John Wayne almost punched a journalist in the face on a train, and it wasn’t because of a bad review
When John Wayne got into a fight with a critic on a moving train, and it wasn’t because of a bad review.
Once again, it is worth recalling the peculiar character of John Wayne, the legendary Hollywood star and icon of Western cinema, to revisit one of the most violent episodes of his professional life. His furious reaction had nothing to do with a bad review. In fact, during a series of interviews promoting True Grit, the 1969 film that earned him his only Oscar, Wayne ended up in a physical confrontation with a film critic on a moving train. The reason was his determination to make his controversial views on the Vietnam War clear.
Just a year earlier, Wayne had released one of the weakest films of his career, The Green Berets. Despite its critical failure, it was also one of his highest-grossing films and was explicitly about that war. Critics were unforgiving. Roger Ebert, for instance, wrote that it “doesn’t work as a film about the Vietnam War. It’s offensive not only to those who oppose American policy, but even to those who support it.” Had Wayne crossed paths with Ebert, sparks would almost certainly have flown, but that meeting never happened.
He did, however, encounter British journalist Barry Norman aboard a train travelling from Denver to Salt Lake City around the release of True Grit, arguably one of Wayne’s best films and the one that finally earned him an Oscar. The train was packed with journalists and film critics taking turns to interview him. Norman used his slot not to discuss Wayne’s performance as Rooster Cogburn, but to confront him directly about his stance on the Vietnam War.
As Norman later recalled, Wayne did not hesitate before lunging at him. “He was very annoyed,” he said, “but, to be honest, he’d drunk 15 double Bourbons and it was only midday. That might have had something to do with his bad temper.” Wayne got up from his chair with the clear intention of hitting him. “He’s a big man,” Norman added, “and if he tripped and fell on top of me, he probably would have killed me.”
Fortunately for Norman, Paramount’s PR agents stepped in and calmed the actor down. Otherwise, it is hard to say how the incident might have ended. One might assume that Wayne would have earned the title of Norman’s “most difficult interviewee”, but that honour went elsewhere. According to Norman, it belonged to Robert De Niro.
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“Probably the worst and strangest was Robert De Niro, who only gives interviews because it’s in his contract,” he said. “He doesn’t like giving interviews, he gives the bare minimum, he’s monosyllabic, and in my experience, he’s quite bland.”
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