John Wayne (1907-1979)
By J. Fenady

WHEN POLLS ARE CONDUCTED to measure the popularity of favorite movie stars, deceased stars are not supposed to be among the names showing up in the results. That’s not because they’re prohibited. It’s just the nature of polls, which always favor stars who are active and appearing in current smash hits. But there’s one exception to this rule.
In the most recent annual Harris poll of this type, the name of John Wayne stood right up there among the hottest names of today. In fact, he’s up there every year. Here’s what the folks at Harris Interactive said of this phenomenon:“The continuing popularity of John Wayne is, of course, quite extraordinary. It is now 24 years since he died… No other dead movie star has ever made it into the top 10 since Harris Interactive began asking this question 10 years ago.”

But for those of us who are familiar with John Wayne—and what real movie fan isn’t?—this comes as no surprise.

When lists of all-time “Top 100” stars are celebrated in the media, the Duke is not just among the leaders but usually at number one, or at worst only a tick or two off the top.

I came into my friendship with John Wayne in a roundabout fashion, by way of a television series, a Western, called The Rebel. I wrote the pilot and was writer-producer of a number of episodes. And always, when I’d write dialogue for the show’s title character, Johnny Yuma, I’d write them as though spoken by ol’ “Tall in the Saddle” himself. My idol, John Wayne.

I hadn’t just seen all the John Wayne movies ever shot. I had studied them, branded them into the hide of my memory.

It happened that John Wayne’s son, Michael, and I used to work out together at the gymnasium at Paramount Studios. Michael told me that his dad always watched The Rebel when he was home Sunday nights. Through Michael I met the Duke and convinced him that Hondo, one of his and my favorite Westerns, could make a television series. Next, I convinced MGM and ABC. It’s still running every Saturday morning on TNT.

After that, all I had to do was convince John Wayne that he ought to play John Simpson Chisum and that I ought to write and produce the picture.

So passed the next two years. While we were preparing, shooting, and in post-production on Chisum, I spent a lot of time with the Duke, on Hellfighters, True Grit, The Undefeated, on land and on sea aboard his yacht, Wild Goose.

No man was more a part of the American landscape. John Wayne was the snow-painted Sierras where eagles circle high. He was the night wind wailing through Monument Valley. Pine tops, tall and uncut. He was hoofbeats moving West. He was a man to match the mountains. And he was Chisum.

Best of all, he was my friend.

I’ve had the honor and pleasure of writing for, and working with, some of the greats, men and women—Robert Mitchum, Charles Bronson, Ernie Borgnine, Burt Reynolds, Angela Lansbury, Bob Hope, Don Ameche, Gail Russell, Anne Francis, Stella Stevens, Helen Hayes, Ray Milland, Broderick Crawford, Ben Johnson, Christopher Reeve and, oh so many, many more. But those two years with the Ringo Kid, Quirt Evans, Tom Dunson, Captain Brittles, Hondo Lane, Rooster Cogburn, and John Simpson Chisum were the greatest—and so was he.

Did John Wayne change America? You bet he did. He helped bridge generations by giving fathers and sons a common figure to admire. He changed America by lifting spirits and resolution in times when they might have wavered. By providing an example of what it means to be brave and true. As the polls show, that example lives on, and the America that continues on is all the better for it.

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