John Wayne: The Man Behind the MythA rare behind-the-scenes look at John Wayne: the legend, hero, and Hollywood icon of numerous epic Western films, including an Academy Award-winning performance in True Grit. No legend ever walked taller than “The Duke.” Now, author Michael Munn’s startling new biography of John Wayne sets the record straight on why Wayne didn’t serve in World War II, on director John Ford’s contribution to Wayne’s career, and the mega-star’s highs and lows: three failed marriages, and two desperate battles with cancer. Munn also discloses publicly, for the first time, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s plot to assassinate Wayne because of his outspoken, potentially influential anti-Communist views. Drawing on time spent with Wayne on the set of Brannigan—and almost 100 interviews with those who knew him—Munn’s rare, behind-the-scenes look proves this “absolute all-time movie star” was as much a hero in real life as he ever was on-screen. |
Contents
A Communist Conspiracy Revealed | 1 |
From Marion to Duke | 7 |
Call Him Wayne | 19 |
Happy Trails Unhappy Wedlock | 31 |
Enter Ringo | 45 |
B Pictures and Politics | 62 |
Dietrich and DeMille | 73 |
The War Years | 81 |
The Bloody Battle of Burbank | 167 |
Searching for the Darkness | 175 |
Duke Meets Nikita | 186 |
The Alamo | 203 |
Working Twenty Years for Nothing | 223 |
Winning the West the War and Wild Africa | 236 |
Life Is a Circus | 243 |
The Vietcong Sniper | 266 |
Cold War in Hollywood | 93 |
A New Bad Marriage | 104 |
Stardom at Last | 113 |
Waynes Crusade for Freedom | 123 |
Quiet in Ireland | 135 |
Assassins | 145 |
From the Mighty to the Mongols | 156 |
Oscar | 284 |
Last Roundup | 298 |
The Last Ride | 323 |
The Absolute AllTime Movie Star | 341 |
Filmography | 354 |
Sources | 371 |
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