My Favorite Actor & His Rifle

[bashaw]

Speaking of the Cowboys movie I’ve met Clay O’Brien Copper at a Team Roping event. He and Jake Barnes were world champs for years.

Clay O'brien Cooper, he must've went to the NFR 20x

 

[bashaw]

@Altitude sickness - since your are a John Wayne fan, do you know which one of his frequent co stars was also a real Cowboy and Rodeo World Champion roper? (No google look up).

Ben Johnson

 

[Cooposo]

Speaking of the Cowboys movie I’ve met Clay O’Brien Copper at a Team Roping event. He and Jake Barnes were world champs for years.

Check my account name. You’ll never guess my first name and my brother’s first name. We’re from a rodeo family. What a funny turn this thread took.

 

[bashaw]

Check my account name. You’ll never guess my first name and my brother’s first name. We’re from a rodeo family. What a funny turn this thread took.

I'm guessing one of you is Clay and the other O'brien

 

[Cooposo]

I'm guessing one of you is Clay and the other O'brien

Close ha ha

 

[Altitude sickness]

The super Looper?

 

[Safari Dave]

Anyone see Kevin Costner's speech at the Park Cities Quail Coalition Dinner in Dallas two year's ago?

 

[Flewis]

@Altitude sickness - since your are a John Wayne fan, do you know which one of his frequent co stars was also a real Cowboy and Rodeo World Champion roper? (No google look up).

Every one should know that. Also one of my favorite.

 

[bashaw]

Check my account name. You’ll never guess my first name and my brother’s first name. We’re from a rodeo family. What a funny turn this thread took.

Hardy and ?

 

[HankBuck]

Who isn’t a Duke fan? My JW buckle.

Howard Hawks has a handful made after they made Red River. He gave John one with his initials in the corner. John would not wear it with his own initials. So John and Howard traded buckles. John wore one like mine with Howard Hawks initials and Howard wore John’s buckle

If you look you will see the Duke wore this buckle in I think 7 more movies after Red River.
View attachment 677461

@Altitude sickness - I’m guessing nobody wanted to wear Montgomery Cliff’s buckle (if he even got one), John Wayne referred to him as “that arrogant little shit” and Wayne thought the final fight scene with him in Red River wouldn’t be believable to audiences because of how tiny & skinny Cliff was.

John Wayne is the actor I love to love (grew up with his movies), while Weatherby is the brand I love to hate.

To me, that "California Look" with white spacers, squared-off forend, glossy finish, exaggerated Monte Carlo comb, and (horror of horrors) skip-line checkering is the firearm equivalent of this guy:

View attachment 677497

Add to this the Weatherby calibers, which go against my "heavy and slow(ish) win the race" philosophy, and a little part of me dies inside when I see The Duke fondling one of old Roy's creations.

@Tom Leoni - Browning & Remington also Loved the High Gloss finish and Remington used the white spacers too — that was a common look….at least they still used Walnut stocks and a well blued barrel finish. Today its black plastic crap and a matt finish on metal (can you tell I’m behind the times?)

 

[MS 9x56]

Your in good company here.

 

[Rob404]

@Altitude sickness - since your are a John Wayne fan, do you know which one of his frequent co stars was also a real Cowboy and Rodeo World Champion roper? (No google look up).

Being a huge Duke fan I new this one right away.Yakima Canuitt and Ben Johnson, Yakima was in a lot of Waynes B movies and Johnson who starred with Wayne in a lot of John Ford movies
Yakima was the head wrangler for Hollywood and choreographed the chariot scene in Ben Hurr, Wayne learned the rifle trick in Stagecoach from Yakima except they had to cut an inch off the barrel for Wayne to pull it off in Stagecoach, he was also a world class stuntman Johnson was a Champion Calf roper and also an Academy award winner

 

[Troubleshooter]

Don’t know if it’s tue or not but I always heard that John Wayne told Bruce Dern that America was going to hate him for killing him off at the end of “The Cowboys”

True story. And Dern always talks about the hate he got for it.

As well he should -- after all, he shot John Wayne in the back! Come to think of it, Dern played a sort of weasel in just about every movie that I can recall. The only exception (that I remember) was when he portrayed an aircrewman in the TV series 12 O'Clock High. There his recurring character was played pretty straight. Although I do remember him having a guest appearance where he again played the shifty type. (This was years before The Cowboys was filmed).

@Altitude sickness - since your are a John Wayne fan, do you know which one of his frequent co stars was also a real Cowboy and Rodeo World Champion roper? (No google look up).

Ben Johnson. Heck, everybody knows that. Don't they?

 

[Troubleshooter]

Wayne attempted to "serve" in other ways as well...

Wayne, despite having fame, fortune, etc.. went out of his way to support and serve those in uniform... even when he didn't have to..

Following the end of the war in VietNam, Wayne and Ross Perot hosted a huge "welcome back" party for the Son Tay Raiders and the POWs who they had attempted to rescue. Story was that that John Wayne walked up to Colonel Bull Simons and told him that he (Simons) was the real-life man that Wayne portrayed in the movies.

 

[BryceM]

My dad's first name and middle name was John Wayne. We always gave my grandma grief about it, but of course the actor was an unknown back when dad was born.

One day dad was in a Sportsman's Warehouse. There was a big pile of John Wayne framed posters by the checkout stand. As dad was checking out, the manager was apparently running the register. He saw dad's credit card and asked, is your name actually John Wayne? Dad said yes. He says, "Do you have on of those?" pointing to the posters. Dad said "nope." "Well, you have one now. It's on the house."

That picture sat on the wall behind his desk for several years until he finally retired.

 

[PerH]

John Huston was the inspiration for White Hunter Black Heart movie and the same book .
Where Huston lost his gun bearer and hunting passion as it say in the book « Berømte jegere forteller « a Danish book I have .

The Hunt for John Huston : Clint Eastwood has taken the book behind "The African Queen" experience and tried to capture the heart of the fabled filmmaker

'I 've got a little proposition to make you," he said, enjoying the moment.

www.latimes.com

And one from when movie came out .

 

[Altitude sickness]

Cooposo, Are you Roy Cooper ?

 

[HankBuck]

Being a huge Duke fan I new this one right away.Yakima Canuitt and Ben Johnson, Yakima was in a lot of Waynes B movies and Johnson who starred with Wayne in a lot of John Ford movies
Yakima was the head wrangler for Hollywood and choreographed the chariot scene in Ben Hurr, Wayne learned the rifle trick in Stagecoach from Yakima except they had to cut an inch off the barrel for Wayne to pull it off in Stagecoach, he was also a world class stuntman Johnson was a Champion Calf roper and also an Academy award winner

@Rob404 - you know your Hollywood “stuff”. Another person that could really drive a chariot was silent film actor Francis X Bushman and he was in the original silent “Ben Hur” - that chariot race is considered better then the remake with Charlton Heston ….Bushman could really drive a chariot, perform his stunts, and that movie had many horses killed during filming of the chariot race. Ben Johnson was the real deal, watching film of him riding during the 1940s will never be replicated in films today.

 

[RLD]

Being a huge Duke fan I new this one right away.Yakima Canuitt and Ben Johnson, Yakima was in a lot of Waynes B movies and Johnson who starred with Wayne in a lot of John Ford movies
Yakima was the head wrangler for Hollywood and choreographed the chariot scene in Ben Hurr, Wayne learned the rifle trick in Stagecoach from Yakima except they had to cut an inch off the barrel for Wayne to pull it off in Stagecoach, he was also a world class stuntman Johnson was a Champion Calf roper and also an Academy award winner

Canutt revolutionized the industry. His Roman riding stunt in the calvary trilogy (She wore a Yellow ribbon perhaps?) was my all time favourite of his.

 

[Rob404]

I believe I read that a stuntman was also killed in the original Ben Hurr Chariot race. In the remake Canuitt did the stunt driving for Heston and his son did the driving for Boyd (or visa versa).
I know this thread is about the Duke but if you guys Wikipedia Yakima Canuitt you'll find its an interesting read.