A slap in the face for ‘The Duke’: the actor who betrayed John Wayne after he made them a star
Self-preservation can often be the name of the game for an actor trying to make their mark in a cutthroat industry, but John Wayne was secure enough in his stardom that he didn’t mind helping others get a foot on the Hollywood ladder.
In fact, ‘The Duke’ was instrumental in launching a close friend and regular collaborator to mainstream prominence, only to be left hanging when he wanted to call in a favour. It was a slap in the face for the icon, especially when he was more responsible than anybody else for making them famous in the first place.
In the 1950s, James Arness was taken under Wayne’s wing, landing supporting parts in films like Big Jim McClain, Hondo, Island in the Sky, and The Sea Chase. Even when ‘The Duke’ wasn’t taking centre stage, he was willing to back his co-star to the hilt, producing 1956’s western Gun the Man Down through his Batjac banner and casting Arness in the lead.
Arness might have seen his future on the silver screen, but when the TV series Gunsmoke was searching for the perfect actor to headline the ongoing show as Matt Dillon, Wayne personally recommended Arness to the producers and even introduced the relative unknown to television viewers when he recorded a prologue that aired before the inaugural episode in 1955.
Considering that Arness would inhabit the role for the next 20 years, he owed a huge debt of gratitude to Wayne for turning him into a household name. Unfortunately, the relationship between them soured several years after Gunsmoke hit the airwaves, when ‘The Duke’ was piecing together his passion project and directorial debut, The Alamo.
The first-time filmmaker didn’t want the focus to fall on him, so he initially cast himself as Sam Houston. Inevitably, financiers were unwilling to support the budget if one of the biggest stars in the business wasn’t front-and-centre, so Wayne begrudgingly upgraded himself to the central role of Davy Crockett.
That meant Houston was available, and ‘The Duke’ couldn’t think of anyone better than Arness. A meeting was arranged so they could discuss The Alamo, and Wayne was presumably under the impression that it was a foregone conclusion. At least, that’s what he would have been thinking until Arness no-showed.
Regular Gunsmoke director Andrew V McLaglen was the middleman between the two parties and arranged the meeting, which didn’t go to plan. “So I set it up with Jim,” he explained to Courtney Joyner. “And at the end of shooting on this given day, Wayne came over with about five of his production gang to talk to Arness. And guess what? Arness ran out on the appointment.”
Wayne was fuming, Richard Boone ended up playing Houston in The Alamo, Arness continued with Gunsmoke until 1975, and he never worked with ‘The Duke’ again after leaving him high and dry at the last minute, which was hardly the way to repay the guy who’d made him a star.
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