Kirk Douglas Had One Rule For Working with John Wayne
The pairing of legendary actors Kirk Douglas and John Wayne in a series of movies during the late sixties was truly a stroke of genius. Both of these men were huge stars in their own right, so by combining these two movie giants, the thinking went, audiences simply would not be able to resist.
Kirk Douglas starred with John Wayne in In Harm’s Way, Cast a Giant Shadow, and the epic Western, The War Wagon. These three great movies showcased truly wonderful performances by two very different actors. Just how different were they? To use Kirk’s own words, he and Wayne “seldom saw things the same way;” they just didn’t see eye-to-eye.
During a 1971 interview with television talk show host Dick Cavett, Kirk talked about working with Wayne. Because they held such different beliefs about certain things, the two seldom interacted off-screen while making movies. In fact, in that same interview, Kirk confessed that he and Wayne would make it a point to only get together once during the making of each film.
Everett Collection
According to Kirk, they would have dinner once, and do their darnedest to find topics of conversation where they could keep things comfortable. Because both actors had such tremendous respect for each other, they very purposefully avoided any conversation that had the potential to become political. This was their one rule: Because they saw things very differently, they simply could not risk their working relationship being impacted by any hard feelings that could potentially stem from a heated debate.
After dinner, Douglas and Wayne would part ways. Sure, they’d see each other on the set, but that would be it for the remainder of each production. At the end of the day, you could say that these two fellers were friendly, but they really weren’t close friends.
Of the three movies that Kirk Douglas and John Wayne made together during the late sixties, I certainly have a favorite: The War Wagon. This movie is the story of a man, played by Wayne, who was shot, robbed, and wrongly imprisoned. After his release, he decides to make things right by stealing a large gold shipment from the man who committed these wrongs against him. The gold is secured in a super fancy, heavily armored stagecoach called the War Wagon, and the chemistry between Douglas and Wayne in this movie is absolutely great. The whole darn movie is just a ton of fun. If you’re a fan of classic westerns and have never seen this one, you should definitely check it out.
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