He was also a vile racist and homophobic bigot.He was always a fake.
He never rang true on screen.
Despite being a proponent of “manly values” he was one of the first Hollywood stars to have cosmetic surgery to try and keep his “youthful” looks.
The fact is that while there are some actors who cultivate a hard man image, very few actually are.
Some of Wayne’s generation of actors obviously fought in WW2 and so I’d likely say they were the real deal. But Wayne was arguably a draft dodger.
Wayne never enlisted and even filed for a 3-A draft deferment, which meant that if the sole provider for a family of four were drafted, it would cause his family undue hardship. Other version say he was too old to fight but desperately tried to enlist.
Either way, the closest he ever came to World War II service was portraying the actions of others on film. And he did that rather unconvincingly.
He was mostly a fraud.
Some of his comments in an interview in 1971:
“I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people,“
“I don’t feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves.”
With respect to Native Americans he said:
“I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival”
“There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”
Democrats push to drop John Wayne’s name from airport over racist comments
Democrats in Orange county, California, call for change in light of ‘racist and bigoted statements’ actor made in 1971 interview
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