John Wayne Suffered A Life-Long Injury Shooting This Forgotten Western

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

In 1969, John Wayne delivered what would prove to be his only Oscar-winning performance as U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn in Henry Hathaway's "True Grit." Though Wayne was far from confident going into "True Grit" (he'd just come off one of his worst films with "The Green Berets"), the movie not only proved a critical hit but also a commercial one, earning big box office returns and revitalizing the Duke's career at a time when he was in serious jeopardy of becoming irrelevant.

Had Wayne missed out on "True Grit," he would have only starred in one other film in 1969: "The Undefeated." The former debuted in June of that year, followed by "The Undefeated" in November, but while one would earn the Duke his first Academy Award win, the other would be largely overlooked (though not as quickly forgotten as the John Wayne movie that left a tragic legacy). As such, "The Undefeated would have almost certainly hastened the star's descent into irrelevancy, which considering the film took a significant physical toll on the aging actor, would have been a real disaster.

Luckily, he had "True Grit" to help keep him afloat. Even more lucky, however, is the fact that Wayne actually shot "The Undefeated" after wrapping on Henry Hathaway's film, which means he avoided injuring himself ahead of delivering his Oscar-winning performance. Still, the battering he took on "The Undefeated" bothered him right up until his death a decade later.

Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, "The Undefeated" was set during the Civil War era, and starred John Wayne as Union Army Colonel John Henry Thomas opposite Rock Hudson as Confederate Colonel James Langdon. In the film, after the end of the Civil War, the two sides — along with Cherokee Indians — find common ground as they unite to defeat Mexican bandits and revolutionaries. Originally written by Stanley L. Hough and Casey Robinson, based on Hough's story, the movie was rewritten by James Lee Barrett when Twentieth Century-Fox bought the rights. Filming for "The Undefeated was originally set to commence in Texas in the fall of 1968, but it was delayed so that Wayne could finish shooting "True Grit." Production eventually got underway in February 1969, but the Duke didn't realize what he was in for.

This is where things get a little confused. According to AFI, a February Daily Variety news item claimed that prior to filming "The Undefeated" Wayne "fell in a restaurant in Guaymas, Mexico," where he is said to have broken two ribs. But in the biography "Duke," by Ronald L. Davis, Wayne is said to have actually broken two ribs prior to shooting 1973's "The Train Robbers" causing him excruciating pain. What is clear, however, is that the actor did suffer an injury while shooting "The Undefeated," as the man himself confirmed as much in his infamous 1971 Playboy interview.

In the interview, writer Richard Warren Lewis asks Wayne about his history of falling off horses "rather unprofessionally on a couple of occasions," but the actor clarified that he had one particularly bad fall while shooting "The Undefeated." "What the hell, in my racket I've fallen off a lot of horses," he said. "I even fell off on purpose in 'True Grit.' But that fall in 'The Undefeated' was irritating because I tore some ligaments in my shoulder. I don't have good use of one arm anymore, and it makes me look like an idiot when I'm getting on a horse."

John Wayne's health had been failing quite drastically prior to his injury-plagued shoot on "The Undefeated." He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1964, ultimately beating the disease only to succumb to stomach cancer in 1979. But he was also dealing with the physical toll of almost five decades of making movies. This is, after all, the man who was almost killed on the set of a film even before his career took off. He was used to sacrificing his body for the sake of film-making, and as his wife, Pilar Pallete, told the Los Angeles Times, "He wasn't a crybaby. He could tolerate pain."

You'd expect nothing less of the Duke, whose on-screen persona was never too far removed from that of the real man. That was no different when it came to his shoulder injury. According to AFI, a separate Daily Variety news item claimed that Wayne had experienced this particular mishap while shooting scenes for "The Undefeated" in Baton Rouge, LA. The whole thing reportedly stemmed from the actor's saddle cinch slipping during a scene in which he was riding a horse, which caused him to fall and "dislocate his shoulder" (though as Wayne clarified in the Playboy interview, he actually tore ligaments). According to the DV report, Wayne was rushed to the hospital but actually returned to set the same day and pushed on with shooting a scene with Rock Hudson.

Whether he was suffering from broken ribs or torn shoulder ligaments, or both, then, Wayne's commitment to his profession was never in question. Sadly, the same Playboy interview in which he discusses his shoulder injury also contained multiple horrific statements from the actor, including "I believe in white supremacy" and the suggestion that native Americans were being "selfish" for wanting to retain their land. As you might imagine, then, Wayne was plagued with much more than physical injuries in the years prior to his death.