Actors John Wayne and Kirk Douglas had their fair share of disagreements over the course of their careers. However, that didn’t stop them from working together a few times. They represented entirely different political ideologies, which caused many of their fans to believe that they must have hated one another. Douglas once spoke about the respect that he had for Wayne, which was reciprocated by the Western movie star.
John Wayne and Kirk Douglas were in 3 movies together
Wayne and Douglas starred in three movies over their long-running careers. The first was Otto Preminger’s In Harm’s Way, which hit theaters in 1965. The story takes place during World War II, following the lives of several naval officers in Hawaii after Pearl Harbor. One of them gets another opportunity to prove himself when he gets promoted to Rear Admiral.
Next, they worked on 1966’s Cast a Giant Shadow, which tells the story of the distinguished U.S. Army Col. David Marcus (Douglas), who must help a group of untrained Israelis form an army for the battle against the Arabs.
Their final movie together was 1967’s The War Wagon. The Western follows a man who seeks to rob the man who shot, robbed, and imprisoned him. However, it’s no easy task, as it’s inside an armored stagecoach.
John Wayne and Kirk Douglas worked well together
Movie fans thought that Wayne and Douglas didn’t work together well because they didn’t see eye-to-eye when it came to politics. Wayne stood for conservative politics, often spreading his pro-war messaging through his feature films. Meanwhile, Douglas was a lifelong member of the Democratic Party, often representing the total opposite of Wayne.
Nevertheless, James Bawden and Ron Miller’s book, Conversations with Classic Film Stars, explored how Douglas and Wayne actually had mutual respect for one another. They didn’t always get along, but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t work with one another in an effective fashion.
“Politically, we were completely apart,” Douglas said. “We might have dinner together once during the making of a picture. Yet he’d call me and suggest we make a picture together. We had a respect for each other. The fact that you start a picture where everybody loves each other doesn’t mean you’re going to wind up making a good movie.”
They both had frustrating experiences at the Oscars
Wayne and Douglas had different opinions when it came to politics, but they both had difficulty getting the recognition that they deserved at the Academy Awards. They even both earned their first Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in the same year of 1950, although neither one of them took home the golden statuette. Wayne was nominated for Sands of Iwo Jima, while Douglas was for Champion. They both lost to Broderick Crawford in All the King’s Men.
Douglas earned another two nominations in 1953 for The Bad and the Beautiful and 1957 for Lust for Life. He lost to Gary Cooper in High Noon and Yul Brynner in The King and I, respectively. Douglas never won an Oscar for a specific performance, but he earned an Honorary Award in 1996 for his expansive filmography. Meanwhile, Wayne earned a second Oscar nomination for Best Picture in 1961 for The Alamo, which lost to The Apartment. He went on to win his only Academy Award in 1970 for True Grit.