The actor John Wayne thought deserved the Oscar more than him: “You should have this”
As the living embodiment of on-screen Americana, even at the peak of his powers, John Wayne was viewed as more of a persona than a performer, with the legendary star only ever receiving two Academy Award nominations for his acting work.
It might seem trite to reduce a career to such a comparatively pointless facet of the industry, but while Wayne’s body of work is as vast as many oceans, they seemed to enjoy the depth of your local puddle. It left many onlookers labelling Wayne a one-trick pony. A hero tough guy that could barely act, and this was an assessment that left Wayne crippled by anxiety.
For the most part, he would use bravado to try and ignore the nagging feeling that he had never truly delivered great acting work. His popularity among the cinema-going public likely acted as a salve of sorts, too. But Wayne was always determined to pick up the trophy as a merit attributed to his resume by his peers. Those nominations meant more than most.
The first came in 1949’s war drama Sands of Iwo Jima, and he emerged victorious for the second time when he asked when his performance as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit saw him named ‘Best Actor’. In between, his directorial debut The Alamo was shortlisted for ‘Best Picture’, so in one respect, a 50% success rate at the Oscars isn’t too bad.
It’s not entirely reflective of the litany of iconic movies and towering turns he delivered over the decades, though, but ‘The Duke’ was surprisingly gracious in victory. For better or worse, Wayne was a straight shooter who didn’t concern himself with such things as keeping his potentially controversial or inflammatory opinions to himself, but he nonetheless remarked that he may not have been the most deserving winner.
Also vying for consideration in that year’s ‘Best Actor’ race were Midnight Cowboy‘s Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, Goodbye, Mr. Chips‘ Peter O’Toole, and Anne of the Thousand Days‘ Richard Burton. Based entirely on Wayne’s derogatory opinion of the first X-rated movie to ever win ‘Best Picture’ at the Oscars, it goes without saying that he wasn’t of the belief Voight or Hoffman deserved it more than him.
Instead, according to Scott Eyman’s book John Wayne: The Life and Legend, ‘The Duke’ confessed to Burton during celebratory post-Oscars drinks that “you should have this, not me”. Having finally secured the crowning achievement of any actor’s career more than 40 years after his screen debut and three decades into his tenure as a household name, it was an atypically modest reflection from the cantankerous star.
It’s hard to say Wayne didn’t deserve it when his performance in True Grit is easily up there as among his very best, made all the more impressive by the trepidation he faced before the start of production. Stepping outside his comfort zone wasn’t something he did all that often, especially when the film marked one of the rare occasions where the script and character hadn’t been drastically altered to fit what audiences expected to see from ‘The Duke’.
It all worked out very well in the end for Wayne, even if he was under the impression Burton’s turn as Henry VIII in director Charles Jarrott’s historical drama tracing the life, times, and beheading of Anne Boleyn was superior to his performance in every way.
Fortunately, the Academy was in vehement disagreement, allowing ‘The Duke’ to finally snatch the big one and add a ‘Best Actor’ gong to his exhaustive list of cinematic accolades.
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