The actor John Wayne hated so much he called them a little shit twice: “Son of a bitch”
The embodiment of the onscreen American cowboy, John Wayne etched his name into the mythology of not only the western genre, but also Hollywood history. He also happened to be a cantankerous sort and wouldn’t suffer fools, as many discovered to their detriment.
Being one of the biggest stars in the industry affords an actor a certain sense of security, and in Wayne’s case, he was accustomed to things being either his way or the highway. Unless, of course, he was working with mentor and father figure John Ford, in which case he always knew he would be the second most formidable person on set.
Outside of their frequent collaborations, though, ‘The Duke’ was almost always top dog. He battled with plenty of co-stars over the years for reasons that range from the innocuous to the unhinged, but there was one actor in particular who pissed Wayne off so much that he made a repeated habit of calling them a “little shit”.
In Wayne’s defence, he was under immense pressure. For years, he’d harboured dreams of making The Alamo, and when he finally got around to his directorial debut, plenty of his own money was on the line. He didn’t even want to play Davy Crockett in the 1960 picture, but when he discovered the easiest way to secure funding was to cast himself in the lead role, he wasn’t left with much of a choice.
The Duke had initially earmarked the part of Jim Bowie for himself after realising The Alamo wasn’t going to happen unless he starred, which seemed inevitable given his standing as one of Tinseltown’s pre-eminent A-listers. After bumping himself up to top billing, Richard Widmark was drafted in, and Wayne ended up regretting it.
A venerated performer in his own right, Widmark and Wayne never saw eye-to-eye, and at one point, they almost came to blows. As recounted in Robert E Relyea’s book Not So Quiet on the Set: My Life in Movies During Hollywood’s Macho Era, the pair of powerhouse personalities weren’t above petty name-calling, either.
All Widmark did was approach ‘The Duke’ to ask about an upcoming scene, only for the irritable and exhausted Wayne to call him a “little son of a bitch”. When his cast member continued to seek counsel for a sequence they were scheduled to shoot together, the director and leading man upped the ante and increased his levels of bile, branding Widmark a “little shit”.
Refusing to take it lying down, Widmark was ready to square up to Wayne and drag The Alamo into the mire of very real physical violence, only for things to be broken up by the crew and tensions diffused. To a point, anyway, after The Duke made a point of calling him a “crazy little shit” as they retreated to opposite ends of the set to ensure things didn’t get any messier.
There were plenty of actors Wayne didn’t like, but very rarely did he come out all guns blazing and aim a foul-mouthed tirade in their direction, putting Widmark in rare – and esteemed – company.
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