“This guy must be a real ass”: the one actor who stood up to John Wayne and earned his respect
Working with John Wayne could be daunting even for established stars, with the actor’s standing and reputation as one of Hollywood’s most iconic, bankable, and powerful names following him everywhere he went.
He also had a habit of being a difficult customer on occasion, but because he was ‘The Duke’, he was accustomed to getting his own way. He’d regularly seek to exert his will over directors and cast members alike, with his track record of success and A-list status making it difficult for those further down the ladder to stand their ground.
Earning Wayne’s respect was the easiest way to get on his good side, something that younger actors and veteran performers discovered wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Ron Howard managed it, and he became something of a protege when they worked together on his final film, The Shootist.
James Caan was another who found out first-hand the smartest way to ingratiate himself with The Duke was to play him at his own game, but nobody did it quite as ingeniously as Rock Hudson when the two shared the screen in 1969’s western The Undefeated.
As Hudson’s long-term partner Marc Christian told Larry King, “Rock was in awe of John Wayne, who was just the greatest male movie star of all time.” That didn’t go unnoticed either, with the leading man making a regular habit of needling his co-star, especially when he found out his real name.
Hudson was born Roy Scherer Jr, which led to Wayne calling him ‘June’ for short, which quickly got under the skin. “After about a couple of weeks of this, Rock was really incensed,” Christian shared. “He thought, ‘Oh, this guy must be a real ass.'” Fortunately, the ultimate comeback was close at hand, with a crew member lending a timely assist when he informed Hudson that ‘The Duke’ was born Marion Morrison.
He wasn’t aware at the time that John Wayne was a stage name, but he never forgot. “The next day, when Wayne said, ‘Hey, June, come over here, we’ve got a scene to do’, Rock said, ‘I’ll be right there, Marion,'” Christian explained. “And that broke the ice, and Wayne just, they just became pals after that.”
Goals don’t come much more open than Wayne spending weeks mocking Hudson by turning his birth name into an insult, only for the latter to respond by pulling the very same trick on the former. Just like that, ‘The Duke’ had been won over by his colleague’s quick-witted turning of the tables, and they became fast friends.
If anything, Wayne maybe should have seen it coming when the Marion card was always there waiting to be played, but standing up to the superstar immediately established Hudson as a worthy adversary and someone deserving of his respect.
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