-voiced actor if he had seen the new contemporary Western, directed by Jane Campion.
Elliott called the film “a piece of (expletive)” and decried its “allusions to homosexuality” and cowboys who move around “in chaps and no shirts.” The acclaimed motion picture is set on a 1920s Montana ranch and features a main traits who is a closeted gay man.
Certainly, Maron also couldn’t have foreseen that Elliott’s diatribe would take their interview on his “WTF” podcast into the territory of John Wayne, circa 1971. Some 50 years ago, the “True Grit” legend blasted the depiction of gay sex in “Midnight Cowboy” in an infamous Playboy interview. Wayne also called the 1969 film “perverted” and used a homophobic slur to explain its characters played by Jon Voight and