Were John Wayne and Ronald Reagan BFF?

March 21, 2008 10:58 PM

Were John Wayne and Ronald Reagan friends?

After ranting to an associate about the nonsense of celebrity political endorsements, he pointed out that it has been going on for years and years. To prove it to me, he pointed out that John Wayne was a pretty influential supporter of the GOP. A quick google search turned up this.

It seems to me that this is a little different than a celebrity endorsement. Since this peaked my interest, I searched around some more and came up with nothing. Nothing in the LA/NY Times archives.

Were John Wayne and Ron Reagan really that close of friends/associates?

This kinda thing is really interesting to me given the hero status the pair have to the GOP. Can you help me find any other link between the two?

posted by bigcheesegump to society & culture (5 comments total)

Not wanting to derail this thread, but I think you'll find the expression is actually piqued my interest...
posted by puffmoike at 1:08 AM on March 22, 2008

They disagreed over at least one issue. I believe Wayne was a hero of Reagans, but I'm not sure Wayne Reaganized Reagan.
posted by null terminated at 1:14 AM on March 22, 2008

Thanks puffmoike! Won't happen again.
posted by bigcheesegump at 6:55 AM on March 22, 2008

TIME:
[Wayne] stumped for his friends Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. "I said there was a tall, lanky kid that led 150 airplanes across Berlin. He was an actor, but that day, I said, he was a colonel. Colonel Jimmy Stewart. So I said, what is all this crap about Reagan being an actor?" -- 1969

"Duke," who died in 1979, was also good at firing off angry letters to friends, including Ronald Reagan. -- 1987

NYT:
[At the Wayne birthplace] there is a picture of the Duke's Hollywood pal, Ronald Reagan -- Maureen Dowd, 1997

Per Reagan, In His Own Hand:
June 29, 1979

This commentary will be a few minutes of remembering a friend.... It is difficult for me to believe that John Wayne is no longer here. If you don't mind I'd like to share some memories with you. Many people in these last few weeks have asked "What was he really like?"

Well, he was just about what you saw on the screen. He stood up for what he believed was right, he placed a high premium on honor and he had a rare sensitivity. Nancy and I can bear witness to that.

There are 2 other men in Nancy's life ... John Wayne & Jimmy Cagney. Now I'd better explain this although I don't think any of you had any wrong ideas.

Some years ago before either of us knew Duke really well there was a time of labor trouble in Hollywood. As Pres. of the Screen Actors Guild I was up to my neck in it. I'd leave the house ... Nancy would be left with the trade papers ... Emotions ran high and ... Nancy hadn't developed ... the ability to read such attacks without getting upset.

On one particularly bad day she received a phone call ... it was John Wayne. He told her she just might like to hear a friendly voice and ... she shouldn't let those stories get her down. A few minutes later she got another call, this time from Jimmy Cagney and he said about the same things Duke had said. From then on every morning when the press was bad she'd get those two calls. -- weekly radio address, apparently
posted by dhartung at 5:57 PM on March 22, 2008

Wow! Thanks dhartung!
posted by bigcheesegump at 10:04 PM on March 25, 2008