Ernie Saftig was one of John Wayne's longest and closest friends. Ernie was there for many big life events including when Duke met his wife, Pilar, acquiring the Wild Goose, filming the Alamo, and raising their children together. Today, we have the pleasure of sitting down with Ernie's son, Tom Saftig.
None of John Wayne's show-business friendships were as enduring, or as entertaining, as the kinship he forged with two men he met around the same time—character actor Ward Bond and director John Ford.
Saftig joined the Navy in 1940 and worked as an intelligence officer in Panama, Mexico and Colombia before being transferred to Pearl Harbor. On Dec. 7, 1941, the day of the Japanese attack, he was ordered to find a radio from a downed Japanese plane to break the enemy's codes.
They followed this up with the 1965 western The Sons of Katie Elder, playing two brothers in the flick. And after these two films, the pair became close, and it led to Wayne once roasting Martin in a speech.
Wayne was married three times and divorced twice. His wives included one of Spanish American descent, Josephine Alicia Saenz, and two from Latin America, Esperanza Baur and Pilar Pallete.
John Wayne's Coolest Scenes #34: Not My Friend, "The Big Trail" (1930)
Was Clint Eastwood friends with John Wayne?
John Wayne and Clint Eastwood never shared the screen in a Western film due to an off-screen feud initiated by Wayne, who did not hold favorable opinions of Eastwood.
Was good friends with John Wayne from the time they were part of the director John Ford's stock company. Henry's son, Peter Fonda, in his autobiography, said that Henry had some trouble with the Duke and fellow Ford film co-star Ward Bond over politics, as the two were definitely to his father's right.
Ward Bond. From their days on the gridiron at USC to the sets of John Ford films, John Wayne and Ward Bond were destined to become the best of friends.
In fact, Wayne's most beloved co-star wasn't even a human being but was, in fact, a horse by the name of Dollor. Dollor starred with Wayne in each of his final movies, beginning with 1971's Big Jake and ending with his final ever film appearance in The Shootist by Don Siegel, released in 1976.
Ernest Lee "Ernie" Hudson (born December 17, 1945) is an American actor known for his roles as Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters film series, Warden Leo Glynn on HBO's Oz, and Sergeant Albrecht in The Crow.
This is the same gravesite as some other incredible artists from over the years - including basketball player Kobe Bryant and singer Bobby Hatfield. Before his death, Wayne requested his gravestone have the words "Feo, Fuerte y Formal" etched on it - a Spanish epitaph which means "ugly, strong, and dignified".
Caan declared: “He knew what he was doing, he was having a good time at my expense!” From then on they became good pals who would go out of their way to try and screw each other's scenes up. The Mississippi actor remembered putting off Wayne by mouthing “You snake!” at Duke, which made him laugh.
Bacall and Wayne were good friends who starred together in Blood Alley and Wayne's final film The Shootist. A touching letter from one of Hollywood's greatest stars to another, sent to Wayne just a month before his death in June 1979.
All that it cares about is providing Hepburn and Wayne with a half-dozen 'big scenes' together ... What few pleasures are contained in 'Rooster Cogburn' occur when Hepburn and Wayne simply and silently look at each other with affection.
The cold reality is that he studiously avoided military service. He decided that his career was a higher priority. It was a decision that would haunt him the rest of his life and would damage his relationships with some of his friends, most notably his principal mentor, film director John Ford.
Movie star John Wayne had no issue demonstrating his affection for women. He married three times over the course of his career, but he was known for having a type. Wayne was “obsessed” with Latin women, which was apparent in his dating life.
