John Wayne first met renowned film director John Ford in the late 1920s when he was still known by his real name, Marion Morrison, and was an assistant propman. Ford gave him some small walk-on parts in his films, but nothing more for nearly a decade. “I wanted some pain written on his face to offset the innocence,” Ford later remarked (via “Searching for John Ford”). By this point, John Wayne had almost quit Hollywood because of the string of subpar roles the studios gave him and conflict with a movie executive over a woman.
Ford’s cruel humor emerged even before filming began. He often invited Wayne to go cruising on his yacht, and it was on one such trip that he dropped the script for “Stagecoach” in the budding actor’s lap and asked him if he knew any young performers who might be good for the leading role of the Ringo Kid. Ford waited another day before telling Wayne, who suggested an actor other than himself: “You idiot. Couldn’t you play it?” Wayne got the part, but learned that it came with its own set of problems. On set, the director would grab him by the chin and yell at him, telling him to not act with his chin but his eyes. Ford told him to stop slurring his dialogue, called him a “big oaf,” and complained about how he washed his face in a scene, forcing him to do it over and over.
