John Wayne out of costume with flag
by David Lee Guss
Title
John Wayne out of costume with flag
Artist
David Lee Guss
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Duke poses, out of costume, with an American flag in the twilight days of his life.
Duke died in 8 of his films:
"Central Airport"
"Reap the Wild Wind"
"The Fighting Seabees"
"Wake of the Red Witch"
"The Sands of Iwo Jima"
"The Alamo"
"The Cowboys"
"The Shootist"
He had already died at the beginning of "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and he died offscreen (conveyed to the audience in a floating newspaper headline in the poignant last image in John Ford's "The Long Voyage Home.")
(One of the last survivors of John Ford's stock company, Harry Carey, Jr., died in December 2012, at age 91 of natural causes.)
In an odd twist Duke might have left us years earlier. His virulent anti-Communist stance incurred the wrath of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, himself a fan of Westerns.
Stalin commanded the KGB to assassinate Duke, but his successor Nikita Khruschev rescinded that order.
{Note: Duke's monumental, craggy face reminds me of the faces carved out of stone on Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota; sacred to the Lakota Sioux.}
"He had been through so much, and beaten it all. We couldn't believe he couldn't beat the last one too." Pat Stacy (Duke's secretary/companion)
@2013 David Lee Guss Film homage, John Wayne in civilian clothes, flag, c.1977-2013
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Uploaded
April 17th, 2013
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