In large measure, John Wayne’s success stems from his purposeful choices of roles that portrayed him as heroic. Never mean, petty or cowardly, Wayne’s screen persona included lawmen, military men, and empire builders. Wayne understood cinema as a means of projecting an ideal or a core set of ideological values that would resonate with filmgoers. As he once said in an interview, he knew he was acting and never confused himself with the roles he played, “This Wayne thing was as deliberate a projection as you’ll ever see,” (Grenier 1996, 3). If Wayne was considered the most significant star of his time, it was because he portrayed the values and ideologies most associated with America, from democracy, justice, honor and freedom to might, frontier spirit, and victory.

Wayne’s personal values often coincided with a large number of Americans, particularly during the Eisenhower issue with its anti-communist leanings. Wayne personally was representative of a conservative Republican, opposed to big government and in favor of efforts like the Vietnam to control communist influence in other parts of the world. During the 1950s he was the president of the Motio

Schickel, R. Deconstructing the duke. Time, 149(15), 1997, 55.

Wayne often received a great deal of animosity from liberals and from those who felt his “gun-ho” style was offensive to Native Americans, African Americans, and Mexicans. Wayne felt no guilt over injustices done to such groups because he felt they were committed in earlier eras and he had no part in them. He actually was married to three Latin-American women, and once on location when he discovered the Mexican extras in a film were forced to sleep outside in the cold with only a bonfire, he joined them with food and bottles of tequila and spent the night with them by the bonfire. At the Republican National Convention in 1968, Wayne declared, “I am grateful for every day of life I have spent in the United States of America,” (Grenier 1996, 87). Wayne did not like certain concepts he felt were anti-American, such as socialist, liberal, and even “masses”, which he considered communist. He once asked film director Ed Dmytryk, a communist sympathizer, “Jesus Christ Eddy, what’s the bitch about America?” (Grenier 1996, 87).

McTiernan, J. (Director). Die Hard, (Film). USA, 131 min.: 1988.

n Picture Alliance and teamed up with the president of the Screen Actors Guild, Ronald Reagan to vehemently fight communist influence in Hollywood. Ronald Reagan once made a pilgrimage to Wayne’s birthplace and would often inform White House visitors that Wayne “understood what the American spirit was all about,” (Grenier 1996, 85).

Richard Grenier argues that in 1964 Wayne did perhaps the bravest thing he eve had in his lifetime. He revealed to the world that he had a cancerous lung removed and had beaten the “Big C.” At the time in American society, cancer was taboo, few beat the illness, and many individuals who died of the disease were listed as having passed away after a “lengthy illness.” In having the courage and bra