A Western Icon Was Angry He Didn’t Win An Oscar

From “The Searchers” to “Rio Bravo,” John Wayne is synonymous with some of the best Westerns of all time. He’s also partly responsible for shaping old Hollywood’s romanticized image of the Wild West — a place where rugged manly men upheld justice in lawless lands. Wayne set out to redefine Western heroes on the screen, and his legacy suggests that he accomplished his goal. However, “The Duke” was also passionate about movies that promoted his patriotic ideals, and that’s why he was angry at not winning the Best Actor Oscar at the 22nd Academy Awards.

The ceremony in question saw Wayne and Broderick Crawford receive nominations for Allan Dwan’s “Sands of Iwo Jima” and Robert Rossen’s “All the King’s Men,” respectively. Wayne’s movie is a World War II drama about the battle between American and Japanese soldiers on the eponymous island. Crawford’s picture, meanwhile, chronicles the rise-and-fall of a corrupt populist politician in the American South. Both films are now regarded as classics, but “The Duke” wasn’t a fan of “All the King’s Men.”

Wayne claims he was offered Crawford’s part in the political drama, so it’d be easy to assume that he was angry at not accepting the award-winning role. However, Wayne’s dismay at Crawford taking home the prize was more complicated than that.

John Wayne’s politics almost cost him roles, as some filmmakers worried that his outspoken conservative nature would make him a hassle to work with on the set. Wayne also believed that he lost out on Oscars for his beliefs and hated the industry as a result. With that in mind, it’s probably unsurprising to learn that he criticized “All the King’s Men” because he felt it promoted anti-American ideals.

Wayne shared his frustrations about losing the Oscar for these reasons in John Farkis’ book “Not Thinkin’ … Just Rememberin’ … The Making of John Wayne’s The Alamo,” and he didn’t hold back. “I wouldn’t have minded losing so much if anyone else had won,” Wayne recalled. “[The film] smears the machinery of government for no purpose of humor or enlightenment […] degrades all relationships […] and threw acid on the American way of life.”

Criticizing a movie for its politics is one thing, but Wayne believed there were other reasons for his lack of success at the Academy Awards. After all, he was known for playing certain types of characters, and this may have overshadowed his overall body of work.

John Wayne’s outings in war flicks and Westerns have overshadowed the rest of his filmography. His oeuvre boasts a wide array of genres, though, ranging from romantic comedies like “The Quiet Man” to sports dramas like “Trouble Along the Way.” However, the actor believed that his versatility was overlooked, which may have contributed to him not being taken seriously by prestigious awards bodies for most of his career.

“I guess that I am never chosen because the kind of acting which I do is not considered acting by anybody,” Wayne said in the aforementioned book. “They would say, ‘Well, it is only John Wayne being John Wayne. He is not acting.'”

Ironically, the often-typecast performer won his only Best Actor Oscar for the Western “True Grit,” in which he plays an aging U.S. Marshal. At the time, Wayne said “True Grit” was the only decent movie he’d made in 20 years, but winning an award for the type of movie he was known for proves that Wayne being Wayne paid off for him eventually.