John Wayne ‘Visibly Shuddered’ When Anyone Said 1 of His Movie Titles
Movie star John Wayne starred in over 165 films over the course of his career. Unfortunately, they didn’t all necessarily make him proud. He had plenty of bad roles, some of which resulted from his performance and others because of casting. Nevertheless, there was one Wayne movie that was so traumatic that he “visually shuddered” when anybody would mention the title.
John Wayne admitted that he played some bad movie roles
Wayne had his first chance to make it in the movie business with Raoul Walsh’s The Big Trail in 1930. Unfortunately, audiences underappreciated it at the time, and it flopped at the box office. However, that didn’t mark the end. He was thrust into B-movie Westerns for many years, many of which he wasn’t too happy to be a part of. Nevertheless, he was lucky to have consistent work as an actor.
Legendary director John Ford cast the actor in 1939’s Stagecoach, which gave him the boost that he needed to push further in his career. He went on to work with other notable filmmakers, including Howard Hawks and Andrew V. McLaglen. However, there were still some down points in his career that will always haunt his legacy.
John Wayne ‘visibly shuddered’ when anyone mentioned ‘The Conqueror’
Wayne came to regret agreeing to star in the 1956 movie The Conqueror as Temujin, also known as Genghis Khan. It’s a terrible casting decision that nobody would let him live down, but he himself never rejected that opinion.
The plot follows the mighty Mongol warrior after he kidnaps the daughter of a formidable Tartar king and usurps control over his empire. As a result, they go to war over love and territory in a fight to the death. Meanwhile, Temujin tries to capture the romance of his prisoner who he has hopelessly fallen in love with.
According to the official Wayne Facebook page, The Conqueror is the one movie that he never liked to hear about. He deeply regretted every taking on the role, as he “visibly shuddered” any time someone mentioned the film’s title. Wayne referred to the lesson he learned from the project was “not to make an ass of yourself trying to play parts you’re not suited for.”
He finally won an Oscar with ‘True Grit’
Wayne had plenty of movie roles that he was much more proud of. He looked back on his collaborations with Ford in a much more favorable light, especially when it came to successes like Stagecoach, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Nevertheless, Wayne still starred in other big roles, such as The Cowboys, Rio Bravo, and Sands of Iwo Jima. The final one in that list earned him an Oscar nomination, but he lost to Broderick Crawford in All the King’s Men.
The movie star would return with another Oscar nomination for his work on The Alamo in the Best Picture category, although he once again lost against Billy Wilder’s The Apartment. It wasn’t until later in his career that he would finally earn the Oscar gold. Wayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for True Grit when he was up against Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy, Richard Burton in Anne of the Thousand Days, Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy, and Peter O’Toole in Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
