JOHN WAYNE suffered a near-fatal moment on the football pitch, which wrecked his chances at a career in sport and would have seen him “killed”, a friend once claimed.
Nicknamed The Duke, Wayne is widely considered the greatest actor of the Golden Age of Hollywood Cinema. Alongside his Academy Award for Best Actor, thanks to his portrayal in True Grit, Wayne starred in nearly 150 films and TV shows, during a career that spanned decades. Even now, years after his death in 1979, Wayne is still idolised and cherished by film fans the world over, with his flicks still played almost every day.
But his career in cinema might have come secondary to one in American Football, had he not injured himself trying to impress girls before one training session.
Eugene Clarke, an eyewitness of one horror incident involving Wayne, discussed how his football career was practically over barely as his schooling began.
Speaking in author Scott Eyman’s 2014 book John Wayne: The Life and Legend, Clarke said: “One day we went to Balboa and there was a lot of pretty USC sorority girls down there that day and we decided to do a little showing off.
“We jumped in the water – it was Duke’s idea – and started to do what the kids nowadays call body surfing.
“The waves were pretty high, real rough, and one of them caught Duke and tossed him ashore with a badly wrenched right shoulder.”
Clarke noted how he and Wayne had to report to football training a few days later, and the star’s shoulder was “still in pretty bad shape”.
Wayne’s position in the side was as a tackle, and the side’s coach Howard Jones “always insisted that when you blocked the opposing lineman, you hit him with your right shoulder… real hard”.
Clarke continued: “If Duke tried to do that with his injured shoulder it would have killed him.
“So what he tried to do was twist his body around so he could block with the left shoulder. Well, Jones saw him do that and that was all he needed.
“All hell broke loose.
“Jones accused the Duke of being yellow, of being afraid to block and demoted him to the scrubs.”
But Wayne had the last laugh as he still managed to carve out an incredible legacy.
Away from the camera, Wayne was well regarded for his enduring friendship with co-stars, including the likes of director John Ford.
Some, though, didn’t take to him as well, including Hollywood heavyweight Gene Hackman, who Wayne once claimed was overrated.
Wayne’s daughter Aissa outlined her father’s frustrations with Hackman the 1991 book John Wayne: My Father.
She wrote: “When it came to his contemporaries in film, I only heard him speak once with any real venom.
“Gene Hackman could never appear on-screen without my father skewering his performance.
“I wish I could tell you why he so harshly criticized Hackman, but he never went into detail.
“Although it’s pure speculation, had my father lived to see more of his work, I think his view of Mr Hackman would have changed.
“Back then, however, my father called Hackman ‘the worst actor in town. He’s awful’.”