In this day and age, where politics is such a divisive issue for most Americans, it interesting to look back and see how two of the biggest stars in Hollywood managed to work together despite extreme ideological differences. Hollywood legends John Wayne and Kirk Douglas never saw “eye to eye,” according to Douglas. The two men were on completely opposite ends of the political spectrum. Wayne was a staunch conservative who landed in hot water in 1971 following an interview in Playboy Magazine, in which he espoused the virtues of white supremacy over African and Native Americans. In the interview, Wayne said, “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility.”
And when it came to Native Americans, the actor famous for playing cowboys called the theft of Native American land and breaking of multiple treaties by the white government as “just a matter of survival.” He then chided the Native Americans for “selfishly trying to keep it (the land) for themselves.” As reprehensible as these remarks were, and still are, when asked to comment on the interview back on June 29, 1971, when he was a guest on the Dick Cavett Show, the 55-year-old actor declined to talk about the subject directly, instead telling the Cavett that he and John (as he called him) didn’t “see eye-to-eye” and did not talk about politics.
Douglas went on to call Wayne one of the hardest workers he ever met and lauded him as a constant professional. The actor found everything he could praise about the man without going into their disagreements. But, he made it crystal clear that they were not buddies and had very different world views.
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People are going to say that this type of class is gone from Hollywood to a certain extent that may be true, but I think most actors are very reluctant to criticize other actors. However, they will criticize politicians and voice their opinions on political matters more freely than they did back in those days. However, isn’t that the right of every American? You can watch the complete interview in which Douglas talks about Wayne as well as some other interesting topics, such as how to “fall a horse,” in the video below.
