The 1948 co-star John Wayne called too ugly to make it: “You just aren’t a handsome fella”
Feel free to disagree, but John Wayne didn’t become one of the biggest stars of his era because he was handsome. He wasn’t unattractive in a conventional sense, but let’s just say he was no Cary Grant.
What made him a household name was his personality. He wasn’t the most eye-catching or head-turning looker, and he wasn’t the best actor, either, but ‘The Duke’ had screen presence to spare and an instantly recognisable, identifiable brand of charisma that he weaponised to rule the box office for decades.
The older he got, the craggier he got, but he was still John Wayne, so audiences continued turning up in their droves to see his latest picture. He’d be one of the first to admit he was far from being a matinee idol, even if describing Montgomery Clift as “a waste of a face” for being gay was archaic, even for the time.
Those two ‘Golden Age’ heavy hitters starred together in 1948’s Red River, but even someone of Wayne’s personal and political beliefs wouldn’t dare call someone who looked like Clift too ugly to make it in Hollywood. Instead, he settled on a newcomer, one who also happened to be his mentor’s son.
More than that, he was basically family. Harry Carey Jr was the son of Harry Carey, who was instrumental in turning Marion Morrison into John Wayne. In 1944, the second-generation actor married Marilyn Fix, the daughter of Paul Fix, the second of the two most paramount influences who turned an unknown and aspiring Iowa thespian into ‘The Duke’, so they were as close as could be.
However, when Carey Jr, who was nicknamed ‘Dobie’, started making inroads into the film business, he didn’t win everyone over. He had a couple of credits to his name the first time he co-starred with Wayne in 1948’s Red River, and during a conversation about whether or not he should bill himself as Harry Carey Jr or Dobie Carey, he received some tough love.
“My suggestion is, don’t go into the picture business,” Wayne told him. “Find yourself another line of work. You’re gonna have a rough go in pictures, Dobie. You just aren’t a handsome-looking fella. Physically, you are not a leading man. My suggestion is you get yourself some little business as a sideline, because you aren’t ever going to be working steady in pictures, Dobie.”
Did he listen? He did not. Carey and Wayne co-starred in two pictures that year, with 3 Godfathers releasing after Red River, and they’d reunite in Rio Grande, Island in the Sky, The Searchers, Rio Bravo, Big Jake, and more, with the former eventually appearing in over 90 movies before passing away in 2012 at the age of 91.
Had he taken ‘The Duke’ to heart, he’d have backed out of Hollywood entirely and found something else to do with his life, but he was determined to follow in his father and father-in-law’s footsteps by making a name for himself as his own man, and for the most part, he achieved it.
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