The only director who gave John Wayne a “greater boost” than John Ford
One of the most iconic actor/director partnerships in the history of cinema they may be, but John Wayne didn’t think the biggest boost of his career came at the hands of his most famous collaborator.
Of course, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise when it was John Ford wielding the megaphone on the film that initially elevated ‘The Duke’ from actor to star in 1939’s Stagecoach, which turned out to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Over the course of the next three decades, the dynamic duo would collaborate on another 13 movies that gave rise to such classics as The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Quiet Man, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon to name just a few, but Wayne was smart enough to realise that if he made on-screen magic with a director, there was every chance lightning would strike twice.
Henry Hathaway was another who became a staple of that inner filmmaking circle after working with ‘The Duke’ on half a dozen pictures, including the one that nabbed him his Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’. Still, even the True Grit architect wasn’t at the forefront of Wayne’s mind when it came to naming a director who saw something in him that few others did at the time.
When reflecting on his storied career during a 1976 talk show appearance with Phil Donahue, though, Wayne did admittedly take a moment to celebrate his best friend, mentor, and father figure. “I’ll tell you there are a lot of wonderful directors. Mr. Ford who was my mentor, he started me in the business,” he said.
Adding: “I’d quit school and was talking a pre-legal course because I’d figured I’d like to be in pictures, not as an actor but as a director. I had such tutelage under him and knew his style so he’s the man who most stands out in my mind.”
However, Ford wasn’t the top dog. “Howard Hawks probably gave me a greater boost in the business than Mr. Ford, because he admitted that I was helpful to him and that I could act, which Mr. Ford liked to take the credit for,” Wayne explained in reference to Ford’s repeated habit of criticising his favoured leading man’s acting abilities in what was a career-long textbook example of tough love.
‘The Duke’ worked under the versatile and influential Hawks on Red River, Rio Bravo, Hatari!, El Dorado, and Rio Lobo, where he encouraged Wayne to sink his teeth into the character he was playing and actually do a little bit of acting in the conventional sense, instead of relying simply on his persona and star power to get the job done. It was an approach that paid huge dividends, and that spirit of true creative collaboration is clearly one the face of the classic western carried with him for the rest of his days.
