The scene that almost saw John Wayne trampled to death on camera: “There was general hysteria”
There’s no such thing as a production that’s 100% guaranteed to go off without a hitch, but John Wayne nonetheless developed a habit of being almost killed by his movies than most of his peers.
It’s never an ideal scenario for one of the most popular and bankable names in Hollywood to place themselves directly in the line of danger, but since ‘The Duke’ lived for his audience, he felt it was only fair that he’d stare death straight in the face on their behalf, which almost cost him dearly several times.
In 1964’s Circus World, where many scenes required rampaging flames, one of the sets collapsed during an orchestrated fire, with Wayne managing to escape a few seconds before the entire thing landed on top of him and ended his life in a fashion not dissimilar to The Wizard of Oz‘s Wicked Witch of the East.
When he was shooting Hellfighters four years later, a wayward catering truck smashed into his trailer, where ‘The Duke’ was doing nothing but minding his own business. Then there’s The Conqueror, which might have actually killed him, since so many cast and crew members developed and ultimately died from cancer, which has been at least partially attributed to the awful movie being shot near a nuclear testing site.
Clearly, Wayne knew his way around an on-set mishap or two, but the major difference between those incidents and what happened on John Ford’s 1949 western, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, was that the actor’s final moments could have been captured on camera for posterity, which would have secured the picture a ghoulish place in cinema history, at least.
Playing a cavalry captain on the verge of retirement would obviously necessitate ‘The Duke’ to spend some time on horseback, which he did. However, when things went awry, he ended up on his back, and the last thing he almost saw were hundreds upon hundreds of hooves pounding him into a patriotic paste.
During a scene, the belt on his saddle loosened, and Wayne smashed into the turf. “I hit the ground. Hit my head. Blacked out,” he recalled. “Now there’s about 50 horses tear-assing at me. I came out of the blackout to hear the old man, Mr Ford, yelling, and there was general hysteria.”
“General hysteria” was a relaxed way of putting it, since he’d been knocked unconscious and had a half-century of equine intensity hurtling in his direction, forcing one man into action.” A wrangler with guts, he ran out and headed off the stampeding horses,” he explained. “Which were within a few feet of stomping me to death.”
With seconds to spare, Wayne’s life was saved. Knowing Ford, he’d have probably blamed the star for ruining his movie by having the audacity to die right in front of him, but, fortunately, it didn’t come to that.
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