John Wayne Biographer Scott Eyman Talks About "The Duke"

Scott Eyman, the author of John Wayne: The Life and Legend, is interviewed in the Broward/Palm Beach New Times about the late great iconic actor.

Eyman's love of old-school Tinseltown illuminates his first post-Post tome, a sentiment equaled only by the deep empathy evident in his appreciation of the book's subject, actor and icon Marion Michael Morrison, aka John "Duke" Wayne.
 
... Wayne's stature is undeniable. He was a movie star whose celluloid trail through the Old West and World War II's Pacific theater lifted his stardom into the constellation of American myth: Washington crossing the Delaware, Lincoln at Gettysburg, the flag at Iwo Jima, the Duke and his firearms enforcing eternal verities.

Eyman's John Wayne: The Life and Legend is the work of a master biographer. Exhaustively detailed (five years in the research and writing), its impeccable prose unspools an effortless narrative flow packed with tasty anecdotes (Wayne and Marlene Dietrich had a years-long affair? Who knew?), keen observations about our hard-working hero's pained personal life, his self-creation (the honorable-tough-guy image resulted from finely crafted acting within a self-limited range of characterization), and the mechanics of moviemaking.

You can read the interview via the below link:

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/countygrind/2014/10/john_wayne_biographer_former_palm_beach_post_writer_scott_eyman_talks_about_the_duke.php

You can also read an earlier post about John Wayne via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/05/happy-birthday-to-film-legend-john-wayne.html

John Wayne: 10 Things You Might Know About The Great Man

Martin Chilton at the British newspaper the Telegraph offers 10 things he learned from Scott Eyman's new biography of the late, great John Wayne.

John Wayne, who made 162 feature films, was one of the 20th century's biggest Hollywood stars. Here are 10 things we learned about the Oscar-winning actor from an impressive new biography by Scott Eyman.

• John Wayne cheated at chess

John Wayne was actually very good at chess (film director and experienced player Josef von Sternberg "was livid" when beaten by Wayne) and the actor had a chessboard permanently set up on his 136ft boat, The Wild Goose. Wayne once said of fellow actor Rock Hudson: "Who the hell cares if he's queer? The man plays great chess." Wayne repeatedly cheated when playing chess against Robert Mitchum (Wayne had huge hands and would carefully slide a piece into a different position as he made a separate move) and Mitchum eventually plucked up the courage to tell him he was cheating. Wayne replied "I was wondering when you were going to say something. Set 'em up, we'll play again."   

• He loved literature

Wayne liked the novels of Agatha Christie but his two favourite books were written by Arthur Conan Doyle and both are historical novels – The White Company (1891) and Sir Nigel (1906) – both set during the Hundred Years' War. Wayne was also a fan of Charles Dickens and if the actor agreed to a business deal, he would always say "Barkis is willing!", a phrase used by Mr Barkis when he tells David Copperfield that he is ready to marry Peggotty.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/10749784/John-Wayne-10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-star-of-True-Grit.html

You can also read a review of the John Wayne biography via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2014/04/a-review-of-john-wayne-life-and-legend.html

A Review Of "John Wayne: The Life And Legend"

John R. Coyne Jr. offers a good review of Scott Eyman's John Wayne: The Life and Legend for the Washington Times.

Before graduation, these were the three high points of Marine boot camp at Parris Island, as I remember them: qualifying at the rifle range, being told by our drill instructor that we had earned the right to be called Marines, and being marched to the outdoor theater to watch John Wayne as Sergeant Stryker in “Sands of Iwo Jima.”

...The great strength of Mr. Eyman's book derives from the strength of its subject, for a quarter of a century one of Hollywood’s top-10 box-office stars. While many of the most celebrated of his contemporaries have faded into late-late-show nirvana, the man we know as John Wayne, from cinematic birth in “Stagecoach” to an appropriate death in “The Shootist,” remains with us as a symbol of something more, something buried deep in our national DNA.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/9/book-review-the-marine-who-was-john-wayne/?page=1