John Wayne, who died of cancer in 1979, wasn't really known for his gentleness or commitment to open-minded, multicultural thinking. Every few years, the internet rediscovers Wayne's infamously racist, misogynist 1971 Playboy Magazine interview, and are offended afresh. He used the three-letter F-word to describe the characters in "Midnight Cowboy," calling it "perverted," before actually saying out loud "I believe in white supremacy." He also ranted about how in the heyday of his career, there were more white people in movies.
This interview didn't really expose anything the public didn't already know about Wayne, a man who used antisemitic slurs when talking to Richard Nixon, and who allegedly tried to storm the stage at the 1973 Academy Awards to interrupt Sacheen Littlefeather's speech about how Westerns hurt the public's perception of Native Americans. One can only imagine what Wayne would have thought of Haysi Fantayzee's bawdy 1982 single "John Wayne is Big Leggy.
This interview didn't really expose anything the public didn't already know about Wayne, a man who used antisemitic slurs when talking to Richard Nixon, and who allegedly tried to storm the stage at the 1973 Academy Awards to interrupt Sacheen Littlefeather's speech about how Westerns hurt the public's perception of Native Americans. One can only imagine what Wayne would have thought of Haysi Fantayzee's bawdy 1982 single "John Wayne is Big Leggy.
- 6/3/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
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