“Too underestimated”: for this legendary director, John Wayne was “an excellent actor”

Often confined to roles of burnt cowboys and not allowing it to count, John Wayne has not been much recognized by his peers for his acting talents. However, a famous director appointed to the Oscar and respected for the whole of his career had expressed his admiration for the interpreter of John T. Chance in Rio Bravo:

“Wayne is too underestimated”

Twentieth Century Fox

In the magazine Movie theater (Vol. 1, n ° 6) published in November-December 1963, director Howard Hawks, who turned the actor four times, said:

“Wayne is too underestimated. He is a much better actor that is often said. He is an excellent actor. He makes things hold it together, he gives them solidity, honesty, and he can make a lot of credible things. If he is a little grumpy in a scene, you know that there is something that does not go in the scene. He can not tell you, but you can know what.

Wayne-Hawks, a love story

Wayne and Hawks worked together on three westerns that have become three classics: La Rivière Rouge (1948), Rio Bravo (1959) and El Dorado (1966). They also shot the famous Hatari!, Which takes place in East Africa.

Twentieth Century Fox

Wayne has always honored John Ford like the one who, with the fantastic ride, had made him a movie star. On the other hand, he added that it was thanks to Howard Hawks and his performance in the Red River that he could (finally) be greeted as an actor. In this last film, Wayne embodied a very hard cattle baron with his employees and opposing his assistant Matthew (Montgomery Clift), who disapproves of his tyrannical way of managing his business.

John Wayne will have to wait for his 63 years before collecting an Oscar for best actor for his role in the hundred dollars western for a sheriff. He had before that was appointed at the price of the best actor for Iwo Jima in 1950 and that of the best film for Alamo in 1961.