The only movie John Wayne made without his toupee: “I think it’s a most underrated film”
Every big name in Hollywood enjoys keeping their friends close, and John Wayne was no different, with the actor and very occasional filmmaker boasting an inner circle he worked with for decades.
John Ford was the most influential, important, and notable of the bunch, but ‘The Duke’ also spent years frequently collaborating with Henry Hathaway, Maureen O’Hara, Paul Fix, Ward Bond, Harry Carey, and many more, and he even welcomed a horse into his circle of trust.
He was never regarded as cinema’s greatest horseman, but with the trusty steed, Dollor, by his side, Wayne made a point of ensuring his equine acquaintance was his go-to scene partner. It was an extensive roster of regulars, but the one co-star he’d never be caught dead without was an inanimate object; his trusty toupee.
Once he realised his luscious locks were quickly evolving into a haircut with a sunroof, ‘The Duke’ sported a rug in almost every one of his films. He didn’t wear it 24 hours a day, but he wouldn’t be caught dead in public without it, because he knew it would harm his image and persona if he was snapped out and about with the sunlight beaming off his shiny dome.
His hair started thinning when he was in his 30s, and from the late 1940s on, Wayne never made a movie without his hairpiece being fixed firmly in place. Everyone knew it was fake, but they didn’t care, and neither did he: “It’s not phoney, it’s real hair,” he famously said. “Of course, it’s not mine, but it’s real.”
The prospect of the ‘Golden Age’ western’s pre-eminent leading man galivanting around the set with his bald spot displayed for the world to see was unthinkable, but there was a sole exception. It also happened to be in a picture about American heroism that was a passion project of Ford’s, which explains why Wayne made the ultimate follicular sacrifice in the name of his art.
1957’s The Wings of Eagles starred ‘The Duke’ as Frank ‘Spig’ Wead, a naval aviator who later became a screenwriter who penned the scripts for over 30 films before returning to front-line military service during World War II, despite being forced into retirement after suffering a severe spinal injury in 1926.
To convincingly portray Wead in his later years, Wayne did what he’d never done before and performed his scenes sans toupee, with co-star Dan Dailey explaining how much the role meant to him: “It was a difficult role for Duke because he felt he had an obligation to play Frank Wead with honesty and dignity.”
“That’s why, when he’s in the scenes where he plays Wead as an older man, for the first time ever, Duke removed his toupee and revealed his thinning hair to the public,” Dailey elaborated. “But the funny thing was, he was so good in the part that nobody noticed he was showing his naturally balding pate.”
Doing Wead’s story justice meant a lot to ‘The Duke’ and the man he called ‘Pappy’, but The Wings of Eagles isn’t often mentioned as one of either legend’s finest efforts. Dailey liked it, though, telling Michael Munn that “I think it’s a most underrated film,” and it even made history as the only time Wayne showed off his baldy napper onscreen.
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