I could have KICKED JOHN WAYNE'S ASS!

[Floogeldy]

A pretty boy actor, LMAO. After all, his first name was Marion. Come on.

[BrotherBuzz]

1. He had tiny feet - and you all know what that means...

tiny boots

[Floogeldy]

2. And tiny balls.

A ha ha ha ha ha ha! ;)

[mad-mommy]

3. I have never seen a John Wayne Movie

[Kajsa]

4. Floogeldy, my friend,

that Scotch is really getting to you!

You know I like you,too!

;-)

Hell, they named our local airport down
here after him.

[Floogeldy]

5. Aw, I like the guy.

Too bad he fell for all of that commie threat bullshit and supported the Vietnam war.

And I am sure it is a fine airport.

I like you, too. :)

[many a good man]

6. You and whose army?

[mad-mommy]

7. suddenly, I feel much younger

[hickman]

8. I remember watching Kirk Douglas on a talk show once,

Saying that he was in a movie with John Wayne once and he said to him something like "you know this isn't real, we're just actors" and Wayne got offended. It was all real to him. Might have been the Mike Douglas Show.

[Aristus]

9. That skinny kid with the glasses in the A-V club at school could

have kicked John Wayne's ass. Like a lot of movie tough guys, he mistakenly thought film-tough and real-world-tough were the same thing. Although he never quite seemed to get up the nerve to put on a uniform for real and fight for America for real.

[Kajsa]

10. Hi Aristus!

Man, I can count on you to cut through
to the core of the matter-

John Wayne never served in the military!

Like Floogeldy pointed out, too bad he fell in
with the super right wingers and became one
of their spokesmen.

Back in the late 60's, I knew a number of anti-war
activists who actually respected the man
even though they didn't like his political views.

It was a confusing time for many of us.
I was against the war in Vietnam, yet my
brother ( Air Force) served there for 14 months.

PS- I hope Shaun Alexander's injury heals ASAP.
Holmgren is not pushing him, which I find commendable.

[Arugula Latte]

14. Kinda like Ronnie Reagan ...

Had a hard time distinguishing fantasy from reality; never fought for his country except when he was playing dress up.

[jobycom]

11. John Wayne could so kick your ass!

Any boy named Marion had to be able to fight!

Marion was an interesting dude. He rose from the lowest poverty, got a scholarship to USC by playing football, then worked his way into movies doing prop work and picking up training as a stunt man. He wasn't a pretty boy, he worked hard to learn the industry. Not the best actor, but he clearly had a talent for appealing to audiences.

His politics sucked, and the image that has been created around him, partly with his efforts, is one this nation needs to shake. But he just created the persona, it was the people who bought into it that scare me. He was more liberal on a social/personal level. He was known for being open about gays working in his films, for instance, when that was a problem for other producers. He sided with Jimmy Carter over the Panama Canal debate, presumably because he thought it was more fair to Panama.

Complex, interesting man, in a lot of ways. He was also a Freemason. Not a good actor, but a good character actor. He grew in films in that era when film stars made a point of saying they weren't actors. They saw themselves as entertainers, distinct from the people who starred on stage or were trained to be serious actors.

Wayne was an original, but it's hard to tell that anymore because he has been so imitatated that all of his films seem like caricatures of themselves to the modern eye.

I don't know that I really like him, so much as I appreciate who he was in our cultural history. Kind of like the Beatles. No one can listen to them anymore (I hope), but it's impossible to deny what they did and what they meant.

[gmoney]

12. A "Repo Man" moment...

Miller: John Wayne was a fag.
All: The hell he was.
Miller: He was, too, you boys. I installed two-way mirrors in his pad in Brentwood, and he come to the door in a dress.

[Arugula Latte]

13. I wish you would have!

John Wayne -- what a major league asshole he was.