Kennedy co-starred with Clint Eastwood in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and The Eiger Sanction, and with ensemble casts in the disaster film Earthquake and the Agatha Christie mystery Death on the Nile.
Why did John Wayne refuse to work with Clint Eastwood?
Eastwood's film High Plains Drifter was criticized by Wayne for its dark and satanic depiction of the Old West, which went against Wayne's traditional view of Western protagonists.
Kennedy and Eastwood were close friends, and worked together in two great Eastwood movies from the golden period of the mid 1970s Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) and The Eiger Sanction (1975).
Kennedy notched up an impressive 200+ appearances in both television and films, and was well respected within the Hollywood community. He started out on television Westerns in the late 1950s and early 1960s (Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Rawhide (1959), Maverick (1957), Colt .
In an interview with Patrick McGilligan (as featured in the 1999 book "Clint Eastwood: Interviews"), Eastwood acknowledged that while he liked John Wayne as a young man ("depending on the film"), his favorite actor was James Cagney.
Wayne, perpetually patriotic and conservative, was opposed to such progressiveness and was particularly irritated by Eastwood's rising star, which arguably came to surpass his own for a time in the '60s.
He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Cool Hand Luke (1967) for his performance as Dragline, a chain-gang convict who at first resents the new prisoner in camp played by Paul Newman, then comes to idolize the rebellious Luke.
A World War II combat veteran, Kennedy spent 16 years in the Army before launching his career in Hollywood in the late 1950s. At 6 feet 4 and 230 pounds, he was initially typecast as the bad guy in TV westerns and in films.
Roxanne Tunis and Clint Eastwood were involved in a 14-year-long romantic relationship while both were married to different people. She is considered 'one of Clint Eastwood's true loves', they were in a relationship from 1959 to 1973. It is also said that Eastwood is devastated currently after her demise.
Who was JOHN WAYNE'S lifelong BUDDY AND BEST MAN, Ward Bond? A look into the great character actor and best friend of JOHN WAYNE, WARD BOND. How the friendship they shared was on a special level!
For the self-made and relatively frugal Eastwood, money is a touchy subject. He says early on he told his agent, Leonard Hirshan, that he didn't want to hear his salary bandied about. "My mother always told me it wasn't polite to ask what people make," Eastwood explains.
Following The Shootist, he planned to star in a new film with Ron Howard called Beau John, but health problems intervened. In January of 1979, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer, which led to his death in June of the same year.
As he deteriorated, Wayne was asked by Aissa whether he knew who she was. In his final words, he replied: "Of course, I know who you are. "You're my girl.
What is the only movie to win every Oscar it was nominated for?
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” also made history with a clean sweep, becoming (and remaining) the only movie to win every category it was nominated in: Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Makeup, Costume Design, Film Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Sound Mixing, and ...
Katharine Hepburn won four Academy Awards (all for Best Actress), more than any other actor or actress in the history of the award. As of 2021, 44 actors and actresses have received two or more Academy Awards in acting categories. Katharine Hepburn leads the way with four (all Best Actress).
Wayne never enlisted and even filed for a 3-A draft deferment, which meant that if the sole provider for a family of four were drafted, it would cause his family undue hardship. The closest he ever came to World War II service was portraying the actions of others on the silver screen.
