1 00:00:02,120 --> 00:00:07,890 He's an actor. Is this an invite to a necktie party, Reverend? A friend of mine 2 00:00:07,900 --> 00:00:13,010 once said, if you don't like John Wayne, you're wrong. A legend. That'll be the 3 00:00:13,020 --> 00:00:18,330 day. Wayne just seemed indestructible, and in most pictures he was. And an 4 00:00:18,340 --> 00:00:23,610 embodiment of America itself. Out here do processes up bullet. Anyone would like to 5 00:00:23,620 --> 00:00:30,090 be as badass and tough-minded as Wayne was on screen. But John Wayne spent much 6 00:00:30,100 --> 00:00:34,330 of his life quietly tormented, desperately trying to measure up to the 7 00:00:34,340 --> 00:00:38,570 towering Hollywood persona he had crafted. What brings back the age-old 8 00:00:38,580 --> 00:00:45,370 laundry can a very good man have tragic deficiencies? Wayne's life is rocky from 9 00:00:45,380 --> 00:00:49,990 the start, with a father who's prone to failure and a mother who's far from 10 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:54,040 adoring. And I think the anger came from his childhood and his adolescence, 11 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:58,190 because it was a very rough time. Desperate to escape the poverty he grew 12 00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:03,020 up in, Wayne turns to acting. But as he creates his iconic Hollywood persona, 13 00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:08,010 Wayne finds he can't always live up to his own ideals. I think he was 14 00:01:08,020 --> 00:01:12,630 embarrassed that he didn't fight in World War II. Duke Morrison wasn't as 15 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:18,070 invincible as John Wayne was on screen. While he plays men who always do the 16 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:24,250 right thing on camera, his real life is far more complicated. And she drank. A 17 00:01:24,260 --> 00:01:29,450 lot. And that eventually is what broke up the marriage. Over nearly five decades in 18 00:01:29,460 --> 00:01:34,590 the film business, Wayne experiences Hollywood's highest highs. John Wayne in 19 00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:42,550 Studio. And its lowest lows. When we were making the shoot, there was kind of a 20 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:47,050 sense this could be his last move. Wayne's outspoken political views 21 00:01:47,060 --> 00:01:51,770 eventually torpedo his box office power and threaten to permanently tarnish his 22 00:01:51,780 --> 00:01:56,790 legacy decades later. He made a lot of trouble for himself because he refused to 23 00:01:56,800 --> 00:02:01,530 put a cork in it. But through it all, Wayne uses his experiences to invent a 24 00:02:01,540 --> 00:02:06,940 heroic character that he and an entire generation of filmgoers aspires to be. 25 00:02:08,340 --> 00:02:12,330 Something about him rang the American way to people. John Wayne could set your 26 00:02:12,340 --> 00:02:31,400 moral compass. It wasn't mythic. It was real. But it was mythic. The End In 1976, 27 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:36,330 veteran television actor and future director Ron Howard comes to a Carson 28 00:02:36,340 --> 00:02:41,850 City, Nevada hotel where a door swings open and he stands face to face with a 29 00:02:41,860 --> 00:02:47,830 giant. It's John Wayne except he doesn't have his hairpiece on. So he's a giant 30 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:54,730 bald man. And he looks down kind of at me. I mean, he's much taller. I'm 5'9". 31 00:02:54,740 --> 00:02:59,590 Much taller than I am. He said, oh, okay, good to meet you. And he sticks his hand 32 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:05,970 out. My hand just disappears in his, you know, paw. At the time, Wayne is 33 00:03:05,980 --> 00:03:10,290 struggling with his health and Howard is there to act alongside him in what will 34 00:03:10,300 --> 00:03:15,790 be the last of his nearly 200 movies, The Shootest. How could you get into so many 35 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,160 fights and then always come out on top? Well, I nearly tied you, shooting. 36 00:03:19,660 --> 00:03:25,190 Friend, there's nobody up there shooting back at you. When they meet, Howard has 37 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:29,510 just been featured on the cover of TV Guide for his role on Happy Days and the 38 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:35,210 director of The Shootest, Hans Wayne, a copy. John Wayne looks at it, puts his 39 00:03:35,220 --> 00:03:40,690 glasses on, looks at it again, looks at me, adjusts his glasses, looks at it 40 00:03:40,700 --> 00:03:48,710 again. And then in the perfect John Wayne drawl, he says, ah, big shot, huh? And I 41 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:54,030 thought, oh, man, I am screwed. It's a quintessential John Wayne moment come to 42 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:58,070 life. But during the filming of The Shootest, Howard begins to truly 43 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:04,080 understand something many others already know. John Wayne isn't really John Wayne. 44 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:11,810 I had no sense that this was a guy who would ever want to be solving problems 45 00:04:11,820 --> 00:04:17,540 with violence. John Wayne was a creation. It was his creation. It's not who he was. 46 00:04:18,220 --> 00:04:26,450 He was a kind, caring individual who loved his friends and family and tried to 47 00:04:26,460 --> 00:04:31,330 make the right decisions throughout life. Yet that larger-than-life persona he 48 00:04:31,340 --> 00:04:36,890 crafted for himself created an impossibly high bar for John Wayne to live up to. He 49 00:04:36,900 --> 00:04:40,910 spent his legendary career feeling tormented by fears of not measuring up. 50 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:46,410 No matter how high he climbed. He's got something roiling under the surface. Got 51 00:04:46,420 --> 00:04:51,140 loaded a lot. I'm sure he had some demons. He told me I was strong as an ox. 52 00:04:52,120 --> 00:05:00,570 Or even an ox died. The star's often difficult road begins far from the 53 00:05:00,580 --> 00:05:06,670 shining lights of Hollywood in Winterset, Iowa. There, in 1907, the man who will 54 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:11,980 one day be known as John Wayne is born into poverty as Marion Robert Morrison, 55 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:17,770 the 13-pound firstborn son of Mary and Clyde Morrison. They live in a small 56 00:05:17,780 --> 00:05:24,430 house. It's a tiny little clabbered shack, basically one room. His childhood 57 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:29,310 was difficult. His father was working as a pharmacist's assistant and often as a 58 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:33,690 pharmacist, even though he seemed not to have been licensed. Clyde Morrison could 59 00:05:33,700 --> 00:05:38,090 not support his family. He couldn't make enough money to buy a house. They were 60 00:05:38,100 --> 00:05:43,650 constantly moving around from one cheap rental to another. Despite the family's 61 00:05:43,660 --> 00:05:48,140 ever-present financial troubles, in 1912, the Morissons welcome a second son. 62 00:05:49,580 --> 00:05:54,470 Marion's mother dotes upon the boy as her obvious favorite, even harshly stealing 63 00:05:54,480 --> 00:06:00,170 Marion's middle name and bestowing it upon his younger sibling. They simply 64 00:06:00,180 --> 00:06:05,370 decided to call the newly arrived child Robert Morrison. So they yanked Robert 65 00:06:05,380 --> 00:06:10,450 away from Marion's name. This isn't the only name-related trouble that the future 66 00:06:10,460 --> 00:06:15,830 actor faces. The man who comes to define American masculinity is cursed by a 67 00:06:15,840 --> 00:06:21,150 rather unmanly name. Part of his John Wayne rhino skin might have been 68 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:26,390 developed fighting people who are teasing him in the 30s and 20s for being named 69 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:32,790 Marion. That's a teasable name. Perhaps to avoid this taunting, Morrison adopts a 70 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:37,950 much more rugged first name that he borrows from the family's dog, Duke. It 71 00:06:37,960 --> 00:06:41,070 sounds like one of those legendary stories that has no credence, but there 72 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:46,270 are pictures of Duke the dog with Duke the boy. And of course, Duke was happy to 73 00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:51,090 be called absolutely anything but Marion. While playing second fiddle to his 74 00:06:51,100 --> 00:06:54,970 younger brother and dealing with the struggles of growing up as Marion, the 75 00:06:54,980 --> 00:06:59,940 troubled boy also has to deal with a major upheaval. At just seven years old, 76 00:07:00,060 --> 00:07:04,850 he and his family follow many other Iowans west to California. They went to 77 00:07:04,860 --> 00:07:08,610 Mojave, Lancaster. I don't know if you've been to Lancaster lately, but there's not 78 00:07:08,620 --> 00:07:15,020 much there in 1914. Living in what the actor will later call a glorified shack, 79 00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:20,890 the family finds that California is no promised land. They moved out to right on 80 00:07:20,900 --> 00:07:25,190 the edge of the Mojave Desert in California where Clyde Morrison got the 81 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:30,170 harebrained idea of raising crops in spite of the fact that it was 120 degrees 82 00:07:30,180 --> 00:07:33,790 in the summer. And they didn't have enough volume of water to counteract the 83 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:39,070 extraordinary heat. After Clyde's desert farming venture ends in yet another 84 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:44,550 failure, the family moves in 1916 to Glendale, a Los Angeles suburb not far 85 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:49,520 from Hollywood. There, the Morrison's troubles continue. His parents divorced, 86 00:07:49,980 --> 00:07:54,320 which very few parents did in that era. So it was a fairly ranker situation. 87 00:07:55,060 --> 00:07:59,350 Marion went with his father. His brother, Robert, went with their mother, which 88 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:05,250 kind of alienated his mother. Duke's bleak home life provides him few examples 89 00:08:05,260 --> 00:08:10,550 of how to fight life's battles and come out on top. For that, he needs to buy a 90 00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:15,790 ticket. Movies were an important part of his growing up because it was the era of 91 00:08:15,800 --> 00:08:21,610 great action stars. His heroes were Tom Mix, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. He also loved 92 00:08:21,620 --> 00:08:25,610 Harry Carey, a cowboy star of that period, who was making movies with John 93 00:08:25,620 --> 00:08:31,220 Ford. Filing away those silver screen pointers on what it means to be a man, 94 00:08:31,800 --> 00:08:36,190 Duke begins to build an identity separate from his family, working hard to show 95 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:43,300 he's intelligent, likeable, and bound for better things. He finds solace in school, 96 00:08:43,740 --> 00:08:48,430 friends, and ends up going to high school in Glendale where he's on the debate 97 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:52,480 team, on the dance committee, writes for the school newspaper, in the drama club. 98 00:08:54,940 --> 00:08:59,550 A lean and mean guard, Duke finds his most likely ticket to a better life on 99 00:08:59,560 --> 00:09:05,310 the football field. Six foot four, lanky, but with a strong physique, a natural 100 00:09:05,320 --> 00:09:11,150 born athlete. He became a big man on campus and a star on the Glendale High 101 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:15,730 football team. His dreams of rising above his station in life are given a huge 102 00:09:15,740 --> 00:09:19,890 boost when Wayne earns a scholarship to play for the University of Southern 103 00:09:19,900 --> 00:09:24,850 California, where he studies pre-law. The only reason he was going to USC was the 104 00:09:24,860 --> 00:09:28,150 football scholarship. They never could have afforded the tuition. But at the 105 00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:32,390 start of his junior year, Duke's chance of becoming a legend on the gridiron is 106 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:37,250 ruined when he injures his shoulder. The incident ends his football dreams, leads 107 00:09:37,260 --> 00:09:42,510 to the loss of his scholarship, and causes him to drop out of USC. It surely 108 00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:46,890 feels to Duke like he's never actually going to escape the dismal life he knew 109 00:09:46,900 --> 00:09:51,750 all too well growing up. No one took him seriously at USC. He was just under 110 00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:55,570 football player. He had to drop out because there was no money. It was 111 00:09:55,580 --> 00:10:01,990 embarrassing. That social dislocation that he experienced for 20 years in his 112 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:06,950 life, I think he used it as fuel. In need of money, Duke lands a job at Fox 113 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:11,870 Studios. He then embarks on a new path that will alter his life and American 114 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:17,150 culture itself. Today, at the John Wayne and American Experience exhibit in Fort 115 00:10:17,160 --> 00:10:21,770 Worth, Texas, his son Ethan shows off memorabilia from his father's early days 116 00:10:21,780 --> 00:10:27,890 on set. So this is from the 1929-1930 season at Fox Studios, and he's a prop 117 00:10:27,900 --> 00:10:32,930 man's assistant. And this is his union card, and it says, Duke Morrison. He 118 00:10:32,940 --> 00:10:37,430 still had that till the day he died, and that card was the beginning of John 119 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:44,650 Wayne. It touched me because he saved it. At the studio, absolutely no job is too 120 00:10:44,660 --> 00:10:49,720 small for the hardworking future megastar, who is making just $35 a week. 121 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:54,450 He did everything that was asked of him. He was a grip. He did stunts. He loved 122 00:10:54,460 --> 00:10:59,070 camera boxes, whatever needed to be done, he did. He wasn't resting on his laurels 123 00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:03,390 because he didn't have any laurels. It's here Duke learns the mechanics of 124 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:07,080 filmmaking, but he also discovers something he's never had before, 125 00:11:07,800 --> 00:11:12,650 something that he will treasure all his career, a home. All the stars I ever knew 126 00:11:12,660 --> 00:11:18,730 would go to the trailer after every shot. He never left the set. He stayed and 127 00:11:18,740 --> 00:11:23,770 watched. He liked to watch the whole thing happen. And he liked the idea and 128 00:11:23,780 --> 00:11:28,690 the feeling of an extended family, because his own family life was so 129 00:11:28,700 --> 00:11:34,510 difficult and unsatisfying to him. Among his new family, Duke first works as 130 00:11:34,520 --> 00:11:39,150 little more than a strong back, but some deeply unfulfilled part of him yearns for 131 00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:43,310 greater recognition. The kind that can only come from stepping into the 132 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:48,510 limelight, something Duke claims he's reluctant to do. Acting was not something 133 00:11:48,520 --> 00:11:54,030 overtly masculine men would cop to as being a profession that they wanted to go 134 00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:58,010 into. So Wayne would tell people, oh, it was an accident. No, it wasn't an 135 00:11:58,020 --> 00:12:03,070 accident. He was hungry to be an actor. Though he starts off playing only bit 136 00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:08,630 roles, Duke's big break comes in a 1930 pioneer epic when director Raul Walsh 137 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:13,690 hires no-name actors to cut costs. He liked the way Duke walked. He saw him 138 00:12:13,700 --> 00:12:18,050 walking at the studio at Fox, and he could put him in the lead in a picture 139 00:12:18,060 --> 00:12:23,610 called The Big Trail. Everything a Madurean park could trade. Two snow 140 00:12:23,620 --> 00:12:29,230 -capped mountain ranges would be lost in the sky. As Duke prepares for a role that 141 00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:33,910 could forever alter his career, he learns there's one big change he must first 142 00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:39,270 undergo. Duke Morrison was a stuntman's name, not an actor's name, so he had to 143 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:43,070 come up with something else. So the studio came up with John Wayne, which he 144 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:48,510 liked. The John and the Wayne kind of fit together like blocks of granite. It was 145 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:54,050 that name, John Wayne, that would appear in ads that build The Big Trail as the 146 00:12:54,060 --> 00:13:10,430 most important picture ever produced. Not long after leaving his troubled boyhood 147 00:13:10,440 --> 00:13:15,410 home, Wayne seems on the cusp of stardom. But The Big Trail is a box office 148 00:13:15,420 --> 00:13:19,960 failure, and he's sent down to the Bush Leagues of Hollywood. Year after year, 149 00:13:20,140 --> 00:13:24,270 Wayne acts in low-budget films and serials, refining his skills as an actor 150 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:29,020 by playing everything from a trucker to a newsreel cameraman to a hockey player. 151 00:13:29,420 --> 00:13:34,660 But he naturally gravitates toward one genre, the Western. How long are you 152 00:13:34,620 --> 00:13:39,890 going to stand for? How are you going to stop it? I'll tell you how. Westerns were 153 00:13:39,900 --> 00:13:45,490 the big thing in the 20th century. Most of them were about finding law and order 154 00:13:45,500 --> 00:13:51,050 in the West. It was very American. The Western is the foundation myth of 155 00:13:51,060 --> 00:13:55,550 America. It didn't imitate anything coming from any other culture. It was 156 00:13:55,560 --> 00:14:02,150 utterly American, this pioneer idea. Westerns also served another important 157 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:08,450 role for movie audiences. They were fun. They were the action flicks. Back then it 158 00:14:08,460 --> 00:14:14,710 was the bad guys and the good guys, and the bad guy won initially against the 159 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:18,730 good guy, and then the good guy eventually did in the bad guy and got the 160 00:14:18,740 --> 00:14:27,960 dang. Like the small town sheriffs who suffer an initial defeat in these films, 161 00:14:28,420 --> 00:14:32,350 Wayne isn't about to give up his fight just because his first big movie was a 162 00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:38,770 flop. Besides, he can't. In 1933, the former boy who was desperate not to 163 00:14:38,780 --> 00:14:43,850 repeat his father's struggles, marries Josephine Josie Sines, the daughter of a 164 00:14:43,860 --> 00:14:50,570 well-to-do Latin American diplomat. She came from a upscale family that was far 165 00:14:50,580 --> 00:14:55,530 above the Morrison's in terms of relative social strata. He got married and very 166 00:14:55,540 --> 00:15:00,230 soon had four children. He took what work he could get. He did Westerns in five 167 00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:06,770 days. He did serials in four weeks. He got 750 bucks. Not for a week. He got 750 168 00:15:06,780 --> 00:15:10,710 bucks for the whole serial. But it was the pit of the depression, and he had a 169 00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:16,770 family to support, so he did whatever he had to do. Wayne has been building his 170 00:15:16,780 --> 00:15:21,230 credentials in B-movie Westerns, but will he be able to escape a paycheck-to 171 00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:26,270 -paycheck existence and give his family what eluded him, all while his country is 172 00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:29,930 on the brink of war? There are members of the Wayne family that believe that he 173 00:15:29,940 --> 00:15:41,190 felt guilty about this all of his life. Passed over by his own mother and 174 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:45,950 terrified of replicating his father's constant failures, John Wayne turns to 175 00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:50,190 Hollywood, desperately seeking the success and validation his early life 176 00:15:50,200 --> 00:15:55,210 lacked. Needing to support his high-class wife's expensive tastes and a growing 177 00:15:55,220 --> 00:16:00,140 family, the young actor trudges through a long series of forgettable B-movies. 178 00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:12,070 Throughout the 1930s, he builds an audience, develops as an actor, and 179 00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:15,730 forges one of the most important relationships of his life with director 180 00:16:15,740 --> 00:16:20,710 John Ford. John Ford is arguably the best American director. Hard to make a Western 181 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:25,630 without thinking of Jack Ford. The lifelong bond between Wayne and John Ford 182 00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:31,310 began back in 1926 on the set of Ford's silent picture, Mother McCree, where the 183 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:35,990 young USC athlete worked herding geese for a scene. Ford came up to Wayne and 184 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:38,290 said, I hear you're a football player. He said, well, let me see you get down at 185 00:16:38,300 --> 00:16:43,310 three-point stance. You got down at three -point stance, and Ford kicked his arm out 186 00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:46,490 from under, but he went face down in the dirt. And he was in the same six, which 187 00:16:46,500 --> 00:16:51,230 was essentially the entire relationship in miniature. Despite their rocky 188 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:55,690 meeting, he's drawn to Ford's take no prisoners approach, an attitude that 189 00:16:55,700 --> 00:17:00,930 Wayne will eventually shape his entire professional persona around. I think 190 00:17:00,940 --> 00:17:04,610 Wayne was looking for a father substitute, because his own father, who 191 00:17:04,620 --> 00:17:10,980 he adored, was not successful as the world-defined success. When Wayneraz met 192 00:17:10,940 --> 00:17:16,370 John Ford, he met a man who controlled his environment. The two grow incredibly 193 00:17:16,380 --> 00:17:21,570 close, but Ford's brutal treatment of Wayne feeds the insecurities the actor 194 00:17:21,580 --> 00:17:29,110 already wrestles with. He berated Wayne mercilessly on sets for 30 years. Wayne 195 00:17:29,120 --> 00:17:33,250 would pull off some extraordinarily difficult scene in one or two takes, and 196 00:17:33,260 --> 00:17:36,070 Ford would grump, oh, okay, let's print it. He's not going to be able to do it 197 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:40,190 any better. But when people were standing on the set, they would be stunned at the 198 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:45,110 way Ford would talk to Wayne, and Wayne always took it. Duke always sidled up for 199 00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:49,050 it, and I think he knew he deserved some. In his mind, at least, thought some 200 00:17:49,060 --> 00:17:55,120 punishment. Ford was perfect for him. I'll take that chance. By the late 1930s, 201 00:17:55,340 --> 00:17:59,030 Wayne has spent nearly a third of his life earning a buck by playing throwaway 202 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:04,110 roles in lackluster films. It's hardly gained him the respectability he so badly 203 00:18:04,120 --> 00:18:09,170 wants. And Wayne finally gets Ford, whom he calls Pappy, to help him secure a spot 204 00:18:09,180 --> 00:18:16,870 as a serious leading man. In 1939, Ford finally used him in a picture, and it was 205 00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:24,570 stagecoach. I think pre-1930s, he was not the idol of young men, but his career was 206 00:18:24,580 --> 00:18:29,220 idling like a young man. And then stagecoach, that moment, the hero moment. 207 00:18:29,660 --> 00:18:34,850 Hold it! And Ford's a genius for that. Duke's up front, he cocks that gun, and 208 00:18:34,860 --> 00:18:39,920 you go, well, there's the guy, you know, there's the hero. Hello, kid. Hello, 209 00:18:40,140 --> 00:18:45,490 Curly. Hi, a buck. Which made Wayne a star, and put him in respectable 210 00:18:45,500 --> 00:18:51,150 pictures, as opposed to the cheapies he'd been making for many years. Beginning in 211 00:18:51,160 --> 00:18:56,300 1939, he basically doesn't step a foot wrong, because he was a young, masculine, 212 00:18:56,680 --> 00:19:02,830 athletic, leading man. And he could act better than people thought he could. He 213 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:09,890 could exceed their expectations as an actor. After stagecoach, Wayne no longer 214 00:19:09,900 --> 00:19:15,670 views success as some distant dream. But far from Hollywood, world events begin to 215 00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:21,990 threaten all he's built. The war breaks out in December 1941 for America. Wayne 216 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:28,390 is 34 years old at this point. He's got four kids, married with four kids. He had 217 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:34,950 good friends that simply put their careers into cold storage, and their 218 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:38,870 families had to make do with whatever money was in the bank, and they went off 219 00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:44,770 to war. Wayne spins the war state side, where he makes 13 films, many of which 220 00:19:44,780 --> 00:19:49,770 extol the virtue of service. Wayne's public logic is that he can best serve 221 00:19:49,780 --> 00:19:53,730 his country by celebrating the war efforts on the big screen. But in 222 00:19:53,740 --> 00:19:58,110 private, his feelings are far more complicated. I bet he was haunted too in 223 00:19:58,120 --> 00:20:02,830 a way. He's doing films about guys who are willing to get off, and he's nowhere 224 00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:10,130 near that. And I always thought, what an odd abyss for him to straddle. I think he 225 00:20:10,140 --> 00:20:14,430 was sort of embarrassed that he didn't fight in World War II, but he certainly 226 00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:20,870 led the charge in movies. Ford made probably the greatest American war film 227 00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:25,770 of the Second World War. They were expendable, it's called, and Wayne is in 228 00:20:25,780 --> 00:20:34,670 that. He's very good at it too. Home is a sailor. Home from the sea. And the 229 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:39,850 hunter, home from the hill. While Wayne's wartime films provide a positive morale 230 00:20:39,860 --> 00:20:44,310 boost for America, they create a firestorm of inner turmoil and guilt that 231 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:49,470 will forever plague Wayne. I think the war probably caused him feelings of 232 00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:57,050 discomfort that he felt that he didn't look up to his own ideals perhaps. And 233 00:20:57,060 --> 00:21:01,490 I'm sure somewhere in the back of his mind at three in the morning that 234 00:21:01,500 --> 00:21:06,790 occurred to him. Because he was too honest with himself as a person to not 235 00:21:06,800 --> 00:21:13,200 have it occur. I do have a moment through most of John Wayne's films where I think, 236 00:21:13,660 --> 00:21:19,290 oh, I bet he had an extra pack of cigarettes that day, or threw down an 237 00:21:19,300 --> 00:21:23,730 extra tumbler that night, because this has got to haunt him. I think he probably 238 00:21:23,740 --> 00:21:28,050 had some survivors remorse in an odd way. There are members of the Wayne family 239 00:21:28,060 --> 00:21:33,270 that believe that he felt guilty about this all of his life, and that that's 240 00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:39,170 possibly one of the reasons he became such a chest-beating super-patriot. After 241 00:21:39,180 --> 00:21:44,570 the conflicts end, Wayne begins to focus on crafting his trademark role, a man who 242 00:21:44,580 --> 00:21:50,530 never backs down from a challenge. The first picture that he made that sort of 243 00:21:50,540 --> 00:21:55,970 epitomized the character that he ended up playing a lot was Red River, Hawks is Red 244 00:21:55,980 --> 00:22:04,690 River. He's very, very John Wayne in that. I'm gonna hang ya. I'm gonna hang 245 00:22:04,700 --> 00:22:14,150 ya? No. No you're not. What? Red River said, and this is the first time you say 246 00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:19,290 that's John Wayne. After more than a decade and a half in Hollywood, the man 247 00:22:19,300 --> 00:22:23,730 once known as Duke Morrison is starting to fully inhabit the greatest character 248 00:22:23,740 --> 00:22:29,310 he will ever play, John Wayne. He created this guy that everyone would like to try 249 00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:37,020 to be tough, fair, honest, not perfect, but always improving. He might be flawed, 250 00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:41,830 and he might be dark at times, but he always tried to make the right decision. 251 00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:47,840 He might have to be mean, or he could be mean, but he was never small or petty. 252 00:22:48,500 --> 00:22:55,030 Wayne could play savage if he had to, and you believed him, because he had that 253 00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:59,350 residue of anger. And I think the anger came from his childhood and his 254 00:22:59,360 --> 00:23:03,890 adolescence, because it was a very rough time. I think that's part of what fueled 255 00:23:03,900 --> 00:23:09,090 his indignation that could come out in his acting and give it such vitality and 256 00:23:09,100 --> 00:23:13,350 virulence and violence. Yeah, it's bigger than life in a way, but also very 257 00:23:13,360 --> 00:23:20,310 grounded, grounded enough that you could believe in it. It wasn't mythic. It was 258 00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:27,280 real, but it was mythic. John Wayne may be the hero America desperately needs, 259 00:23:27,500 --> 00:23:32,310 but his family man status is in serious jeopardy when his on-screen romance turns 260 00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:36,650 into an off-screen affair with a legendary Hollywood sex pot. Wayne came 261 00:23:36,660 --> 00:23:46,850 home to find all his clothes piled on the front lawn. As John Wayne becomes one of 262 00:23:46,860 --> 00:23:51,910 Hollywood's top leading men, his star shines brighter than ever. You know, the 263 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:56,570 fans were very important to him. He knew that without them, he didn't have his 264 00:23:56,580 --> 00:24:01,320 life. So as a little boy, I had to always have his autograph cards in my pocket, 265 00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:04,850 and I'd have to watch him, and when he'd need a new stack, I would have to put 266 00:24:04,860 --> 00:24:09,990 that new stack in his hand. But Wayne's not just a fan favorite. Critics say he's 267 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:15,930 becoming a symbol of America itself. He incrementally defined himself as a kind 268 00:24:15,940 --> 00:24:22,110 of avatar of American masculinity, as mid -century America wanted to think of 269 00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:26,470 American masculinity. He was the whole package, you know? Women wanted to be 270 00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:31,790 with him, men wanted to be like him. Yet the weight of that perfect persona is 271 00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:36,790 often crushing Wayne. The bigger he becomes on screen, the more he grapples 272 00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:42,510 with feeling like an imposter due to his childhood psychological scars. What 273 00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:47,800 brings back the age-old laundry can a very good man have tragic deficiencies. 274 00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:53,630 While his popularity skyrockets, those deficiencies are put on display when it 275 00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:59,290 comes to Wayne's role as a husband to his wealthy socialite wife, Josie. She was 276 00:24:59,300 --> 00:25:03,850 devoutly Catholic, and she was very beautiful and smart. Her Catholicism, he 277 00:25:03,860 --> 00:25:08,650 found slightly claustrophobic, and he gradually grew away from her because she 278 00:25:08,660 --> 00:25:13,850 didn't want any more children, and his access to her was lessened. Wayne's 279 00:25:13,860 --> 00:25:17,830 marriage to Josie may be crumbling, but he doesn't lack the attention of women 280 00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:23,330 and embarks on a series of affairs. His most famous is with actress and co-star 281 00:25:23,340 --> 00:25:28,090 Marlene Dietrich, who allegedly spotted Wayne at a studio commissary and told a 282 00:25:28,100 --> 00:25:32,880 director, Daddy, buy me that. From now on, things are going to be around my way, 283 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:38,180 and you can start adjusting yourself to that idea. And that was a serious thing, 284 00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:41,510 as serious as you could be with Marlene Dietrich. She didn't know the meaning of 285 00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:46,110 monogamy, let alone how to spell it. For Wayne's wife, his blatant infidelity is 286 00:25:46,120 --> 00:25:51,070 too much. Wayne came home to find all of his clothes piled in the front lawn. That 287 00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:55,450 was pretty much the end of the marriage. He had a lot of bad feelings about the 288 00:25:55,460 --> 00:25:58,890 divorce. He felt guilty about the divorce, and he never engaged in that 289 00:25:58,900 --> 00:26:03,410 kind of wholesale behavior again. He kept his nose very clean. But his problems 290 00:26:03,420 --> 00:26:07,430 with women don't end with his first marriage. Just months after his divorce 291 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:12,570 from Josie, he marries Esperanza Chata Bauer. The marriage to Josie was too 292 00:26:12,580 --> 00:26:16,270 staked for him and too refined. So he went completely in the opposite 293 00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:20,890 direction, married a kind of wild woman, and he couldn't control her. And Wayne 294 00:26:20,900 --> 00:26:26,590 was a drinker, but he was never an alcoholic. He was a workaholic, and she 295 00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:32,870 drank a lot. A lot. And that eventually is what broke up the marriage, because 296 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:39,760 she became a really hardcore alcoholic. Having clawed his way out of poverty, 297 00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:45,420 Wayne is driven by his need for success, and by his deep-seated fear of failure. 298 00:26:46,060 --> 00:26:50,050 Lauren Bacall said one of the most charming things about Wayne was how ill 299 00:26:50,060 --> 00:26:56,490 it is he was. At times it made him look very attractive. When things get rough at 300 00:26:56,500 --> 00:27:01,670 home, Wayne turns to the one place he feels most at ease, a film set. I feel 301 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:06,130 like he was super happy when he was engaged in a project. So when they're 302 00:27:06,140 --> 00:27:10,890 making a film, he was happy. Even though home was a nice, nice town to live in, he 303 00:27:10,900 --> 00:27:15,610 had to deal with the administration of life there. He was always happier on 304 00:27:15,620 --> 00:27:21,970 location. He hated to be alone. He liked to be around people. He liked the 305 00:27:21,980 --> 00:27:28,190 feedback. He liked the conversation. He liked the buzz. One movie that garners 306 00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:33,250 plenty of buzz for Wayne is John Ford's The Searchers, recognized by many critics 307 00:27:33,260 --> 00:27:38,190 as the best Western ever made. Hi, it's your uncle. I still think of some of 308 00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:43,770 those images from The Searchers. The hat he wore, the shirt, the color of the 309 00:27:43,780 --> 00:27:49,890 shirt, the walk. It was John Wayne at his most iconic, but also I thought sort of 310 00:27:49,900 --> 00:27:55,970 most authentic. In the 1956 epic, Wayne, who will later endure criticism for his 311 00:27:55,980 --> 00:28:00,750 own controversial views, plays Ethan Edwards, a former Confederate soldier on 312 00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:06,230 an unending quest to find a niece who's been kidnapped by Comanche Indians. Ethan 313 00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:13,370 Edwards and The Searchers is a hardcore racist and unreconstructed Confederate 314 00:28:13,380 --> 00:28:19,810 bigot. Figure a man's only good for one oath at a time. I took mine to the 315 00:28:19,820 --> 00:28:26,780 Confederate States of America. And really has no redeeming social value at all, 316 00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:32,990 except he's the hero. And the reason he's the hero is because any sane man would 317 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:38,330 stop the quest for that child after a couple months, and Ethan keeps going for 318 00:28:38,340 --> 00:28:45,850 years. I hope you die. That'll be the day. A man driven to finish the job he 319 00:28:45,860 --> 00:28:51,290 started no matter the cost, Ethan Edwards is a character Wayne can relate to. And 320 00:28:51,300 --> 00:28:55,310 when his third wife, Pilar Pallette, bears him a son, they name the baby after 321 00:28:55,320 --> 00:29:00,290 the hero of The Searchers. John Ford did a magnificent job directing it, and John 322 00:29:00,300 --> 00:29:06,910 Wayne did a magnificent job in the film. That's where my name came from. Just like 323 00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:10,610 the character, Wayne seems to be on a never-ending personal quest to prove 324 00:29:10,620 --> 00:29:15,350 himself and conquer his gnawing self -doubt. He's already shown he's a 325 00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:21,150 formidable actor, but now he wants to direct. In 1960, he sinks loads of his 326 00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:26,360 own money into the Alamo. He said he's going to make a movie called The Alamo, 327 00:29:27,020 --> 00:29:35,380 and would I be interested in coming to Texas and working with him? I said, well, 328 00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:41,170 sure, I would love to go to Texas and work for you. Wayne's coworkers 329 00:29:41,180 --> 00:29:45,910 consistently see their respect for the man grow and grow on set, even when his 330 00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:51,010 tortured side starts to show. Well, the stuntmen all love John Wayne. They love 331 00:29:51,020 --> 00:29:56,390 working with him. He wouldn't ask you to do anything. He wouldn't do himself. He 332 00:29:56,400 --> 00:30:01,390 just made it damn rough on everybody. Everybody had to pay attention. He was an 333 00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:08,870 unreal son of a... Despite his tremendous efforts, Wayne's directorial debut is a 334 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:12,670 flop. It was a film he desperately had been trying to make for more than ten 335 00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:16,550 years, but Wayne wanted to direct it himself. And he'd never directed anything 336 00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:20,690 before. And because he was so desperate to make the movie, he made a series of 337 00:30:20,700 --> 00:30:27,750 very bad financial deals. So it wiped him out, basically financially. After decades 338 00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:31,590 of running from the failures of his father and painstakingly crafting a new 339 00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:36,390 identity, it looks like everything's about to come crashing down. Will Wayne 340 00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:41,740 be able to undo the disaster of his passion project? Duke Morrison, you know, 341 00:30:41,820 --> 00:30:54,750 wasn't as invincible as John Wayne was on screen. After John Wayne's artistic and 342 00:30:54,760 --> 00:31:00,250 financial failure with the Alamo, the aging star desperately needs a win. So he 343 00:31:00,260 --> 00:31:03,710 returns to doing what he does best, playing a part that will win over 344 00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:08,950 audiences and for the first time in his career, wow, critics. John Wayne really 345 00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:14,970 wasn't taken seriously until very late in his career, with TrueGrit. In the 1969 346 00:31:14,980 --> 00:31:19,530 film, Wayne plays Rooster Cogburn, a drunk misanthrope who helps a young girl 347 00:31:19,540 --> 00:31:25,030 find the man who killed her father. The role earns Wayne his first and only Best 348 00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:31,650 Actor Oscar at the Academy Awards in 1970. The winner is John Wayne in 349 00:31:31,660 --> 00:31:42,050 TrueGrit. But son Ethan says that the man he knows at home is not the same guy who 350 00:31:42,060 --> 00:31:46,960 accepts the Oscar that night. I didn't come to John Wayne through the screen. He 351 00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:51,410 was my father. At home, I was able to see the difference between the man that was 352 00:31:51,420 --> 00:31:55,970 my father and the guy that he played on screen. Duke Morrison wasn't as 353 00:31:55,980 --> 00:32:02,140 invincible as John Wayne was on screen, and he had family issues, marital issues, 354 00:32:02,540 --> 00:32:06,610 sometimes poor business management. Already consumed with trying to measure 355 00:32:06,620 --> 00:32:11,250 up to his epic reputation, Wayne also faces constant battles in his personal 356 00:32:11,260 --> 00:32:16,770 life. His third marriage to Pilar also falls apart. I think they were happy for 357 00:32:16,780 --> 00:32:21,540 a while, for five or ten years. After that, they weren't so happy. Ultimately, 358 00:32:21,660 --> 00:32:24,370 the marriage broke up. They were separated, legally separated, but never 359 00:32:24,380 --> 00:32:32,300 divorced. With the pressures of stardom mounting and continued failures at home, 360 00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:37,770 John Wayne is a man in desperate need of an escape. A Southern California boy, the 361 00:32:37,780 --> 00:32:41,710 actor loves spending time with friends on the water. But when you're the symbol of 362 00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:47,110 American masculinity, a mere sailboat simply won't do. In need of something as 363 00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:51,450 big and bad as the man he plays on screen, Wayne finds a home away from home 364 00:32:51,460 --> 00:32:57,550 on a ship he christened, the Wild Goose. It was a 136-foot converted World War II 365 00:32:57,560 --> 00:33:01,770 minesweeper. The place where he could relax. You know, because the rest of the 366 00:33:01,780 --> 00:33:05,750 time when he's around people, he's got to take care of John Wayne. And when he gets 367 00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:11,210 on the boat, he can finally relax and be Duke Morrison. He pulled a heavy cart 368 00:33:11,220 --> 00:33:18,130 through life, and that boat gave him a place to relax and unwind. But the Wild 369 00:33:18,140 --> 00:33:22,190 Goose isn't the only place where those close to him get to see the real John 370 00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:28,090 Wayne. My fondest memory of my father would be when he could get a break on set 371 00:33:28,100 --> 00:33:33,310 and we could hop on a couple horses and go for a little ride and get that half an 372 00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:37,910 hour or 40 minutes of time together with nobody else around doing something that 373 00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:43,030 we both enjoyed doing. It's probably the most special memory that I have of the 374 00:33:43,040 --> 00:33:50,130 man and my time with him. Far from the shoot first, ask questions later 375 00:33:50,140 --> 00:33:54,590 character he plays on the screen, those who know him say Wayne is a man of great 376 00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:58,810 intellect. He's a history buff, a collector of Native American art, and an 377 00:33:58,820 --> 00:34:03,710 avid chess player. Something Ron Howard gets to know when they work together. I 378 00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:08,970 remember thinking, he plays chess just the way he does everything else. It's 379 00:34:08,980 --> 00:34:17,500 direct, it's attack, it's lean forward. It was full throttle and it had nothing 380 00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:23,770 to do with a movie, but it had everything to do with him. He's a learned man and a 381 00:34:23,780 --> 00:34:30,110 very, very intelligent individual. People expected John Wayne to be just like John 382 00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:35,570 Wayne, and he wasn't. As a person he was much less belligerent than the John Wayne 383 00:34:35,580 --> 00:34:43,250 character. He was more thoughtful. From his earliest days in California, Wayne is 384 00:34:43,260 --> 00:34:48,910 a staunch conservative. Believe me that Duke Wayne was very often at political 385 00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:53,790 gatherings and so forth, and most supportive of me, and I was very grateful 386 00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:59,270 to him for it. Having risen to the top of Hollywood, Wayne isn't the least bit 387 00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:03,630 afraid to speak his mind. I think he thought it was his right as a citizen to 388 00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:08,880 say what he thought, and if they like it, fine. And if they don't like it, fine. 389 00:35:09,460 --> 00:35:13,930 They don't have to go to my movies. After sitting out World War II, Wayne spent 390 00:35:13,940 --> 00:35:18,150 decades not only lugging around guilt, but also taking open criticism for that 391 00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:24,110 decision from his frequent director, John Ford, who did join the war effort. Ford 392 00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:30,230 never let him forget it. He was after him all the time. While you were acting, we 393 00:35:30,240 --> 00:35:34,890 were in the middle of a war. I think it fulfilled a self-flagellative need in 394 00:35:34,900 --> 00:35:39,850 John Wayne. You probably thought, yeah, I deserved that. So in the 1960s, Wayne 395 00:35:39,860 --> 00:35:44,250 doesn't hesitate to make The Green Berets, a propagandistic nod to the 396 00:35:44,260 --> 00:35:49,190 righteousness of the war in Vietnam. Nobody under the age of 25 would go see a 397 00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:52,630 John Wayne movie after The Green Berets and after his public support for the 398 00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:56,170 Vietnam War. I think that's actually one of the reasons the latter portions of his 399 00:35:56,180 --> 00:36:00,690 career, his box office, is actually in decline because of his outspoken 400 00:36:00,700 --> 00:36:06,630 political sympathies. Those political sympathies are on full display in a no 401 00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:11,650 -holds-barred 1971 Playboy magazine interview. In it, Wayne makes some 402 00:36:11,660 --> 00:36:16,550 eyebrow-raising statements that will come back to haunt him. He was not a perfect 403 00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:20,850 man. He knew he wasn't a perfect man. He didn't pretend to be a perfect man. He 404 00:36:20,860 --> 00:36:25,490 knew he was flawed. He played deeply flawed men. He made a lot of trouble for 405 00:36:25,500 --> 00:36:30,830 himself because he refused to put a cork in it, even when he said things that 406 00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:36,250 people got really upset about. When his controversial comments resurface and go 407 00:36:36,260 --> 00:36:43,070 viral in 2019, John Wayne's legacy is in peril. Can it withstand being examined 408 00:36:43,080 --> 00:36:48,070 through a decidedly less forgiving modern lens? The exhibit dedicated to John Wayne 409 00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:52,350 is now being removed in response to student protests. Some students have been 410 00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:56,750 pushing since last fall to remove the exhibit due to Wayne's history of racist 411 00:36:56,760 --> 00:37:00,080 comments. Well, they just need to understand him. If they understood him, 412 00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:04,330 they wouldn't want to cancel him. I don't know, and I've never crossed paths with 413 00:37:04,340 --> 00:37:11,110 anybody who knew my father and didn't love him. He was as worldly as anybody in 414 00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:15,550 existence. But some fans today actually consider Wayne's blunt talk about 415 00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:19,830 controversial topics to be part of his appeal, while others say he should be 416 00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:23,810 remembered for only one thing. Some very good performances and some very good 417 00:37:23,820 --> 00:37:28,590 pictures. And as far as the political stuff, I don't give a shit about that. I 418 00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:33,350 don't want to hear about it. Little does Wayne know that backlash from his red-hot 419 00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:38,530 public opinions is far from the biggest hurdle he will have to face. When we were 420 00:37:38,540 --> 00:37:43,880 making the shoot, there was kind of a sense that this could be his last move. 421 00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:54,820 By the time the 1970s roll around, John Wayne is still busy being John Wayne. 422 00:37:57,820 --> 00:38:05,490 Knock, knock. I wouldn't. Action stars including Steve McQueen, Sylvester 423 00:38:05,500 --> 00:38:10,790 Stallone, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris and Arnold Schwarzenegger have paid homage to 424 00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:15,350 Wayne's influence on their careers. But it's Branigan, clearly inspired by Dirty 425 00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:19,860 Harry, that best showcases what these shoot-em-up stars borrow from the icon. 426 00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:23,950 Remember going to see Branigan and he made me laugh when he blows the front 427 00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:31,710 door off the hinges and says, knock, knock. Knock, knock. That was an Arnold 428 00:38:31,720 --> 00:38:42,130 film before Arnold came along. Knock, knock. Even as he tries his hand as a 429 00:38:42,140 --> 00:38:46,370 tough modern-day crime fighter, Duke Morrison remains true to his western 430 00:38:46,380 --> 00:38:52,630 roots. In 1971, he stars as the title character in Big Jake, along with his son 431 00:38:52,640 --> 00:39:06,910 Ethan, who places grandson Little Jake. You heard? No, I'm scared. So am I. But 432 00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:13,590 don't let them know it. Well, for me, Big Jake was amazing because I got more time 433 00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:20,390 on set and with him, so I loved it. While on set for Big Jake, Ethan gets to see 434 00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:25,870 that, after decades in Hollywood, his father is the one in charge. I don't care 435 00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:30,630 who was producing or who was directing, they were John Wayne movies. And so he 436 00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:36,770 had, you know, a hand in most of what happened on the set. He was used to 437 00:39:36,780 --> 00:39:41,450 working a certain way and so he might say, just put the camera there, put the 438 00:39:41,460 --> 00:39:45,370 light there and turn the damn thing on. Like, let's get on with it. He could work 439 00:39:45,380 --> 00:39:51,670 faster than a lot of people. Take off your glasses. My what? Your goggles. But 440 00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:56,110 Wayne's days of hustling as one of Hollywood's hardest-working actors can't 441 00:39:56,120 --> 00:40:02,810 last forever. My father was a smoker. My father smoked unfiltered camels and he 442 00:40:02,820 --> 00:40:06,270 basically used one match a day and he'd light the next one off the last 443 00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:12,530 cigarette. In 1964, Wayne beats a first battle with lung cancer, then uses the 444 00:40:12,540 --> 00:40:17,570 same voice that's often landed him in hot water to try to make a difference. So why 445 00:40:17,580 --> 00:40:22,950 don't all of you do yourselves a favor? Get a checkup. Talk someone you like into 446 00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:27,570 getting a checkup. Nag someone you love into getting a checkup. They told him to 447 00:40:27,580 --> 00:40:31,670 be quiet, not to tell anybody, would kill his career. He went the opposite 448 00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:36,110 direction. He said, no, you know, if I can go out and tell my story and some 449 00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:40,530 other guy who's been avoiding a checkup goes and gets it. His life could be 450 00:40:40,540 --> 00:40:46,420 saved. On screen, Wayne has made a career of putting his enemies in their place. 451 00:40:46,760 --> 00:40:51,390 But in the 1970s, he finds that when dealing with cancer, he's up against an 452 00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:56,170 unstoppable force. The first bout he had with cancer was one thing, but the second 453 00:40:56,180 --> 00:41:01,290 one really was rough. In his last film, The Shootest, Wayne plays an aging 454 00:41:01,300 --> 00:41:05,810 gunfighter who is also fighting the dreaded disease. His young co-star 455 00:41:05,820 --> 00:41:10,550 develops a whole new perspective on the Hollywood icon during the shoot. I knew a 456 00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:15,510 lot about John Wayne. We got along right away. There just was something that 457 00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:22,350 clicked. He was very welcoming. I didn't necessarily think he was a great, great 458 00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:27,970 actor, but I thought of Wayne as a fantastic movie star. As I began to work 459 00:41:27,980 --> 00:41:35,740 with him, I gained a tremendous amount of respect acting with John Wayne. Look out! 460 00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:46,870 But Howard also witnesses Wayne's declining health firsthand. When we were 461 00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:51,790 making The Shootest, there was kind of a sense this could be his last movie. And 462 00:41:51,800 --> 00:41:56,450 he had his moments of struggling where he just needed to sit down, collect his 463 00:41:56,460 --> 00:42:05,210 breath, and carry on. But his ambition was to do more. It's this ambition that 464 00:42:05,220 --> 00:42:09,650 carried Wayne since his earliest days as Duke Morrison, and will be with him when 465 00:42:09,660 --> 00:42:16,270 he finally succumbs to cancer in 1979. It was front page news all over the world 466 00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:21,850 today. John Wayne was dead. President Carter paid tribute to him as the genuine 467 00:42:21,860 --> 00:42:29,490 article in an Age of Few Heroes. When the final credits roll in his life, he's 468 00:42:29,500 --> 00:42:36,030 listed on his death certificate as Marion Morrison, aka John Wayne. I think he 469 00:42:36,040 --> 00:42:39,690 always thought of himself as Duke Morrison. John Wayne was the name that he 470 00:42:39,700 --> 00:42:43,250 worked under, but I think he thought of himself as Duke Morrison. He never 471 00:42:43,260 --> 00:42:48,630 changed his name. If he liked you, he'd say, call me Duke. That's part of what I 472 00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:53,710 dig about it. I know it's a creation. That creation gave Wayne endless 473 00:42:53,720 --> 00:43:00,030 opportunity and an endless burden to carry. But even in death, Wayne's 474 00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:05,130 fighting spirit continues. As a family, we established the John Wayne Cancer 475 00:43:05,140 --> 00:43:08,770 Foundation. It worked around 100,000 people a year who were getting cutting 476 00:43:08,780 --> 00:43:12,830 edge treatment and surgery because of John Wayne. Because when he was dying, he 477 00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:18,260 said, use my name to help these doctors fight cancer. Duke Morrison may be gone, 478 00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:24,660 but John Wayne will live forever. John Wayne's legacy is creating a coherent, 479 00:43:25,480 --> 00:43:31,350 idealized vision of American masculinity. You can bounce up against it, you can 480 00:43:31,360 --> 00:43:38,850 criticize it, you can alter it and object to it, but you can't deny it. Anyone 481 00:43:38,860 --> 00:43:46,270 would like to be as badass and tough -minded and as tough physically as Wayne 482 00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:55,770 was on screen. He brought strength and virtue to sort of making the hard 483 00:43:55,780 --> 00:44:02,650 decisions and doing what had to be done in a very accessible, exhilarating, rough 484 00:44:02,660 --> 00:44:08,590 and tumble way with no compromise. John Wayne was aspirational. John Wayne could 485 00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:15,270 set your moral compass. You could watch that and go, that's a tough decision, but 486 00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:19,090 it's the right decision. And if you don't make that decision, you'll pay for it for 487 00:44:19,100 --> 00:44:21,920 the rest of your life because you'll be disappointed in yourself.