I think John Wayne was the quintessential American.
Rugged,individualistic,and self-sufficiant.
He didn’t ask anyone for anything.
I respect your opinion about Paul Newman,but what movie did he ever appear in that would compare with “The Sands of Iwo Jima”,or “The Longest Day”?
Newman was considered one of the “new-school” actors,along with Marlon Brando.
I’m relatively young for my age,(that’s a joke,son)but I never got the mystique of Newman,Brando, or the other “Anti-Heroes”.
But,again,that’s just me.
Newman wasn’t as powerful an actor as John Wayne but he was very good, his greatest movie is Cool Hand Luke.
Critics are only now starting to admit what a great actor Wayne was, for years his politics led the media to constantly mock him.
Here is a little from wikipedia.
“The Searchers continues to be widely regarded as perhaps Wayne’s finest and most complex performance. In 2006 Premiere Magazine ran an industry poll in which Wayne’s portrayal of Ethan Edwards was rated the 87th greatest performance in film history.”
” John Wayne won a Best Actor Oscar for True Grit (1969).”
“Wayne was also nominated as the producer of Best Picture for The Alamo, one of two films he directed. The other was The Green Berets (1968), the only major film made during the Vietnam War to support the war.”
“During the filming of Green Berets, the Degar or Montagnard people of Vietnam’s Central Highlands, fierce fighters against communism, bestowed on Wayne a brass bracelet that he wore in the film and all subsequent films.”
Oh, I totally agree with you about the comments on Mr. Wayne. Definitely, an American icon - a classic and a gentleman. I just wasn’t crazy about his acting abilities. Another great, in my humble op, was Mr. Heston.
My daddy, God rest his soul, LOVED John Wayne.