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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.

Mark your calendars, Oscars fans, because the 97th Academy Awards will air on Sunday, March 2, 2025 on ABC. The annual star-studded ceremony will honor movies released in theaters within the 2024 calendar year of eligibility. AMPAS members will vote on the Oscar winners in 23 categories, including Best Director. But who will win? Here at Gold Derby, thousands of users have been making and updating their 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Director, so let’s take a look at all of the top contenders in our photo gallery below.

These 25 Best Director hopefuls are listed in order of their racetrack odds, which are derived from the combined forecasts of four unique groups: experts we’ve polled from major media outlets, editors who cover awards year-round for this website, top 24 users who had the best accuracy scores last year, and the mass of users who make up our biggest predictions bloc.

There will be five...

We all know that Westerns are the most American of movie genres, one that many U.S.-born actors view as a proving ground of sorts. Strapping yourself with a couple of six-shooters and hopping astride a horse presents the opportunity to measure yourself against some of the greatest to ever do it: James Stewart, Henry Fonda, and John Wayne, to name just a legendary few. Oh, to stride down a dusty street at high noon, rope cattle at the ranch, or wallop someone you probably don't know over the back with a wooden chair in the midst of a saloon brawl -- this is why we make and love movies.

For a guy who professes a deep and abiding love for classic films, Tom Cruise must've been champing at the bit to go into the West with Ron Howard in 1992's "Far and Away." Getting to make a Western...

John Wayne was a humbled man early in the 1960s. His passion project, "The Alamo," had fallen well short of box office expectations in 1961. An epic Western about the siege of the basement-less San Antonio mission, Wayne directed the film and took its failure personally. He didn't need a hit; even at his lowest point in the 1970s, a Wayne picture at a certain budget level was an automatic greenlight. Still, Wayne was a prideful man who actively tended to his legacy; he was mindful of his fan base, and sought their approval. So Wayne came charging out of his corner in 1962, and knocked out every last naysayer with Howard Hawks' "Hatari!," "How the West Was Won," "The Longest Day" and John Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance."

The Ford movie could've been Wayne's Western swan song, but a rifle-toting Wayne astride a horse still held commercial appeal,...

Filmed in the freezing Nevada desert under studio pressure, Ford’s 1924 epic was a huge hit. It was the springboard for the director’s astounding career of westerns, idealism and high drama

Had the Oscars been around in 1924, when director John Ford’s epic western The Iron Horse was released, the critically lauded film would have swept up the lot. Though it might be largely forgotten now, this black and white silent movie, which turns 100 on 28 August, marked the point where Jack Ford – a former fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants props guy who also acted a bit, and was first hired as a director by virtue of being available – became master film-maker John Ford, the director many still herald as the greatest of all time. When The Iron Horse was inducted into the Library of Congress film archive in 2011, the official registry citation stated that it “established Ford’s reputation as one of Hollywood...

One of cinema’s earliest pioneers, Oscar winner Cecil B. DeMille helmed 70 films throughout the silent and sound era. He made his mark in a number of genres, but was most famous for his spectacularly mounted biblical epics. Let’s take a look back at 20 of his greatest movies, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1881, DeMille made his directorial debut with “The Squaw Man” (1914), a story he remade in 1918 and 1931. He made dozens of silent films, including the ambitious biblical stories “The Ten Commandments” (1923) and “The King of Kings” (1927). He entered into the sound era with ease, earning his first Oscar nomination in Best Picture for the Claudette Colbert-headlined version of “Cleopatra” (1934).

After a series of box office smashes, he took home the Best Picture prize for his big top melodrama “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952), which also brought him his only nomination in Best Director. Even at the time,...

Star Trek is one of the most unique pop culture phenomena to date because of its widespread inclusivity. To widen their multiculturalism, the Gene Roddenberry franchise roped in Irish actor Colm Meany as the transporter chief in The Next Generation‘s USS Enterprise-d. But the No Way Up actor’s Star Trek journey was a struggle as he initially did not want to play an Irish character.

Colm Meaney and Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: The Next Generation | Paramount Domestic Television

As the seasons of The Next Generation progressed, Colm Meaney was given a more prominent part in the series before he was promoted to a series regular in the spin-off show Deep Space Nine. Appearing at a convention, Colm Meaney shared that he badly wanted to play varied roles rather than sticking to the Irishman stereotype, but the sci-fi show had different plans for him.

Colm Meaney was done...

The character of Chief Miles O'Brien first appeared in the pilot episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Encounter at Farpoint". Throughout the show's first season, Chief O'Brien would appear mostly in the Enterprise's transporter room, tasked with beaming the Enterprise crew up and down from dangerous away missions. As the show progressed, O'Brien was allowed to speak up more and more. By the show's fourth season, O'Brien would marry his sweetheart Keiko (Rosalind Chao), become possessed by an alien criminal, and reveal long-lasting Ptsd. All told, O'Brien was in 52 episodes of "Next Generation" before becoming a regular cast member of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," affording him 160 additional episodes.

O'Brien was played by reliable Irish actor Colm Meany, star of John Houston's "The Dead," "Dick Tracy," and "The Commitments" (and its sequels). He was a hard worker, and during his 12-year stint on "Star Trek," appeared in 23 feature films.

Oi there, listen up! Amazon Prime Video’s list of new releases for June 2024 includes another season of its biggest, bloodiest hit.

The Boys season 4 premieres its first three episodes on Thursday, June 13. Based on the trailers, The Boys is really leaning into the political side of its social satire with a presidential election underway and Homelander on trial for the small matter of killing a guy last season. The season will continue to air on Thursdays, culminating with the finale on July 18.

Amazon is really leaning into its sports offerings this month as well. Fans will get to watch the New York Yankees, the WNBA, and the Nwsl several times throughout June. That’s in addition to a couple of sports docs: Power of the Dream on June 18 and Federer: Twelve Final Days on June 20.

But if you’re looking for something even more explosive than Homelander and Roger Federer,...

Leave it to John Carpenter to inject scathing social commentary into a film where the ugly reality of a hyper-capitalist world is revealed after wearing sunglasses that also unmask aliens living among the populace. These special sunglasses unlock the core of "They Live," which highlights the constant subliminal messaging that humans are subjected to by the affluent — in this case, aliens posing as humans, who are bent on depleting Earth's resources. We follow blank-slate everyman John Nada (Roddy Piper), a drifter who surveys his surroundings with cool indifference until he stumbles upon a nefarious conspiracy, revealed through the sunglasses that challenge the traditional normalcy of perceived reality. Shaken to the core, Nada desperately wishes to confide in someone but is left to contend with this revelation without any real allies.

Frank (Keith David) is the only person he can dream of confiding in. When Frank and Nada meet in an alley,...

The 1962 war epic "The Longest Day" starred the infamously brusque John Wayne as Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin H. Vandervoort, a real-life American soldier who was present for the titular "day," aka D-Day. Wayne was 55 at the time of filming, however, making him a full 28 years older than Vandervoort was on June 6, 1944. Wayne was still a major star, though, so the filmmakers simply had to ignore the massive age gap.

The studios also had to begrudgingly pay Wayne a massive $250,000 for his work, which was 10 times larger than most of the film's other stars. It seems that Wayne sought such a high salary not because of greed or ego, but out of spite. Wayne, you see, had a beef with 20th Century Fox executive Daryl F. Zanuck, and the actor wanted to actively butt heads with the CEO. It wasn't that Wayne wanted the money, he just wanted to make sure that Zanuck didn't have it.

Oscar winner John Wayne, better known as “The Duke” to his fans, starred in over 165 movies throughout his career, oftentimes playing the swaggering, macho hero of westerns and war epics. But how many of his titles remain classics? Let’s take a look back at 25 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1907 as Marion Robert Morrison, Wayne worked his way up from bit player to leading man, appearing in a number of poverty row, Z-grade westerns throughout the 1930s. He shot to stardom with his role in John Ford‘s “Stagecoach” (1939), which brought new shades of nuance and artistry to the Cowboys and Indians genre. It also kicked off a lucrative, decades-long partnership between the director and star, who would make over two dozen films together, including “The Quiet Man” (1952), “The Searchers” (1956) and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962).

Despite being one of the top box office...

John Ford, the iconic director known for such films as Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, My Darling Clementine, The Searchers and much more, will be the subject of the next edition of the TCM podcast The Plot Thickens, it was announced Wednesday.

“Decoding John Ford,” hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, premieres June 6. The fifth season of the podcast, consisting of seven episodes, will feature never-before-heard archival interviews with the likes of John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Woody Strode and Ford himself.

TCM says Mankiewicz will “strip back the mythology to reveal Ford’s brilliance — alongside the often ugly, uncomfortable truths about his life and movies, asking whether we can ever truly separate art from the artist.”

“John Ford is a mercurial figure. Not surprisingly given his stature, the stereotypes about Ford are incomplete,” the host said in a statement. “This is a man defined by contradictions: he revered...

There’s nothing IndieWire loves more than directors talking about their favorite movies. So, of course, we took notice when, in late 2023, Turner Classic Movies started looping in directors to share their favorites from TCM’s lineup each month: Steven Spielberg’s TCM picks kicked things off, then Martin Scorsese waxed rhapsodic about “Madonna of the Seven Moons,” and Guillermo del Toro gushed about the greatness of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Suspicion.”

Now Chris Columbus is sharing his own TCM picks, along with some especially insightful anecdotes. Watch the video above.

Columbus starts off sharing his love of “Singin’ in the Rain”: “An amazing, almost flawless movie. You can say that about very few movies. I showed ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ to my 16-month-old granddaughter who was absolutely absorbed in the musical numbers. Moreso than any Disney animated films. I go back to it once or twice a year.

Particularly...

Although he has personally competed for the Best Picture Oscar as a qualifying producer of just four films, Martin Scorsese is responsible for directing 10 of the top Academy Award category’s nominees, including 2024 contender “Killers of the Flower Moon.” This recent improvement upon his total makes him only the third filmmaker in Oscars history to helm a double-digit amount of Best Picture nominees. Including him, six people who were already credited with directing at least one nominee rose higher in the ranks this year.

The previous Scorsese films that vied for Best Picture are 2007 winner “The Departed” (for which he earned his sole directing trophy) and nominees “Taxi Driver” (1977), “Raging Bull” (1981), “Goodfellas” (1991), “Gangs of New York” (2003), “The Aviator” (2005), “Hugo” (2012), “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2014), and “The Irishman” (2020). Of the 10, he received producing notices for the most recent four and directing bids for all but “Taxi Driver.” The only ones who...

John Ford is the four-time Oscar-winning director who made over 140 films in his long career, spanning the silent era through the 1960s. Yet how many of those titles are classics? Let’s take a look back at 20 of Ford’s greatest movies, ranked worst to best.

To this day, Ford holds the all-time Oscar record for Best Director victories with four: “The Informer” (1935), “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940), “How Green Was My Valley” (1941), and “The Quiet Man” (1952). Of those, only “How Green Was My Valley” also won Best Picture (Ford also competed as a producer on “The Quiet Man.”).

Interestingly enough, the one Best Director nomination he lost was for the film that had perhaps the most profound impact on his career: “Stagecoach” (1939). The first of many westerns Ford shot in his beloved Monument Valley, it was also the beginning of a long and iconic career with leading man John Wayne,...

Silent Night Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Joel Kinnaman, Kid Cudi, Harold Torres, and Catalina Sandino Moreno

Director: John Woo

Silent Night Movie Review(Photo Credit –IMDb)

What’s Good: It is fantastic to see John Woo back doing films in the West. His experience in making action scenes still shows under all the gimmicks.

What’s Bad: The movie relies too much on a strange narrative gimmick that only hinders its enjoyment and makes the entire experience quite strange and boring.

Loo Break: Sadly, there are several. The movie’s gimmick makes certain scenes feel completely unnecessary.

Watch or Not?: There are better John Woo films out there to watch. Sadly, Silent Night doesn’t make the cut as an easy recommendation.

Language: English

Available On: Cinemas

Runtime: 104 Minutes

User Rating:

Silent Night is a film directed by John Woo and written by Robert Archer Lynn. The film...

Previous recipients include Steven Spielberg, Yoji Yamada and Hou Hsiao-Hsien.

Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is to honour Chinese filmmaker Gu Xiaogang and Indonesian director Mouly Surya with the Kurosawa Akira Award at its upcoming 36th edition, which runs October 23 to November 1.

The award, which was revived last year after an absence of 14 years, is presented to filmmakers who have “made waves in cinema” and are expected to help guide the industry’s future. A ceremony to present the awards will be held at Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel on October 31.

Director Gu broke through with internationally acclaimed debut Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains,...

Some noteworthy new releases, a bevy of library titles and the complete series of “Freaks and Geeks” are among the new additions to Amazon Prime Video this month. May will see the streaming availability of the 2022 films “She Said,” “Violent Night” and “Till” on Prime Video, while the beloved (and short-lived) TV series “Freaks and Geeks” will be streaming on Amazon starting May 4.

We’ve also included everything new to Freevee, which includes the first three “John Wick” movies, “Scarface” and “The Usual Suspects.”

Check out the complete list of everything new on Amazon Prime Video in May 2023 below.

Also Read:

The 41 Best Movies on Amazon Prime (April 2023)

Arriving May 1

MasterChef Mexico S1-4 (2015)

A Beautiful Mind (2002)

Amistad (1997)

Babe (1995)

Babe: Pig In The City (1998)

Babel (2006)

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)

Biker Boyz (2003)

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)

Blue Crush (2002)

Blue Crush 2 (2011)

Bound (1996)

Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason (2004)

Bridget Jones’s Baby...

With its list of new releases for May 2023, Amazon Prime Video is increasing its global reach.

The streamer’s biggest original offering this month is a German series. Hohlbeins’ – The Gryphon, based on the works of Wolfgang Holhlbein, will present a sprawling fantasy tale about three teens discovering a fantastical world called The Black Tower where “the Gryphon, a world-devouring monster, mercilessly subjugates all living creatures.”

The only other original title of note in May is Freevee comedy Primo on the 19th. Written by author and journalist Shea Serrano and produced by Michael Schur (The Good Place), this coming-of-age series will follow a teenager balancing “college aspirations, societal expectations, and a hectic home life on the south side of San Antonio.”

And that’s pretty much it for Amazon Originals this month! Thankfully, there is a huge influx of library content to keep Prime Video subscribers entertained. May 4 sees the...

Clockwise from left: The Rundown (Screenshot: Universal Pictures/YouTube), Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure(Screenshot: Orion Pictures/YouTube), Howard The Duck (Screenshot: Universal Pictures)Graphic: The A.V. Club

As we all welcome the move to warmer weather, Prime Video has a great lineup in May to try and keep you indoors.

Oscar-winning actor John Wayne worked with many women over the course of his filmography. However, he had some divisive politics when it came to folks who came from different backgrounds. Wayne once talked about his perspective on the women’s movement, especially as it applied to female grips working on movie sets.

John Wayne thought women should be paid equally to men John Wayne | Martin Mills/Getty Images

Scott Eyman wrote about some of the most problematic sides of the actor in John Wayne: The Life and Legend, including his perception of women. However, he didn’t completely shut out other folks getting equal treatment to himself. Wayne didn’t approve of the pay disparity between the sexes, especially when it came to accomplishing the same task at hand.

“I have always felt that women should get exactly the same salary for the same work that a man would,” Wayne said.

The Quiet Man star John Wayne was known to do some of his own stuntwork over the course of his filmography. However, he allowed a stuntman to take over for some of the more physically intense sequences that would potentially leave the film without a star if things took a turn for the worse. Wayne did some of the stunts for The Quiet Man, including one of the movie’s most iconic scenes.

John Wayne switched to drama for ‘The Quiet Man’ John Wayne as Sean Thornton | A Republic Picture/Corbis via Getty Images

Most audiences recognize Wayne for his accomplishments within the war and Western film genres. However, he very occasionally set foot away from what viewers expected from him, although it was only for specific circumstances. Ordinarily, the movie star knew how to throw quite the punch, resulting in plenty of available stuntwork.

Wayne made the switch to The Quiet Man,...

Movie star John Wayne was never one to shy away from having a drink. Whether he was on a movie set or enjoying life on his houseboat, he frequently enjoyed including alcohol in his plans. According to the official Wayne Facebook page, he claimed, “I never trust a man who doesn’t drink.” However, this revealed a lot about his character.

John Wayne found comradery in sharing a drink L-r: John Wayne and Forrest Tucker | Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

It’s important to acknowledge why Wayne held such importance in an alcoholic drink, to begin with. He greatly valued the comradery that came with sharing alcohol with a friend or a colleague. The movie star viewed it as an opportunity to be genuine with one another, and to share laughs and stories.

Some of Wayne’s closest friends included actor Ward Bond and director John Ford. The trio...

Marion Robert Morrison, more commonly known as John Wayne or ‘The Duke,’ left a lasting imprint on American cinema. His career spanned five decades, during which time he starred in 179 films and delivered countless illustrious performances.

He rose to fame with his starring role as Ringo Kid in the 1939 classic ‘Stagecoach,’ and would go on to play characters like Ethan Edwards in Ford’s 1956 ‘The Searchers’ – cementing his place in American film history.

In this blog post, we’ll be taking a look at some of the best John Wayne movies, which capture the actor’s undeniable talent and unforgotten legacy. From westerns like ‘True Grit’ (1969) to war films like ‘The Longest Day’ (1962), Wayne left an indelible mark on our collective culture.

The Highest-Rated John Wayne Films on IMDb ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ (1962) – 8.1/10 ‘Rio Bravo’ (1959) – 8/10 ‘The Searchers’ (1956) – 7.9/10 ‘Stagecoach’ (1939) – 7.8/10 ‘Red River’ (1948) – 7.8/10 ‘The Longest Day’ (1962) – 7.7/10 ‘The Quiet Man’ (1952) – 7.7/10 ‘The Shootist...

Andrew V. McLaglan's 1963 film "McLintock!" is a loose Western adaptation of William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" (c. 1592), a problematic play to say the least. The story of Shakespeare's play involves a willful and bitter young woman named Kate who refuses to settle down and get married. This upsets Kate's younger sister Bianca, as she will not be permitted to marry until Kate is married. A man named Petruchio is hired to, as the title says, tame the shrew, transforming an outspoken and willful woman into a dutiful wife. By the end, he does. One can easily see the play's misogynist leanings. Critically speaking, one might be able to see a satire at play, however. Or perhaps it's merely sexist. 

"McLintock!" is equally tetchy, with John Wayne playing the Petruchio role, and Maureen O'Hara playing Kate. The story was altered somewhat to explain that Kate and Petrucho, called G.

Actor John Wayne developed an extensive career in the film industry, ultimately becoming the face of the Western and war movie genres. He earned an Oscar nomination for his leading performance in Sands of Iwo Jima, only to finally pick up the golden statuette for his legendary work in True Grit. However, acting wasn’t his initial love. Wayne was “heartbroken” when he lost that secret dream career.

John Wayne started his props career in high school John Wayne | Reporters Associes/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Carolyn McGivern’s John Wayne: A Giant Shadow revealed how the actor got his props career started back in high school. He joined the Stage Society as a prop boy, which allowed him to learn how to build sets and put together tables, lamps, and any other needs for the set. Wayne took real joy in working with these props for school productions.

The eventual...

The end was in sight for John Wayne when he took the part of aging gunfighter J.B. Books in Don Siegel's 1976 Western "The Shootist." He was only 69, but the quintessential American movie star hadn't been nice to his body. Decades of drinking and smoking had taken their toll. He'd lost a lung and a couple of ribs to cancer in the 1960s, but had evidently been in remission since. Still, his energy was flagging. He'd struggled throughout the filming of "Rooster Coburn," and was being asked to literally hop back on a horse in the elevated altitude of Carson City, Nevada. He had not been diagnosed with a return of the cancer that would kill him three years later, but The Duke looked a deathly shadow of his former, swaggering self.

Culturally, there was a sense that people should celebrate Wayne while he was still around (for those willing...

Movie stars John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara shared electric chemistry on the silver screen that had audiences swooning. They had a special relationship in real life, but that friendship meant more to the Duke than many people realized. Wayne once called O’Hara his only female friend, exclaiming that she’s “definitely my kind of woman.”

John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara met through John Ford L-r: John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara | Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images

Wayne and O’Hara both had big Hollywood dreams of becoming the next hot actor in the film industry. She made her leading role debut in 1939’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Meanwhile, he accomplished the same in 1930’s The Big Trail, but 1939 was also the year that marked his launch into stardom with Stagecoach. From there, his career transformed into one of the faces of the Western and war movie genres,...

Movie star John Wayne had an iconic walk that helped amplify his on-screen presence in Western and war films. He became the face of an entire era of Western filmmaking, entering the popular culture canon in more ways than one. However, Wayne didn’t entirely understand how his walk was much different from any other. Therefore, he didn’t get how that added to the sex appeal that he had earlier in his career.

John Wayne became a masculine icon John Wayne | Jean Claude Pierdet\Ina via Getty Images

Wayne got his big break thanks to his fateful meeting with director John Ford on the Fox lot, where the young eventual actor started working in props. However, he received his first leading role in Raoul Walsh’s 1930 adventure film The Big Trail. Wayne slumped into B-movies for quite some time before he got another shot at fame in 1939’s Stagecoach,...

Each year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences attempts to award Oscars to the “best” film or artist in each category that year, and each year it fails at least a few times.

There is always room for disagreement on what constitutes “best”: how can we possibly compare Toy Story 3, Inception and The King’s Speech? And yet voters did just that in 2010.

It is similarly impossible to nail down all the egregious choices in academy history, but here are a few of the most glaring errors, with just days to go until the 2023 ceremony. Starting with the granddaddy of them all...

How Green Was My Valley

Beat: Citizen Kane to Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography in 1941

It takes a bit of searching these days to find someone who has a) seen John Ford’s Welsh melodrama How Green Was My Valley and b...

John Wayne may have cultivated a large fan base thanks to his many popular Western films. But Oscar-winner Day-Lewis wasn’t too fond of the film star.

Daniel Day-Lewis wanted to become an American actor after seeing Robert De Niro’s ‘Taxi Driver’ Daniel Day-Lewis | Stuart Wilson/Getty Images

Day-Lewis is widely regarded as one of Hollywood’s greatest actors and an inspiration to many. But even the often praised veteran has found inspiration from some of his own contemporaries. Day-Lewis had his sights set on acting from a young age. However, becoming an American actor couldn’t have been further from his mind. In England at the time, Day-Lewis noticed that style of acting was looked down on by his fellow English actors.

“Where I come from, it was a heresy to say you wanted to be in movies, leave alone American movies,” Day-Lewis said in a 2007 interview with The New York Times.

Actor John Wayne was passionate about the morals that he instilled in his movies. However, his real-life ones were closely examined and scrutinized because he himself didn’t serve in the U.S. military during the World War II draft. Meanwhile, his fellow male Hollywood leads went off to serve America, while he boosted his career. Nevertheless, Wayne earned a great amount of respect thanks to his films that emphasized nationalist themes and messages.

John Wayne movies represented his American nationalism John Wayne as Sgt. John M. Stryker | Republic Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images

Wayne was primarily known for Western and war movies over the course of his career. He occasionally dipped his toes into other genres, such as dramas with 1952’s The Quiet Man, but it wasn’t the typical project for him. Wayne didn’t serve in the military, but he found a way to bring...

John Wayne and John Ford went down as one of the most iconic actor–director duos Hollywood ever saw. Together, they collaborated on some of the greatest films ever made in the Western genre and beyond. Wayne and Ford shared many laughs and arguments over the years together, but their final day together was undeniably sentimental.

John Wayne and John Ford collaborated on 14 movies L-r: John Wayne and John Ford | CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

Wayne and Ford first met at Fox Studios, where the actor started in the prop department as a young man with a dream of making something of himself. Meanwhile, the director was already established as a confident filmmaker, but he had a temper that ultimately unleashed itself upon Wayne on movie sets.

Ford’s 1939 classic, Stagecoach, launched Wayne into stardom. From there, they worked on another 13 feature films, although they weren’t all quite as successful as the first.

John Wayne had a strong passion for the movies that he made. He carefully selected the roles that he accepted once he reached stardom. However, Wayne grew tired of playing the same type of characters his critics denounced his talents. The movie star once recalled the moment when he got over the fact that he kept getting typecast.

John Wayne couldn’t escape Western movies John Wayne | Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

Wayne first made a name for himself in Western movies with 1930’s The Big Trail. Raoul Walsh gave him his first shot at making it big, but the film was a box office flop. Next, he had a disappointing contract with Columbia Pictures and a line of B-movies that left him feeling unfulfilled. Wayne played Singin’ Sandy Saunders, which he went as far as to call “embarrassing.”

The movie star finally found his stride with 1939’s Stagecoach, thanks to his mentor,...

Movie star John Wayne and legendary filmmaker John Ford made one of the most iconic actor-director duos ever. However, the director was infamously harsh on the actor, frequently coming down hard on him in front of entire movie sets. Ford didn’t open up about his positive feelings toward Wayne’s performances until after he won an Oscar.

John Wayne and John Ford first collaborated on ‘Stagecoach’ John Wayne | Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Before Wayne and Ford officially teamed up, the actor earned his first leading role from Raoul Walsh in 1930’s The Big Trail. It failed to catch on at the box office, which delayed the movie star’s climb to fame. Nevertheless, Wayne shined in the Ford-directed ensemble called Stagecoach, which hit theaters in 1939.

The duo worked on another 13 movies over the course of their careers, creating some of the best films ever made.

John Wayne earned two Oscar nominations for Sands of Iwo Jima and The Alamo before finally taking home the win for 1969’s True Grit. His eyepatch-wearing performance as Rooster Cogburn became one of the most iconic images in Hollywood history, although there was some talk that the Oscar win was meant more as a “career award” than for the individual performance. However, that honor should have been for playing J.B. Books in The Shootist.

‘The Shootist’ actor John Wayne tackled mortality and dignity John Wayne as J.B. Books | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

The Shootist found Wayne playing an older gunfigther after he travels to Nevada at the turn of the 20th century. He’s diagnosed with cancer, deciding to stay in town and die with as much dignity as possible, seeking peace in his final days.

J.B. Books rents a room from a widowed Bond Rogers (Lauren Bacall) and her son,...

Movie star John Wayne and television actor James Arness were Western icons, but their images grew in vastly different directions. Some viewed Wayne as an American hero, while others criticized him for not serving in World War II during the draft. However, Wayne made several classics, such as The Quiet Man and The Searchers, in collaborations with legendary filmmakers like John Ford.

Meanwhile, Arness served during WWII, earning a Bronze Star Medal and a Purple Heart. He made a name for himself playing U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke, one of the longest-running shows ever to air on television with 20 seasons. He had a much more positive legacy than Wayne left after his death, even though the movie star was once the television actor’s employer before they became good friends.

Nevertheless, Arness was essentially the Wayne of television.

James Arness and John Wayne were underestimated L-r: James Arness...

Movie star John Wayne deeply enjoyed playing games, such as bridge and dominoes. He wasn’t ever against having a strong drink and sharing good company with his close friends. Wayne was very close friends with filmmaker John Ford and fellow actor Ward Bond, but they had a particular dynamic that informed how the games went.

John Wayne was miserable filming ‘Three Godfathers’ John Wayne as Robert Hightower |

Three Godfathers tells the story of thieves named Robert Hightower (Wayne), Pete Fuerte (Pedro Armendáriz), and Abilene Kid (Harry Carey Jr.). They rob an Arizonian bank before Sheriff Buck Sweet (Bond) pursues them across the desert. Along the way, the trio comes across a woman (Mildred Natwick), who is dying during childbirth, as they promise to bring her child to society.

According to Carolyn McGivern’s book, John Wayne: A Giant Shadow, the cast and crew had an awful time filming Three Godfathers.

John Wayne became a movie star due to his signature acting style that connected with audiences around the world. He came to represent the U.S. itself, using the film medium to instill what he considered to be positive messaging that the whole family could enjoy. Wayne also had specific ideas for what he considered a “real man” to be, which he brought to every character.

Movie star John Wayne has over 180 acting credits John Wayne as Col. Mike Kirby | Screen Archives/Getty Images

Wayne was a movie star with an expansive filmography largely consisting of Westerns and war films. It all started with filmmaker Raoul Walsh seeing something special enough in him to cast him in the leading role of 1930’s The Big Trail. The film was a massive box-office disappointment, but it gave him further experience that he would take with him to other projects.

The actor’s...

The Quiet Man was a passion project for John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, and John Ford. However, they had to jump through some hoops and shoot Rio Grande as a part of the deal to get financing for their Irish romance. Take a look at this gorgeous behind-the-scenes moment between Wayne and O’Hara that has fans remembering this classic motion picture.

‘The Quiet Man’ actors John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara played lovers L-r: John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara | Republic Pictures/Getty Images

The story follows Sean Thornton (Wayne) after he retires from his work boxing in America. He decides to return back to the small Irish village in the 1920s, which he once called home. Sean intends to reclaim his family’s home and enjoy the rest of his days. He meets a fiery woman named Mary Kate Danaher (O’Hara) and quickly falls in love with her.

Actor John Wayne starred in a wide assortment of movies primarily rooted in the Western and war genres. He had a signature walk and a slow, booming voice that commanded moviegoers’ attention. However, only nine of Wayne’s movies were selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” They select 25 film each year for this high honor. However, the Wayne films that made the cut aren’t all the obvious picks.

‘The Big Trail’ (1930) L-r: John Wayne as Breck Coleman and Marguerite Churchill as Ruth Cameron | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Raoul Walsh’s The Big Trail follows Breck Coleman (Wayne), as he leads an adventure with hundreds of settlers seeking to travel from the Mississippi River out West for greater opportunities. However, there are many potentially fatal dangers along the way.

The 1930 feature marked the actor’s first leading role,...

Actors John Wayne and Ronald Regan both know what it’s like to be a star in Hollywood. The Western actor was undeniably the bigger movie star, but they both understood what it felt like to receive good and bad headlines in the press. As a result, Wayne kindly went out of his way to ensure that Reagan and his wife, Nancy, had a cheerful phone call to warm their hearts.

Ronald Reagan took heat over a Hollywood strike L-r: John Wayne, Nancy Reagan, Gina Lollobrigida, and Ronald Reagan | Frank Carroll/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images

Reagan was once the president of the Screen Actors Guild, where he made quite some noise in a showdown with major studio executives over the residual payment system that remains in place. He had difficulty getting them to even engage in the conversation, let alone have any sort of intelligent negotiations.

Movie star John Wayne starred in over 165 films over the course of his career. Unfortunately, they didn’t all necessarily make him proud. He had plenty of bad roles, some of which resulted from his performance and others because of casting. Nevertheless, there was one Wayne movie that was so traumatic that he “visually shuddered” when anybody would mention the title.

John Wayne admitted that he played some bad movie roles John Wayne | ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Wayne had his first chance to make it in the movie business with Raoul Walsh’s The Big Trail in 1930. Unfortunately, audiences underappreciated it at the time, and it flopped at the box office. However, that didn’t mark the end. He was thrust into B-movie Westerns for many years, many of which he wasn’t too happy to be a part of. Nevertheless, he was lucky to have consistent work as an actor.

Each year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences attempts to award Oscars to the “best” film or artist in each category that year, and each year it fails at least a few times.

There is always room for disagreement on what constitutes “best”: how can we possibly compare Toy Story 3, Inception and The King’s Speech? And yet voters did just that in 2010.

It is similarly impossible to nail down all the egregious choices in academy history, but here are a few of the most glaring errors. Starting with the granddaddy of them all...

How Green Was My Valley

Beat: Citizen Kane to Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography in 1941

It takes a bit of searching these days to find someone who has a) seen John Ford’s Welsh melodrama How Green Was My Valley and b) did not do so out of a morbid curiosity...

It’s great to be Cate. When “Tar” was announced as one of the 2023 Oscar nominees for Best Picture on January 24, it secured Cate Blanchett a record 10th appearance in movies nominated for the Oscars’ top prize. That ties Blanchett with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson for having appeared in the second-most Best Picture nominees in history behind only Robert De Niro, who has been credited with starring in 11 Best Picture nominees.

The caveat: Actor Ward Bond appeared in 13 films that were nominated for Best Picture, but he was uncredited as a performer in a number of the projects. His roster of Best Picture nominees, however, included “Arrowsmith” (1931/32), “Lady for a Day” (1933), “It Happened One Night” (1934), “Dead End” (1937), “You Can’t Take It with You” (1938), “Gone with the Wind” (1939), “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940), “The Long Voyage Home” (1940), “The Maltese Falcon” (1941), “Sergeant York” (1941), “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946), “The Quiet Man” (1952), and “Mister Roberts” (1955).

Back to Blanchett.

The year 1953 surely left even the most devoted Oscar fans scratching their heads. One of the biggest upsets ever for Best Picture, some shocking snubs and all major awards going to different films led to some baffling anomalies at the 25th Academy Awards ceremony on March 19, 1953. This was also the year that the film industry finally capitulated to its rival source of entertainment, television, and for the first time broadcast the lavish ceremony live for viewers at home – so perhaps they wanted to dazzle and stun. Let’s flashback to the Oscars from 70 years ago.

With the cameras switching back and forth between Bob Hope hosting in Los Angeles and Conrad Nagel hosting in New York, the event attracted the largest single television audience to date in that medium’s young history. Five films were nominated for Best Picture, including the expected winner “High Noon,” plus “The Quiet Man,” “Moulin Rouge” and “Ivanhoe.

This article contains The Banshees of Inisherin spoilers.

John Ford was not from Ireland… but the legendary American filmmaker might’ve wished he was. Born by the name John Martin Feeney in 1894, Ford would go on to carve one of the most influential directing careers in Hollywood’s early history. He would also later tell the press that his given name was Seán Aloysius O’Feeny. The reason for the embellishment? Because he was raised by two Irish immigrants who mythologized the homeland for their son, particularly his mother who was born on the island of Inishmore, off the coast of County Galway.

More than a century after Ford heard those tales about the old country, the filmmaker’s shadow looms surprisingly large over this year’s Oscar season. This is partially because Ford himself is mythologized by another American director who is now reimagining his youth via Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans.

Every year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gives out shiny gold Oscar statuettes to actors in four categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress. But believe it or not, what they don't do, anywhere in the Oscar rulebook, is clearly define what the difference is between a lead performance and a supporting performance.

In the end, they leave that decision up to the Academy voters, who can sometimes make weird calls. How the heck they thought Viola Davis was just "supporting" Denzel Washington in "Fences" is anyone's guess, for example. But the thing is, one rule the Academy does have for these categories, is that you are absolutely not allowed to be nominated for Best Lead and Best Supporting for the same performance, in the same film, in the same year.

At least, not anymore. Because someone already did get nominated for...

What was the movie Steven Spielberg saw as a child that inspired him to become one of the most successful, influential, and acclaimed filmmakers? According to his semi-autobiographical new film “The Fabelmans,” his cinematic alter-ego Sammy becomes obsessed with movies after his parents take him to the see Cecil B. DeMille’s 1952 circus epic “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

“The Greatest Show on Earth,” which not only won the Oscar for Best Picture and story, was the box office champ of the year earning 14 million domestically and 36 million worldwide. Critics were not so kind to his cotton-candy colored melodrama set under the big top at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Films in Review declared “Mr. DeMille is so accomplished a showman that one is astonished he did not just photograph a circus performance without the synthetic story he injected here. After all, the Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey Circus is a wonder in itself.