The Duke during WWII

[Ginger.]

I read the same thing some time ago.John Ford was older than the Duke but was wounded while shooting film footage on Midway.
I wonder if John Wayne regretted his decision,when in later years he was perceived as "Mr.America".

John Wayne is the perfect example of
image vs the real man
I thought "True Grit" was his best movie
"pilgrim"

[Billy_Bishop]

Recently someone stated that they won't watch John Wayne movies because he was a "WWII draft dodger".

What's the story behind The Duke not serving in the military during WWII?

That goes hand in hand with an acquaintance of mine who refuses to watch John Wayne movies because he supported the War in Vietnam!

J.Wayne wasn`t the only one who`s "hard man" image wasn`t[indeed isn`t!]matched by real life performance.David Niven ,for instance,came home to serve in the British Army yet several of his contemporarys didn`t.And in modern times is is true that "action hero`s" Shwartsanegger and Willis refused to fly after 9/11?

[Barrett]

Tough-guy/he-man images are one thing but of course reality is often another. If Arnie, Willis, et al won't fly after 9-11, it probably means they won't fly on airlines. Certainly they can afford their own transportation.
However, I recall that football coach John Madden and mega-author Tom Clancy declined to fly loooong befoe 9-11.
Al: I got's ta wonder if your acquantance also refuses to watch Jimmy Stewart, Charlton Heston, Bob Hope, Raquel Welch, Ann Margaret, Joey Heatherton (pause for heavy breathing) and all the others who supported the troops in VN. Of course, it might be said that Jane Fonda supported the troops in Vietnam, too--North Vietnam!
Ba-da-DUM.

[mike_baram]

That goes hand in hand with an acquaintance of mine who refuses to watch John Wayne movies because he supported the War in Vietnam!

In 1970, I was a volunteer on a kibbutz in Israel. The kibbutz belonged to the extreme left wing of the labor coalition, and its founders were all dyed-in-the-wool socialists.
I mentioned to one of them (who was British by birth) that John Wayne had won the Oscar for "True Grit".
His response: "Don't mention John Wayne to me. He's a fascist."
Well, so much for the leftist protestations of "tolerance and freedom".

[Barrett]

Off the top of my head, The Duke's WW II movies include:

Flying Tigers
Flying Leathernecks
Fighting Seabees
Back to Bataan
Operation Pacific
They Were Expendable
Sands of Iwo Jima
The Longest Day
Wings of Eagles (sorta)

He certainly got around, but missed the Med and Atlantic. Seems he may have played a US general as a cameo in another film, too.
Looks as if he never made a WW I flick. And too bad David Lean didn't hit him up for "Dr. Zhivago." Somehow I can BARELY envision The Duke in an ironic role as an aging bolshie poet..."Life is what it is, Comrade Pilgrim."

[mike_baram]

That had to be "Cast A Giant Shadow", with Kirk Douglas as Col. David "Mickey" Marcus.
The Duke played General Mike Randolph (and the one line the Duke should NEVER have tried to say in a movie was "l'chaim". I think he set the Hebrew language back 2,000 years with his inability to handle gutterals).
The unnamed jeep driver was Michael Douglas.

[Michael]

J.Wayne wasn`t the only one who`s "hard man" image wasn`t[indeed isn`t!]matched by real life performance.David Niven ,for instance,came home to serve in the British Army yet several of his contemporarys didn`t.

Niven paid a high financial price by coming back, as His Majesty's Revenue back-taxed him on his Hollywood earnings when he returned to England to enlist.

[WFS]

*Off the top of my head, The Duke's WW II movies include:

Flying Tigers
Flying Leathernecks
Fighting Seabees
Back to Bataan
Operation Pacific
They Were Expendable
Sands of Iwo Jima
The Longest Day
Wings of Eagles (sorta)

Don't forget "In Harm's Way".