Just on his sheer popularity and his prominent political activism, the Republican party in 1968 supposedly asked him to run for President of the USA, even though he had no previous political experience. He turned them down because he did not believe America would take a movie star running for the President seriously. He did support Ronald Reagan's run for governor of California, though.
Wayne was initiated into DeMolay in 1924 at the Glendale Chapter in Glendale California.
Received the DeMolay Legion of Honor in 1970.
He was a Master Mason. In other words, he was a good man who became a member of the Masonic Fraternity.
Pictured on a 37¢ USA commemorative stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued 9 September 2004. The first-day ceremonies were held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
Was a member of the first class to be inducted into the DeMolay Hall of Fame on November 13th, 1986.
Although he complained that High Noon (1952) was "un-American", when he picked up Gary Cooper's Oscar on his behalf, he also complained that he wasn't offered the part himself.
Increasingly so by the early 60s, used to wear 3 or 4 inch lifts in his shoes, a practice that mystified friends like Bobby Darin and Robert Mitchum because the Duke stood over 6' 4". It was possibly due to his increasing weight, health problems, and age, and that he wasn't able to loom as tall without lifts.
Despite his association with being solely Irish, he was equal parts Scottish, Irish and English.
While making The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958), he apparently became so enraged with director John Huston (who was something of a tough guy himself and was nearly as tall as Wayne but not as massive) that he throttled and punched him out. It is unknown what Huston did to earn the beating, but the director was known to have a mean streak. Wayne later re-enacted the incident for Peter Bogdanovich, who was somewhat terrified to be used as a substitute for Huston.
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