“She could rough me up”: the actor John Wayne called “the female equivalent of me”
As one of the most ineradicable personalities in cinema history, it’s safe to say there’s only ever going to be one John Wayne. Plenty of actors were heralded as pretenders to the throne, but the iconic star will always be remembered as one of Hollywood’s most towering talents.
It wasn’t by accident, either. Marion Morrison worked hard and spent years developing the many facets of the character everyone would come to know as ‘The Duke’, having realised when he was on the lowest rung of the industry ladder that he needed something to make him stand out among a crowded back.
He changed his name, altered his accent, switched up his cadence, and adopted the walk that would become as recognisable as it was widely parodied, turning himself into the biggest name in the business by becoming something he wasn’t, to the extent that his creation, John Wayne, rendered Marion Morrison irrelevant.
Throughout his career, ‘The Duke’ encountered the good, the bad, and the ugly of his profession, making as many friends as he did enemies. Whether it was studio heads, directors, co-stars, or those damned commies, Wayne prided himself on speaking his mind, regardless of how many people he pissed off along the way.
The prospect of a single John Wayne was enough to strike fear into the hearts of certain Hollywood figures, but two of them? Now there’s a haunting prospect. Instead of dedicating himself to perfecting cloning technology, the actor stumbled upon his doppelganger by chance, and they quickly became the only woman welcomed into his inner circle.
Their first meeting was a sign of things to come and an indication that they might be kindred spirits after Maureen O’Hara ended up assisting a pissed-up ‘Duke’ getting home from a party in 1939 because he was too shitfaced to make it on his own. A bond was formed, even if it would be another 11 years before they made their first of four films together, John Ford’s Rio Grande.
“She’s like the female equivalent of me,” Wayne told Michael Munn. “She could rough me up, and I could rough her up.” That’s probably why he also called her “the greatest guy I ever met,” because he could see himself in her. Most women probably wouldn’t take too kindly to being called the female version of John Wayne, but O’Hara wore it as a badge of honour.
“Duke was tall and strong, and I was tall and strong,” she explained. “When we quarrelled onscreen, it was a battle between two equals, which is a rare thing between a leading man and a leading lady on the screen.” Wayne wasn’t always fond of sharing the spotlight with his co-stars, male or female, but it makes sense that he would do so with O’Hara when he saw her as an equivalent.
His compliments often seemed backhanded, though, with O’Hara’s fondness for speaking her mind impressing Wayne, “despite my old-fashioned chauvinistic ways.” He also described her as “feminine and beautiful,” but did add that “there is something about her that makes her more like a man,” which probably isn’t what every gal dreams of hearing from a balding bigot. And yet, she didn’t even make his list of favourite actors, which seems cruel.
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